The City of Grande Prairie has launched a new public engagement initiative looking to hear the public’s ideas when it comes to increasing community safety.
Dubbed the Community Safety Initiative, the city says they hope to, through the ideas submitted, understand which crime prevention and community safety topics residents value the most, and where possible, implement solutions also suggested by the public.
Senior Executive Advisor with Protective and Social Services Wendy Hughes says the initiative hopes to try and engage the public with a more open dialogue and hear what matters most from their perspective.
“We want to bring the community together on possible solutions to community safety,” she says.
“This is more of a two-way conversation, we want the opportunity to take a look at those ideas and see if they’re viable.”
Hughes says feedback will be looked at by a team who will consider operational, financial, and community impacts, as well as connection to desired outcomes, legality, desired or necessary community partners, and level of government responsibility.
She says the initiative has some similarities to public meetings members of the RCMP are having in rural detachments, as residents could simply look to find out more information on what they can call enforcement services for, rather than the police.
“It certainly is a conversation point, where we want an organic discussion and see what kind of ideas are out there,” she says.
“But, we also want to provide assessments to those ideas, and give feedback to those particular public members on why we do things, and why we do not.”
To submit an idea, residents can visit the City’s AccessGP website from February 14 to March 14, 2022.