Starting at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday, May 26, the Capital Regional District’s (CRD) bi-annual Forum of Councils, will bring together for a half day workshop, Mayors, Councillors, Regional District Directors, CRD staff and stakeholders, to review the CRD’s draft Strategic Plan for 2012-2014.
The Forum will provide an opportunity for locally elected officials “…to influence the Capital Regional Board’s priorities and goals for the next few years.” The Forum will examine, through small group discussions, such priorities as:
- regional cooperation;
- transportation and planning;
- housing and health;
- infrastructure; and,
- environmental stewardship.
I believe that without this type of regional cooperation, we cannot as local communities make strategic decisions about our own priorities and goals for the future; every Official Community Plan, for example, is in some way influenced and guided by the CRD through the Regional Context Statement, which speaks directly to planning for land use and amenities related to the above-mentioned priorities.
I have always found these Forums useful and informative. They provide local governments with a sense of what is important at the regional level and what the regional pressures and needs are that drive policy and planning. They also provide opportunities to connect with and learn from regional colleagues about what other local governments are doing.
This Forum winds up at 12:00 p.m.