The City of Prince Rupert launched its Go Plan Survey earlier this week.
Rupertites are encouraged to give input on a brief questionnaire related to population, housing and social cohesion, with the information gathered helping the city plan and make informed decisions in managing the impacts of major projects.
Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain said the community may soon experience a population boom and said the idea behind the survey is to help retain the community’s current identity on the other side.
“Whether you’re a renter, a homeowner or a resident in this community, the influx of 5,000 new people coming to town, essentially within a six month timeframe, is going to put pressures in your life,” said Brain.
“[We don’t want residents] to go through discomfort for five years for economic development’s sake. We do believe that everybody can benefit from economic development, as long as we can get this type of information and know exactly how the community is feeling on the ground.”
Select Prince Rupert residents will be able to respond to the Go Plan Survey at their doorstep, with the questionnaire being open for all in the community to answer online for the duration of the campaign.
Between 20 and 25 trained enumerators began knocking on doors on June 8 and will continue their efforts until June 18. Brain urges anyone who is greeted at their door by enumerators to treat them with respect.
The city hired a statistician to undertake the survey, and Brain says the results will be able to stand up to Stats Canada and BC Stats. This will help the city in its fight for more affordable housing, as Brain said current stats don’t portray a shortage. It will also help determine how much pressure people are under at this time.
“We need to collect our own information … this is going to be a way for us to measure population in the community, measure housing needs and measure things like social capital,” he said.
The city will have a booth in front of City Hall at Seafest on Saturday for people to fill out the survey and will host another event on Fraser Street later this month in hopes of attracting people in the low income bracket to fill out the questionnaire.
Brain said this will be the first round of data collection the city will undertake.
“This can form good decisions on where we’re going to invest our time and money,” he explained.
The city opened a Go Plan office on Sunday, which will be headquarters for the campaign for its duration, at 290-309 2nd Avenue West.
To fill out the Go Plan Survey online, visit goplansurvey.com.
