City of Prince Rupert to receive provincial grant for community engagement initiative

The City of Prince Rupert will be joining North Coast Regional District
in making use of the PlaceSpeak system of community consultation
(photo from PlaceSpeak website)

Prince Rupert City Council's quest for more public engagement from the public has been given a financial boost, with the city finding success in a grant funding request for a project which will make use of a program called PlaceSpeak to gauge the interest of the public on major issues.

The announcement of the grant approval came today from the Ministry of Jobs Trade and Technology through the BC Smart Communities pilot program. Shirley Vickers, the President and CEO of Innovate BC observed how the grants will help access the technology to better connect with residents in the region.

“The B.C. Smart Communities pilot program is dedicated to supporting people living in smaller centres and rural areas, helping them access technology that will enhance their lives,” ... “The successful projects represent modern solutions to local problems and will help benefit people where they live.”

For Prince Rupert, the 22,120 dollar grant will be put towards the development of an online engagement platform to reach residents during major project that require greater civic participation in local government decision making.

Among some of the areas that the city views as potential areas for the new engagement process to work on will be the Official Community, Loans for key civic infrastructure and annual city budgets to name a few.

The new project will make use of PlaceSpeak, a British Columbia technology company that uses a location based civic engagement platform, that allows it to collect qualitative data and polling results.

The guiding principle for the project is to increase public access and engagement with local government and to assist and improve in policy making initiatives.

No timeline was indicated today as to when the new engagement process will be in place in Prince Rupert.

The name PlaceSpeak may be somewhat familiar for Prince Rupert residents, the program has been put in use by the North Coast Regional District in recent years

February 2018 -- Regional District launches Budget survey project
December 2017 -- Regional District to introduce new consultation program for North Coast

A sneak peek at what PlaceSpeak is all about can be found from the video below





A few more information videos on the PlaceSpeak process can be found here.

You  can learn more about today's funding announcement from this information piece from the province of British Columbia.

More items of note related to City Council discussion topics can be found from our Council Discussion archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.