Correspondence from Jane Devonshire, VRCC Core Team
Email from the View Royal Climate Coalition expressing support for new advisory committees.
From: Jane Devonshire Sent: November 4, 2022 3:28 PM To: Info Address info@viewroyal.ca Cc: Cathie Blanchard; Linda Jeaurond; Ian Brown Subject: Please include in November 8th COW correspondence
Dear Mayor and Council,
We would like to start out by extending our heartfelt gratitude to all of you for stepping up to serve our community. We are very pleased by the many skills, knowledge and experience that each of you brings to the table.
As a followup to the inaugural council meeting where the motion regarding the new advisory committees was tabled for more discussion, the VRCC would like to express our full support for these committees.
We understand that we need to take staff perspectives into consideration on such important decisions, and would like to reassure both staff and council that our vision for these advisory committees is for them to be an asset and not a burden. Budgets are presumably tight but during the recent council expansion process we were reassured such additional costs were a small fraction of the overall budget.
We hope council can adopt a similar view on expanding community advisory capacity.
Both Linda Jeaurond and Ian Brown who have served on many advisory committees over the years, can attest that they previously felt highly valued and had very positive experiences.
In the 1990’s under the leadership of Mayor Graham Hill, when View Royal had half the current population that we have today, staff and four councillors supported at least four committees. Meetings were held monthly and committee chairs prepared the agendas to be submitted to staff for additions prior to committee meetings. A number of days before each meeting, staff provided committee members with copious amounts of well organized relevant data. The TAC (Transportation Advisory Committee) was frequently thanked by the Director of Engineering and Development, Emmet McCusker, for providing helpful fresh ideas.
It’s disappointing now to see so many advisory meetings cancelled in this past year alone.
With this new energized council, we feel there is an awakening of the residents of View Royal to become more actively engaged. It was evident by the great turnout at the council inauguration and people live streaming the event from home.
If the parameters are clearly laid out for these advisory committees and the residents feel confident that their voices will truly be heard, we think this could be a seismic shift for View Royal and be the foundation for great community building and involvement which is so needed in these challenging times.
Sincerely, Cathie, Ian, Jane and Linda
VRCC Core Team