On June 22, Council Chair Gord Robertson, council member Eldon Carter, Membership Committee member Terry Robertson, along with CPD Manager Sweetie Sanghera and Ann Lewis, North Region Supervisor of Support Service and council admin support, drove the 450 kms from Prince George to Fort St John, where they were joined by council member Justin Pylatuk for a community meeting.
The evening event was well attended, with two parents, a representative from the Fort St John Association for Community Living, a community member, and a local CLBC staffer coming out to learn more about what community councils are all about.
Gord gave a short talk about councils in general, and the North Council in particular and then we collectively answered questions and spent time talking to the guests. Before we were done, three people were ready to apply for membership on council! This is great news as previous to the meeting we had no representation for the second largest city in the Council area.
The next day we all drove the hour south to Dawson Creek for another community meeting. We only had one self advocate and two CLBC staff come out, but it was still a lively session, with lots of ideas about how our council can be more involved across the vast area that we cover, which is greater than the area covered by all of the other 12 council combined!
While the attendance was not as good as we had hoped, we did give out one application package and are hopeful that we will get a second member from Dawson Creek.
Council is planning a similar trip in early October to visit Smithers and Terrace, another part of our region where would like to have more representation on the council.