PORT HARDY — You are invited to put your hand on the tiller and steer the good ship Port Hardy into the future.
The mayor and council want to hear about hopes, dreams, and visions of the future of the city from Port Hardy stakeholders.
“’Get involved and be part of the process” is a phrase that you will be hearing often over the next few months as the District starts engaging the Port Hardy community in January for the 2011 Official Community Plan review” stated Port Hardy Mayor Bev Parnham.
What is an Official Community Plan? An OCP sets out the vision, goals and overarching policies to guide District decision making. Council, staff and citizens use the OCP to guide decisions on things like where to locate housing, what the transportation priorities are and how to provide recreational and municipal services.
“This is a very important policy document and we want to ensure that we hear from as many people as possible within Port Hardy and that we gather information from a broad spectrum of local residents and businesses ...” said Parnham.
Official Community Plan Steering Committee member Jessie Hemphill mirrored Parnham’s comments.
“Within our community are many diverse groups,” said Hemphill. “We need to include ideas and priorities from as many as possible in order to develop a plan that will adequately take into consideration and represent the best interests of everyone within the District of Port Hardy.”
Official Community Plan events are scheduled in January. They are open to all Port Hardy residents. The first is a community visioning session taking place on the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 25 at Malone’s Bistro. The second is a coffee house discussion on the environment taking place at Café Guido on Thursday, Jan. 27. These events have been set up to provide opportunities for residents to have their voices heard and speak to Port Hardy specific issues. Snacks and refreshments will be provided to all participants at both events.
Council is planning an online community resident survey for early January.
Residents can leave web-based comments and find more OCP related information at www.porthardy.ca
via bclocalnews.com