Dear editor,

Ever wondered where the rain goes?

Ode to Street Trees.

The One Common Factor of Happy Cities.

What is Urban Planning and its principles?

These are among 14 鈥淔ilms for Thought鈥� available under the Official Community Plan portion of the City of Courtenay website. There is even a film where Dr. Theresa Tam speaks about something other than the pandemic!

These films and an online workbook are tools intended to provoke thought about what Courtenay鈥檚 citizens want their city to look like in the future. The City of Courtenay is revising its Official Community Plan (OCP) and the public is being asked to provide feedback via an online survey.

It is advisable to take the OCP survey if any of the following apply to you:

鈥�,It matters to you what your neighbourhood or downtown core feels like.

鈥� You plan to live or work in a building in the future.

鈥� You will need to travel by foot, bike, car or public transit.

鈥� You plan to attend an event in a public space.

鈥� You care about the environment or plan to eat some locally produced food.

鈥� You plan to flush a toiler or use a road.

鈥� You care about how your money is spent.

The OCP will affect all of these because it influences how people will live, work, shop, play and move around Courtenay in the future; it is about land use and growth management AND it has the power to transform this community!

At the Ideas Fair (a public consultation event in February 2020), the City of Courtenay heard that the following are important to its citizens: more housing choices; future growth should be compact; public gathering spaces; access to natural outdoor areas; more walking/biking options; and climate change actions.

The deadline to complete the 10-15 minute online survey is Sept. 8. To take the survey, or to learn more about the OCP update and subscribe to the project newsletter, visit

There is also a link to submit photos of things that are important to you in Courtenay (at the GIS Story Map) AND the workbook (where the films mentioned above live). By participating in the survey you are influencing the future. Who doesn鈥檛 want to do that?

Joan Gillies,

Comox