I attended two meetings this year that were held to determine where to spend the Resort Municipality Initiative money.There was a cross section of Tofino residents attending with no particular group over-represented.Not a large group but below is how people put their priorities:
Shuttle bus 9
Festivals 3
Community hall 6
Downtown improvement 2
Beach access 6
Infrastructure 2
So how did it work out that "Downtown Vitalization" got to the top of the list (1.25 million dollars) with only 2 votes ?
It was revealed at the "Downtown Vitalization" meeting that only 25 members of the public (not members of special interest groups) attended the "charettes"
http://www.canada.com/Charettes+bring+community+into+Tofino+downtown+vitalization/5405264/story.html
I would suggest that after the secretive DCC Committee had issues with the final report submitted to council that the citizens of Tofino have lost confidence in the "Public Process". Volunteers for that committee gave freely of their time and worked hard to come up with some good recommendations that apparently weren't reflected in the final report.
Larry Nicolay said in a recent blog comment that "It's very easy to be on the outside hurling rocks" This is very true but I have to think that shouldn't be an "outside and "inside" with regards to Tofino Council. This council has adopted a divisive "US and Them " attitude. They pay lip service to the "Public Process" and then push forth with their Pet Projects be it the "raspberry patch" or "Downtown Vitalization". Only the huge public outcry and hard work by some citizens kept us from having a "Traffic Circle" at Chesterman's Beach !!
Let's elect a Tofino Council that will actually listen to the people and operate in an inclusive manner.
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