Mr. Cullen seeks your counsel on development in the Northwest

With a number of high profile economic development projects on the drawing board, Nathan Cullen the MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley is about to launch a series of community consultations, seeking feedback from communities across Northwestern British Columbia as to their opinions on development.

The NDP MP and a number of community partners will be holding discussion sessions, following along with the theme of the 2009 community sessions which were called Renewal Northwest.

This round of consultations are designed to identify the top items of note and identify  concerns or observations that residents of northwest communities may have over the planned developments.

The sessions, which are using the title of New Projects, New Challenges, New Opportunities, will focus a number of key issues for discussion, many of which are outlined on an information page on the MP's website.

"The major theme being to determine what Northwesterners expect when it comes to mining, energy and resource projects and to plan for the changes while ensuring social and economic benefits while ensuring environmental protection."

Prince Rupert will play host to the first of the sessions, with a Community forum scheduled for February 17th, taking place in the multipurpose room of Northwest Community College from 7 to 9 PM.

Other locations for the Renewal Northwest sessions include: Kitimat, Terrace, Fort St. James, Burns Lake, Smithers and Prince George, the Prince George session is to be co-hosted by the University of Northern British Columbia.

The full schedule of those sessions can be found here.

Updates on the consultation sessions and other items of note from Mr. Cullen can be found from his twitter feed.

Some media notes on the announcement from the MP can be found below

Terrace Standard-- MP probes northwest BC development attitudes