Hands down, one of my favourite things about being a councillor for Port Hardy is all of the learning and networking opportunities. There are so many people doing amazing things in communities all over the place, and I love building relationships around the province and country (and farther!) that feed my soul and help my community.

This weekend, I am happy to be attending the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities' (AVICC) 2014 AGM and Convention. These kinds of events bring together councillors, mayors, MLAs and other politically engaged folks from all over our region. The schedule is varied - keynote speeches from senior elected officials or other people of interest (this year's keynotes came from Deb Grey, retired Reform MP, and Don McRae, MLA, from the BC Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation), plenary sessions or breakout sessions on topics of interest like today's panel on the recent BC Ferries cuts, nominations to the AVICC Board and of course resolution sessions where member communities put forward motions that they would like AVICC to endorse and bring forward to the UBCM. We also have some fun - the picture above shows the mayors of Parksville and Qualicum "horsing around" during the welcome to the AGM & Convention, a bit of much needed comic relief with the often heavy issues that local government is dealing with on a daily basis.

Another great part is the receptions, dinners, and even coffee breaks where we do get to foster those cross-community relationships that help us work together on larger projects, like the ad hoc Young Elected Officials Network, a grassroots network of local government folks like Andrew Mostad, Ben Isitt, Josie Osborne, Lucas Banton, myself and many others who have successfully got into local government, and want to mentor others to do the same. 

So, I am looking forward to all of the great things that are going to arise from this convention, and I look forward to sharing my notes with you over the coming days!  

Oh, and another great thing about attending conferences like this? All of the social media chatter that happens online, like this twitter exchange from earlier :) 

-JH

Update: Thanks to everyone who supported me in my successful bid for a seat as Director at Large, and congratulations to Andrew Mostad & Claire Moglove, the other two successful Director at Large candidates!

N.B. Minister McRae mentioned a pot of funding called the Community and Employer Partnership Program (CEP) that has $8 million annually for projects that "increase employment opportunities for unemployed British Columbians through the use of agency and business partnerships..." 


BC is one of only two provinces in Canada without a poverty reduction plan, despite the fact that our poverty levels are among the highest in Canada, especially among children (18.6% of our kids kids live in poverty!) What can we do about it? Yesterday I attended a meeting regarding the Port Hardy Poverty Reduction Strategy to find out.

One thing that communities, including Port Hardy, are doing to help is creating Poverty Reduction Strategies at the local level. The Union of British Columbia Municipalities, in 2012, recommended seven pilot communities to the Ministry of Children and Family Development to develop strategies and share best practices with the Ministry, to be shared with the rest of the province. So, as part of those efforts, we have a community facilitator in Port Hardy who has been meeting with people and setting up the meeting for us to talk about how to develop our strategy.

At this gathering it was clear that the issue of poverty is a priority for many people in the community, with representatives from Port Hardy council, the RCMP, the Kwakiutl First Nation, the Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw Nations, The Ministry of Children and Family Development, Strong Start, North Island Crisis & Counselling Centre, North Island College, the Salvation Army, our local Harvest Food Bank, our local Native Friendship Centre, the Mt. Waddington Health Network, Vancouver Island Health Authority, AND North Island Employment Foundation Society! Even with that many people sitting around the table, we came up with many more who help people in poverty and/or should be helping create the plan.

This was an interesting look at just how many different people, organizations, programs etc. take on a small piece of the poverty puzzle. I can really see how, without a shared strategy, it is difficult to combine efforts to make the biggest difference for the community members who need support. I am looking forward to the work of this group, and encourage you to look up poverty reduction efforts in your own community!

Here are some sample plans, mentioned at the meeting, that might inspire you:

• Revelstoke
• Surrey

Also, take a look at the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition's website to learn more about this issue.

Hopefully you've checked out my notes from day one of the Centre for Civic Governance's conference. Here are the notes from the second day of the conference:

As a first-time councillor for the District of Port Hardy, I always look forward to opportunities to hang out with other local government folks and learn about cool things happening in their communities.

This is my second year attending the Centre for Civic Governance's annual workshop, and I have heard so much positive feedback from others who have been coming for way longer - great networking opportunities, fabulous keynote speakers (last year we had Jamie Biggar from LeadNow, this year we get Raffi!) and tons of well-paced, information-packed workshops.

This year's theme is Food for Thought: Growing Local Economies, Strengthening Local Leadership. Session topics range from Food System Planning to Culinary Tourism to Fossil Fuel Divestment to Indigenous Food Sovereignty to "Who's Not Voting?" - a look at how to get more people out to the municipal vote. 

I find that whenever councillors go to these kinds of workshops, along with UBCM, AVICC, and FCM, we always come home full to the brim with great ideas which don't always get passed along to the folks at home. So, in the interest of sharing information and good ideas, I'm going to be posting my notes from the sessions I attend. Sketchnoting conferences is a rising trend, so armed with tools from yesterday's workshop, hopefully they'll be visually appealing notes as well, as I practice this new skill :)

-JH