Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Merry Cooperation.......I mean Christmas!

Well Christmas time is upon us but the work of the CCRC continues on into the new year. One of the major projects the CCRC is leading into 2008 is a Municipal Sustainability Self-Assessment Kit (SSAK) that is currently in the pilot stage. The plan is to have 5 or 6 municipalities pilot the facilitated kit at which point the CCRC will evaluate those results and the accompanying feedback to determine if any changes are needed before the process is opened up to all towns around the province. The goal is to have the pilots completed very early in 2008.

The SSAK is designed to be the first step toward the Integrated Community Sustainability Plans (ICSP) that municipalities will have to complete before the end of 2009 to have continued access to their Gas Tax allocation. The SSAK will help communities identify the areas that need attention for long term sustainability for any given municipality. The ICSP process will include addressing these ongoing issues in an attempt to plan for optimal sustainability while developing a plan that integrates other local and regional planning processes such and RED Board planning. With the ongoing struggle for rural towns to remain viable it is imperative that we work together to ensure the survival of rural Newfoundland and Labrador.

Merry Christmas from the CCRC

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