In the News

Two regionally related pieces in the news as of late.

First is the Bide Arm and Roddickton amalgamation due to be finalized in January 09. By all accounts everyone seems to see this as a positive move for the area.

Second:
Cell phone coverage and snow clearing are just a couple of the items up for discussion at a meeting this week of the Lower Trinity South and Conception Bay North Community Councils. The session Thursday night is in an effort to strengthen ties between the communities. CBN Joint Councils Association Chairman Frank Evely says snow clearing is just one of the issues they have in common. Evely says the 9:30pm cut-off for snow clearing just won't do. He says there are people heading to and from work after that hour.

Evely says there's strength in numbers...and hopes banding together will bring results.

As reported by VOCM

Wrapping up and moving on.

The Municipal Sustainability Self-Assessment project is quickly coming to a close and it looks like we will have approximately 90% participation. So the first order of business is to say a hugh thank you for every council that took the time to take part in the process. We have received fantastic feedback from around the province and it is a great sign for the next phase of the ICSP process.

Speaking of ICSPs we're hoping that very soon there will be more detail available as to the specific details for this province. Stay tuned for updates as soon as they're available.....

Councillor Survey Results Available

The detailed and demanding work of creating, circulating, collecting and compiling the results of the municipal councillor survey is finally complete! The results of the municipal census were released back in May at MNL's municipal symposium and we can now release the results of the companion municipal councillor survey.

See the press release here and a pdf copy of the results here.

The CCRC would like to say a special thank you to Matt Beck who completed a great deal of the collection and compilation for both the census and the survey. Thanks Matt!

Regional Cooperation at its Best

It appears to be the norm that the day-to-day activities tend to bog down the best of people. Faced with the onslaught of paper to be filed, calls to be made, deadlines to be met and complaints to be dealt with there never seems to be enough time, effort or resources to get done what really needs to be done in terms of planning for the future.

This is, in short, is the main idea behind the ICSPs that municipalities are now required to complete. As has been discussed here before the ICSPs are an opportunity to look to the future and the Municipal Self-Assessment is the first step in that process.

One group that is looking o the future, and looking for more information on ICSPs, is the Great Humber Joint Council. The CCRC was invited by the GHJC Chair Tony Blanchard, Mayor of the Town of Irishtown - Summerside to speak on long term sustainable planning for municipalities. The presentation was very well received with great questions and interest. The session was also attended by a representative from the Western Star who reported on the event here.

It is truly great to see municipal leaders take a proactive step in understanding the need for long term planning. It is not surprising to see that the GHJC is one of the groups attempting to be proactive as they are a very well established and active joint council. Without a doubt regional cooperation at its best!