City of Prince Rupert survey roll out period complete, now it's over to the public for comments

 

Through the week the City of Prince Rupert has used its Facebook page to provide for the rolling launch of their four surveys related to the next phase of the Official Community plan process.

As we noted on Monday, the introduction of the survey's began with some background on their infrastructure survey, seeking feedback on what Prince Rupert residents may feel are the priorities for that element of municipal spending.

That survey notification was followed by three others, with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday backgrounders delivered through the city's Social Media stream.

The deadline for completion of the survey's is September 11th, in addition to the online option for the survey, the city has also announced plans for the surveys to be included in a household newsletter to be mailed to residents.

The four surveys offer up a mix of the traditional themes of an OCP review, as well as what seem to be a few passions of some of the council membership, with Climate change and Food Security themes something that probably weren't on the horizon at the last OCP review.

The introduction of the Official Community Plan review also comes with a very different look from the past owing to COVID, with City Council to this point not indicating any plans for the traditional large public viewing options, even if they could be limited to the current COVID guidelines for public gatherings.

As we outlined last week, much of this review it seems will follow a path of online engagement, in June Mayor Brain observed how the public engagement piece would be much more than just survey's but some opportunity for discussion, video presentations and other themes of information sharing.

In the Mayor's launch of the new phase of OCP engagement through his Facebook page, he observed as to how residents will also be able to make an appointment to discuss their thoughts with him and the contract planner Rob Buchan who is helping to steer the process forward.

"In September we will be scheduling short meetings with anyone that wants to come and speak with the Mayor and Planner about the draft OCP. You can sign up for one of these by contacting Executive Assistant, Brianne Bunko at brianne.bunko@princerupert.ca to set up an appointment." -- from a portion of Mayor Lee Brain's August 7th newsletter update on the OCP

In past such consultations, City Council members would be actively involved in those public information sessions, ready to receive feedback from the community and to share how they view the path ahead for renewal of the OCP.

How much participation members of City Council will have with the current engagement process isn't exactly clear. 

So far there does not seem to be any real defined role for the six elected members as part of the ongoing consultation with the public, something that they want to explore for the public at the next Council session of August 24th.

Learn more on the Official Community Plan engagement process from the Rupert Talks portal here.

For more notes on Prince Rupert City Council see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.