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Council mtg Feb 12	Let the People Speak
	Lots of public participation – unfortunately this is exception rather than typical

At one level this was lesson on how to get your message out --- ‘Inner Harbour Society’ apparently formed day before presentation and able to extract 2T$ commitment public $ for its agenda----

Herb Pond got only 1T$ for his (a trip to MFA meeting)

	Full house --- good to see
	While Inner Harbour group was out in force and very vocal – Metlakatla was also present – more as witnesses than participants – at some level this is a lesson in organizing – at least for ‘public stage’

	Child Care Funding – cut backs
	Below is map of present day care facilities in PR	I have dealt with outcome of this presentation elsewhere—Gary Coons was able to take it to Victoria and get much of the Provincial $ restored Other than good example of using public forum to get important message out, it alos suggests weakness of ‘market’ ideology (Provincial and Federal): thus give parents 100$/ month and ‘day care’ will be solved – market will provide etc

See my previous on harbour logging and proponents October 2005 Power Point presentation to Council on that logging plan w visuals simulations etd

Inner Harbour Society presentation

Local forester Brian Ignis spoke for the group --- a good choice as he could see ‘both sides’. In fact he admitted some of his recent logging shows have had ‘blow down’ and slides.

What he brought ‘new’ to discussion was a professional eye for adequacy of Metlakatla logging plan – especially from visual perspective: he questioned if 3 ‘view points’ was adequate and suggested up to 25 used, (thus the present logging across harbour in pictures below is not evident from Mariner Park but is when look from Hospital Hill.

Given the size group and number ‘important people’ brought by Inner Harbour (my interpretation—after all these were ‘establishment types – and I suspect a similar sized group of say ‘Environmentalists’ would have received nothing more than a ‘polite’ hearing)

This group extracted 2000$ (maximum) to pay for a professional forester to review the application and make suggestions --- see my previous where New Era Liberals have gutted public participation in logging plans--- so one could argue the 2T$ was money wasted

These images are tken from a plane or helicopter
presumably they were intended to show ‘bad logging’ but look typical to me

Pictures of logging (on private land) across harbour shown on slide show as Brian made his presentation

Bottom Line

Lessons in ‘Organizing’

Day Care funding was partially saved by presentations like one at Council and inputs by Gary Coons at Provincial level.

I suggest on superficial level ‘Inner Harbour’ was successful – especially as apparently only formed day before presentation--- Council listened and gave them money

Metlakatla ‘lost’ at superficial level --- their people showed up but mostly did not respond to the criticism --- at deeper level they must have been offended at the treatment --- and as many of them were young people – I suggest the impact will be felt by Prince Rupert over long term

Created by LG on March 7, 2007

Last updated on Sunday, June 27, 2010

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For earlier materials see Table of Contents

Let the People Speak

Lessons in ‘Organizing’