Each week, the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) makes decisions that affect the lives of tens of thousands of people who live, work and play in the Cowichan region. That’s why public engagement is such a critical part of the decision-making process. When we take the time to invite the insights, ideas, and aspirations of our citizens, we ensure that the outcomes of our decisions reflect the vision, values, and needs of the whole community.

Our Public Engagement Policy establishes a formal approach for the CVRD to develop and execute engagement plans on a case-by-case basis. Our Public Engagement Strategy provides the framework that our staff use to determine when engagement is required, the level of public participation and influence, and the design and implementation of a meaningful engagement process.

We encourage all residents of the CVRD to explore what opportunities are currently available for public participation and engagement in local and regional governance.

PlaceSpeak

One of the tools the CVRD uses to engage with Cowichan residents is PlaceSpeak, a location-based community consultation platform. PlaceSpeak’s unique geo-verification process connects participants’ digital identity to their physical location. This is important because it means the CVRD can be confident that feedback data is coming from Cowichan residents. PlaceSpeak is a member of the Digital Identity Authentication Council of Canada, and was architected with Privacy by Design principles in mind. The personal information of users is never sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other organization for any reason. This allows the CVRD to facilitate the collection of legitimate and defensible feedback data, while ensuring the security and privacy of users. 

We encourage all citizens to register and participate. Your feedback is critical to the decisions making process. 

Unsure how to register to PlaceSpeak? Do you have questions about PlaceSpeak? Please visit our PlaceSpeak User Guide for Q&A, a video learning library and links to the PlaceSpeak User Guide which you can read online or download for your reference.