EcoPlan

EcoPlan honoured with two CIP Awards for Planning Excellence

epi — Thu, 30 May 2013 23:39:02 +0000

May 30, 2013

EcoPlan International has been selected as the winner of two (out of eight!) Awards for Planning Excellence from the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP). EcoPlan won Awards for Planning Excellence for Planning Publications and Aboriginal Community Planning and Development. We would like to give a huge “Thank You” to our project partners, with whom we share these awards.

We’d like to thank the BC Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, Huu-ay-aht First Nations, Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Government and the Alberni Clayoquot Regional District for their hard work and contributions that led to an Award for Planning Excellence in Planning Publications for the Regional Planning Toolkit for Treaty First Nations and Local Governments. The planning toolkit and resource guide are intended to help Treaty First Nations, regional districts, and local governments improve regional planning, collaboration and service delivery as treaties are implemented across BC.

EcoPlan would also like to thank the Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek for their contributions to the Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek Comprehensive Community Plan, which won an Award for Planning Excellence in Aboriginal Community Planning and Development. The community plan was an exciting project for everyone involved, since the formerly landless Nation was planning their new reserve community at Partridge Lake from the ground up.

We are looking forward to the awards ceremony in early July, and to continuing to work on such exciting and groundbreaking projects.

Kwicksutaineuk Haxwa`mis First Nation receives $120,000 of funding for Bighouse, EcoTourism

epi — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:01:41 +0000

Back in 2007, EcoPlan had the honour of working with Kwicksutaineuk Haxwa`mis First Nation (KHFN) on their first Comprehensive Community Plan (CCP). The plan focused on the redevelopment Gwa-yas-dums, their homeland village located on Gilford Island on BC’s midcoast. A major elements of the CCP was to develop an ecotourism industry to replace the resource jobs that once employed KHFN members in the area. At the heart of the ecotourism strategy is the restoration of their Bighouse. The Bighouse will be a hub for tourism activities like cultural feasts and tours, and due to its location facing the water, will act as a natural marketing tool for the many kayakers and boaters that pass through the channel.

On May 8, The Island Coastal Economic Trust (ICE-T) announced that it would be providing $120,000 towards restoration of KHFN’s Bighouse.

According to KHFN Chief Councillor Bob Chamberlin, “The Bighouse rebuild will contribute significantly to the economic opportunities envisioned within our Comprehensive Community Plan where Eco-cultural tourism was identified as a primary effort. It will also provide a safe and appropriate place for the Kwikwasutinuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation’s culture to continue to flourish. Building from this strong foundation of Family, Community and Nation will especially serve our youth in many ways, which will create a brighter future for us all.”

It’s great to see that the CCP is still a guiding document 5 years after its initial creation. CCPs are community supported, holistic planning documents that address all facets of community life, including economic development, culture, language, housing, and infrastructure. By using the CCP as a guiding document, as KHFN is doing, the community can align decisions and actions towards the goals and visions in the CCP, and avoid ad hoc or reactionary activities.

Congratulations to Kwicksutaineuk Haxwa`mis First Nation! Full announcement can be found here.

“Online Public Engagement Tools” – Plan Canada Article by Robyn Spencer

epi — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:15:59 +0000

Online public engagement tools have a lot of promise, but its also confusing to figure out which ones work best, in which situations. The Winter edition of “Plan Canada” magazine features an article by EcoPlan’s Robyn Spencer that provides a ’round-up’ of common technologies and a framework for choosing which online engagement tool will work best for your project. The article is reprinted below (you can click on each page to view it in a larger format). Robyn is away on maternity leave but feel free contact anyone at EcoPlan if you have any questions about the article or the content!

Musqueum Planning Project Recognized as UN-HABITAT Best Practice

epi — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:47:31 +0000

Congratulations Musqueam! Their Comprehensive Sustainable Community Development Plan has been recognized internationally by UN-HABITAT as a best practice project.

The plan, called ”We Are of One Heart and Mind”, tells the story of the community’s past, its present, and its future path. The culmination of years of collaboration, innovation and learning, this Comprehensive Community Plan (CCP) sets a new standard for effective, responsive and integrated community-based strategic planning. As the community’s guiding plan, We Are of One Heart and Mind will lead Musqueam to becoming a self-sufficient, self-governing Nation and a complete and healthy community.

UN-HABITAT is the United Nations agency for human settlements and promotes socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities. They have added Musqueam’s submission to their Best Practices Database here. Great work to everyone at Musqueum, this is an outstanding achievement!

Strategic Planning – Step by Step

epi — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:58:19 +0000

We were approached by the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (cando) to write a quarterly article on the strategic planning process for their newsletter – ‘N-Side’. cando is a great organization that provides support and capacity building for Economic Development Officers in First Nations communities.

We thought we’d republish the articles here on our blog as they come out (though, admittedly, they are a bit long for a blog post!). The articles follow the 10 step strategic planning process that we use in all our work, and each article will highlight one or two of the planning steps.

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Getting Started with Strategic Planning

We all know the value of being strategic. Yet we often overlook a longer-term, strategic approach when it comes to economic development. Why? Because of limited resources and time, or a lack of organizational capacity or cooperation. Just keeping up with various proposals or “putting out fires” leads to reactive crisis planning.

Strategic planning is about making better decisions, getting ahead of the game, pursuing a common vision and leading rather than reacting. Good planning means your community and business enterprises make sense by making sure you are following your heart, listening to your gut and verifying with your head.

This is the start of a series of articles on both the value of strategic planning in economic development and how to best approach it. Each quarter, we’ll cover one or two of the ten planning stages in the strategic planning process – illustrating with Canadian case studies and examples how you can easily integrate a more strategic approach to your economic development process, and the benefits of doing so.We’ll address common reasons why communities don’t embark on strategic planning (such as conflict in the community, limited resources etc.), some of the consequences of doing or not doing strategic planning, and discuss ways that communities have overcome common obstacles.

The Strategic Planning Process

The method covered in these articles was developed by EcoPlan to help communities systematically and successfully embark in what is often seen as a big and confusing process of strategy development. It has been used in dozens of Canadian First Nations communities, and by numerous cities and communities around the world and is now been embraced by the United Nations as their approach to strategic planning for local economic development (UN-HABITAT).

Step 1: Getting Started

The first step is to just get started. This seems so simple; it is easy to overlook. But this is about getting past the inertia of doing the things you have always done and acknowledging that you are embarking on a new path. As they say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Part of doing good planning is to think about what you are going to do. Rather than skipping straight to the ‘answer’ (the later ‘action’ stages in a good approach), this step is about slowing down and making sure you ‘plan to plan’. This can make a huge difference to the success of a strategy.

1.1 Gain commitment and build trust

Get commitment from the community – Getting commitment for a plan requires a patient exchange of information. Rushing too quickly into a plan can cause it to fail before it even starts. You may need to ‘sell’ the idea to council members, elders, and other key stakeholders – communicating the benefits of strategic planning, while also acknowledging the challenges and difficulties. Building commitment and trust up front will lay the social foundation for future success and build trust with the rest of the community.

Case Study: Every community has past work to pull from, and expertise that can be tapped into. The ‘getting started’ phase is especially critical for understanding this and how it all fits into the process. The Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park (Siksika Nation – www.blackfootcrossing.ca) focused their economic development strategy on an Area Plan for their operation (one of Canada’s largest aboriginal tourism facilities!). Several meetings were required to create a clear picture of what past and current plans and strategies had been completed and how these could inform the process. This is about not “reinventing the wheel”, or starting from scratch with every new process. Disregarding previous work is one of the easiest ways to frustrate stakeholders and lose trust.

1.2 Form the core planning team

The role of the core planning team is essentially that of project managers – making sure that the project can move forward, avoid administrative delays, and that the right people are involved at the right times. The core planning team should involve those with related past experience and directly relevant skills (e.g., staff who’ve had significant involvement in related planning processes or ‘gatekeepers’ of information). The team will likely be comprised of a few key staff members. Bringing in a diverse stakeholder group from the community will happen at a later stage.

Make sure there is a committed leader, such as an Economic Development Officer (EDO), who can shepherd the strategy through the process and then champion the strategy once it is completed.

1.3 Determine where the ‘local’ is in Local Economic Development

Is it just the reserve or is it the traditional territory? Are there some key locations that have been identified as economic or commercial areas? Where do on-reserve and off-reserve members live? Clearly articulating where ‘local’ is will reduce scope creep later on, and highlight who you need to get on board as partners (other neighboring towns, for example).

1.4 Planning to plan

Set up the systems now to ensure a smooth planning process. Clearly agree to the roles of all participants, the timelines that you will stick to, and the methods of dispute resolution. A document like a Terms of Reference can be helpful in formalizing this. Anticipate future challenges and try to build systems to overcome them.

1.5 Define the LED planning question

Before you starting trying to figure out a solution, you need to understand the problem. Is it all about jobs and revenue? What about broader questions like culture and community? Should the question be focused: “What are the best opportunities to generate income?” or more broad: “How can economic development contribute to increased quality of life?”. Think about what triggered the process or inspired the need for change.

Having a clear concept of the central planning question is fundamental to any strategy. This will be used over and over again as you engage stakeholders and make tough choices around which actions to take are best and why. This is a great exercise for the newly formed core planning team to work on together. Keep in mind that the scope of the question needs to acknowledge the resources available for the work – is there enough time, money, energy to tackle one of those ‘big picture’ questions or should the strategy focus on something more specific.

The next article will build on this framework and look at Step 2: “Stakeholders & Engagement”.

This strategic planning process is based on the book “Promoting Local Economic Development through Strategic Planning” by UN-HABITAT and EcoPlan International. It’s available for free online here http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=1922

Surrey Biodiversity Conservation Strategy: Consultation

epi — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 17:27:46 +0000

Working in partnership with Diamond Head Consulting, we recently launched a project to help develop a Biodiversity Conservation Strategy for the City of Surrey. EcoPlan will be managing the public consultation aspect of this exciting project, involving a series of stakeholder group meetings and a public open house to get Surrey residents engaged in thinking about biodiversity in their city. Check out the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy project webpage and the PlaceSpeak site for more information on the project.

Bike Showers: A key factor in encouraging active transportation?

epi — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 22:56:22 +0000

A recent study of cyclists in Washington, DC has found that the presence of “trip-end facilities” can make a big difference in encouraging cycling. Where showers, change rooms and parking were available at workplaces, workers were found to be 4.86 times more likely to commute by bike, compared with workplaces with none of these facilities present. Having parking alone made a difference too, but less so. Workers with bike parking facilities (and no showers or change rooms) were found to be 1.78 times more likely to cycle.

All in all, it’s interesting to have data to support the fact that these measures can make a difference. How any of these facilities would influence cycling patterns in other cities would depend on a range of other factors, including how far employees typically have to travel, climate, etc.

The full study can be found in the most recent issue of Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment.

Celebrating with our EcoPlan Family

epi — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 18:26:00 +0000

Once a year we try to find a night to gather our big, wonderful EcoPlan family for a night of catching up and relaxing on Vancouver’s beautiful beaches. We managed to luck out on a gorgeous summer night this past week.

Big thanks to everyone who made it out. We are lucky to have such talented, thoughtful and fun colleagues.

Lunch Meet: See you next Thursday?

epi — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:53:49 +0000

Went and checked out the first “Lunch Meet” event today. Gorgeous day for some public gathering and outdoor lunch.

Lunch Meet is part of the Viva Vancouver program, put on by the Hastings Crossing BIA, and the Vancouver Public Space Network in partnership with Space 2 Place – great ideas, great folks.

It’s on every Thursday in July, from 11:30 to 1:30 on Abbott between Cordova and Hastings. The site has big long tables, music and lots of people to catch up with or meet for the first time. Rumor has it that next week there will be a collection of food carts to sample from.

Hope to see you there next Thursday!

Engagement technology round-up: MindMixer

epi — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 19:44:19 +0000

Here at EcoPlan, we’re always on the look-out for new and innovative ideas for community engagement. Seems like there are more options everyday, especially online models. To keep an eye on these, we’re going to start an “engagement technology round-up” feature here on our blog. Feel free to send us (infoecoplanca?subject=engagement technology) ideas on technologies you are using or thinking about. MindMixer is one of many new additions to the landscape of online community engagement tools.

Developed by two planners from Omaha grappling with what they saw as a broken model for city planning, MindMixer provides a digital platform for citizens to participate in decisions large and small. Similar to many online engagement tools, MindMixer allows users to post specific projects or planning challenges, share ideas and collect opinions. There is additional functionality to vote for and prioritize actions – helpful for moving past the “ideas” stage, to action.

MindMixer deals up front with an issue that many online solutions evade – the importance of content. Content, as well as context, they say, are the 2 C’s of successful engagement. Without them, technologies will fail. This is true of any engagement effort – online or off. But it’s not always that simple. It’s one thing to create content, it’s another thing all together to create meaningful content (and, most importantly, content that inspires meaningful participation in decisions). That’s perhaps where the context piece comes in. In order for these tools to support meaningful and robust decision-making, they need to acknowledge the bigger picture. How does this decision relate to another? By choosing one path are we compromising on another? What are the trade-offs? After all, almost every decision happens within a context of limited resources. We can’t do everything, so what do we do first and why? WHY – is the big question.

A planning framework needs to challenge decision-makers to answer that question, in a way that speaks to fundamental objectives, and in a way that can be consistent across decisions. Because it’s just getting started, it’s still unclear how MindMixer‘s voting and prioritization functions will work, but it would be neat to see how these could help users link to the bigger picture and objectives, instead of simply picking favorites. We’ll be following…