The City of Cranbrook is connected to the future.

It took more than a year but Cranbrook Connected, an all-volunteer group, unveiled its integrated community sustainability plan (ICSP) to City of Cranbrook council June 27.

And council graciously and enthusiastically received the plan.

“We think it is a great piece of work,” said Mayor Scott Manjak, after council adopted the plan and unanimously agreed to direct city administration to look into keeping the Cranbrook Connected committee in place, with some funding for a facilitator.

According to Cranbrook Connected’s website (https://www.cranbrookconnected.ca/), the project is “a new initiative from the City of Cranbrook to take a fresh approach to shaping our future and allow all of us, together, to envision the kind of city we want to pass along to our children and grandchildren.

“Cranbrook Connected will help us to tackle our current challenges in a proactive way and move towards a sustainable future, one where we maintain a resilient economy, take care of our environment, honour our past, and ensure we provide the best services for all of our citizens, now and in the future.”

Cranbrook Connected was created as a response to a federal government infrastructure funding requirement, noting that for municipalities to continue receiving funding help, they must undertake ICSP processes.

The volunteer committee consisted of Chris Ayling, Dave Butler, Laurie Cordell, Dave Hall, Linda Holmes, Gord Johnston and Mike Pearson.

Coun. Diana J. Scott noted she appreciated the fact that the committee was “a-political” in its approach. “You did even more than expected. I think everyone should read this. It’s in lay terms and easy to understand. It’s a great gauge where we are and want to be in 50 years.”

Addressing council June 27, committee member Chris Ayling said, “We didn’t want a technical document that would gather dust at city hall.”

The process was invigorating and inspiring, he said, noting he believes the report fairly covers the community, as over 60 community stakeholder groups were invited to take part.

“We tried to get a good cross section involved,” Ayling said.

Committee member Laurie Cordell said she didn’t anticipate how people would keep coming back to committee meetings.

“There was a real snowball affect. It was really fun,” she told council.

A highlight of the report, Ayling pointed out, is the “eight big ideas for sustainability.”

The eight big ideas are: hometown opportunity, working together, taking the lead, past to future, living smart, making connections, restore the core and water forever.

Along with receiving council’s approval of the plan and receiving an assurance that the committee will be kept together to implement things, they asked the city for approval of using the rest of the $150,000 budget outlayed for the committee.

Ayling said only one-third of that budget has been spent up to now “mainly because we volunteered our time where other committees would outsource” and it would be greatly helpful if they could hire a coordinator.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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