The Municipality of Shuniah is carrying out the most broad-based public consultation in recent memory to chart its future course.
Outreach for the rural community's 2015-2020 Strategic Plan will include separate public meetings for seasonal and permanent residents as well as an online survey.
"In my experience as a councilor -- I've been on council for a few terms now -- we haven't really developed a sound strategic plan and followed through," said Shuniah Deputy Mayor, Donna Blunt.
"This is the first time we've gone to the public like this and got all this extra input. We're hoping together with the public input, council's input and staff's input, you put it all together and we can come up with a good strategic plan for the next five years."
The bedroom community has enlisted GCK Consulting to help boil down public input as it decides whether and what type of commercial, agricultural and industrial potential locals would like to address.
"For the most part, people live and cottage out in the Shuniah area and they drive into the City of Thunder Bay to work. We've had some commercial development but it's not a big part of our community. We're looking to see what's out there and what sort of industry or commercial development we can attract -- if the public wants that."
The survey is available at the Shuniah office on Leslie Ave. or online at www.surveymonkey.com/r/ShuniahPlan .
A focus group for seasonal residents will be held on Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. Permanent residents, seniors and youth are welcome to attend a session on Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. and all residents are invited to the Sept. 19 final event from 1-3 p.m.. All three will be held at the MacGregor Rec Centre.
