The Tools You Need
Stepping Up?
We Can Help!
We can be really honest here, it takes a lot of work to get this far. Staying informed is only half the battle, when you’re ready to act it’s nice to have something to start with.
As we progress we’re learning what works and what doesn’t. You can learn from our efforts and get an extra push in the right direction.
We work with community and local governments to ensure you’ve got a voice at the table. Once an initiative is complete, we post the details so you can replicate and produce initiatives in your community.
Select a topic below to read more.
The Access to Information Act gives every Canadian citizen, permanent resident, individual or corporation in Canada the right to request access to records that are under the control of federal government institutions, regardless of their format. We use FOI requests to obtain information related to motions, acts, laws, permits, and anything else that is sent or received by a government institution.
- How to write an FOI
- FOI Resources
- Our FOI Requests
Every city or municipality will have a combination of Directors, Mayor, and/or Councillors. These are your elected officials who discuss and vote on key topics affecting your community. Interacting with these members is crucial to better understanding services and issues in your area.
- How to find your local representatives.
- Agendas, Minutes, and Meetings.
- Getting involved.
Stakeholders vary across different regions. Some areas have many stakeholders, and some very few. Typically stakeholders are a society or group which represent and speak on behalf of a topic or area of interest in the community. Most often these are neighbourhood associations related to specific areas.
- What does a stakeholder do?
- Why are stakeholders important?
- How to become a stakeholder.
Every street, road, avenue, lane… You get the idea. Support is everywhere, you just need to know where to look. Reaching out can be one of the most difficult tasks on your journey, but it doesn’t always need to be. There are a lot of ways to connect with community members, once you’ve met a few it will typically snowball until you’re surrounded by wonderful community members who share in your passions and interests.
- Find existing groups and organizations.
- Social media, apps, newsletters, everything in-between.
- Start your own, be the example others can look to.
It’s very common for people to blend terminology and resources from other locations. Countries such as Australia and the United States have similar government processes to our own. When it comes to local area plans, such as your Official Community Plan (OCP) many topics are translated to your local community. When you recognize these terms you can see more clearly where your city or town fits on the larger scale.
- Which global or federal agendas can be found in your town.
- Who influences or presents top-down directives to your local government.
- What responsibilities have your local government signed onto.