Official Community Plan

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The City’s Community Participation Guiding Principles 1 • Those who are affected by a decision have a right to be involved in the decision making process; • The public’s input will influence the decision; • Recognizing and communicating the needs and interests of all participants, including decision makers, promotes sustainable decisions; • Those potentially affected by or interested in a decision are identified and provided opportunity to be involved; • Input is sought by participants on how they participate; • Participants are provided with the information necessary to participate in a meaningful way; and • Participants are informed of how their input affected a decision.

CP 3

The City will apply appropriate engagement tools and techniques to provide a consistent approach to public engagement efforts across a range of community decisions based on the impact of the decision or change. The City will seek input from equity priority and under-represented groups on how they would like to safely and comfortably participate in engagement processes, and then create an engagement strategy accordingly. The City will consider the use of a range of formal and informal citizen and stakeholder advisory bodies such as, but not limited to, standing and select committees of Council, task forces, citizen assemblies, review panels, and advisory councils. The City will require that advisory committees be proportionally representative of the community, including equity-priority groups . The City will explore opportunities for supporting community development The City will explore partnerships as strategies to achieve OCP vision, goals and policies. Partnerships will employ innovative and structured approaches to ensure all parties are involved and mutually supported to maximize individual and collective efforts. 2 approaches to strengthen the participation and resilience of neighbourhoods.

CP 4

CP 5

CP 6

CP 7

Policies

CP 8

CP 1

The City will take a proactive community participatory approach for the purpose of encouraging open dialogue and co-creating inclusive decision-making processes. The City will follow the International Association of Public Participation’s (IAP2) best management practices to inform public engagement efforts.

CP 2

1 Based on the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Core Values. 2 An example of an innovative and structured partnership approach is the Collective Impact model. www.collectiveimpactforum.org

City of Courtenay Official Community Plan