After taking advice from residents, the District of North Saanich are launching their new website April 12, to better engage with citizens, showcase district achievements and share information.
The old website was hacked last year and has been operating in a reduced capacity since, with council officials admitting it isn’t as intuitive or user-friendly as they’d like.
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They hope that will change with the new website, which is being launched as part of a wider communications strategy intended to offer greater integration with social media. The new website is said to be easier to navigate and includes new features.
The project was started in 2018 with a budget of $75,000. Director of Finance Stephanie Munro has been called the driving force behind the website and it was built with the help of a website consultant.
Council will preview the website April 8, before it goes live later that week. It is intended to be 90 per cent complete at launch, as council would like to integrate user suggestions into the final product.
“We’re expecting feedback, we want to hear people’s thoughts and reactions to it so it will become a living website that’s constantly changing,” says Tim Tanton, Chief Administrative Officer, District of North Saanich.
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All the municipalities have had their share of recent success stories and North Saanich feel that they have perhaps lagged behind in telling the public about theirs. They therefore prioritized improving communication as a strategic objective and believe the website will help them engage better with residents.
“We have three electric vehicles here at town hall, we’ve got solar panels, I bet people don’t know we won the Canadian award for Financial Reporting this year,” Tanton says. “North Saanich is a hidden gem, we certainly acknowledge people are communicating differently and we need to have a better presence on social media, to show interesting information that taxpayers want to know.”
The increased importance organizations are placing on social media, especially Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, means North Saanich will have a dedicated staff member assigned to communication duties.
During recent windstorms and the snowfalls, the community was made aware of a steady stream of information from Sidney and Central Saanich, while the good work up in North Saanich didn’t receive as much exposure.
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“We got a lot of compliments from residents, it was all-hands-on-deck for four days and we had ploughs running 24 hours a day, with the volunteer fire department activated to make meals, so the people driving the ploughs wouldn’t have to stop for very long,” noted Tanton.
“We want to do a better job of reporting those stories as well as sharing information, like letting people know there’s a council meeting tonight and here’s the agenda. The new website will be a big part of that.”
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