By John Wilkes

2010 will undoubtedly be a celebratory occasion for many, particularly in light of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Whistler and Vancouver. For others seeking a more low-key affair, next year will offer an important opportunity for citizens to engage in dialogue with both the City of Victoria and the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority about land use which will have a significant impact on how development will take place in the future within their designated boundaries. 

The City of Victoria will be asking citizens to participate in developing and reviewing its Official Community Plan as well as the James Bay Neighborhood Plan (last updated in 1993). And, the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, (which has recently hired CH2M Hill, a Colorado-based engineering firm) will be engaging the public in an initiative to create a 20-year master plan for both the Port of Victoria and Ogden Point's upland area. 

Given the limited availability of land, and the increasingly diverse number of stakeholders with often competing demands for the use of this land, how to engage and balance the interests of ordinary citizens with those of special interest groups (be they business interest groups and coalitions, property developers, community groups, charitable associations, condo strata councils, resident associations as well as health, recreational and social service organizations and agencies, as well as regulatory bodies) in a democratic, transparent, inclusive, and fair process will be an enormous challenge. 

The stakes are high and the manner in which all participants become engaged in the process will influence how successful the City and the Harbour Authority will be in accommodating these competing interests, and what influence our voices will have on the future social and economic development of the city but also it's oldest and largest neighborhood, James Bay.  

It is up to all citizens to make this a worthwhile effort, to bring forth not only the opportunities but also the concerns citizens may have regarding change, and to discuss alternatives or how to mitigate any potential impact that change may have on them.  

Dialogue and debate are healthy in a democratic society, in order to provide a forum to examine our environment or context, express different points of view, and to discover areas of common ground and matters of public interest. It is up to citizens to create a welcoming and safe place to identify opportunities as well as constraints and concerns, to explore different directions and options rather than to narrow discussion, limit debate, or exclude participation, because we fear certain individuals and their interests, or fear our inability to adapt to the potential consequences of change.  

Uncertainty is part of living; it is our attitude towards it that makes all the difference as to how we define our days here on planet earth. We can embrace it as part of the ebb and flow of life and respond to it by learning how to be flexible and how to adapt to it, or, we can devote all our energy and resources to resisting and fighting the tides of change, giving us the illusion that we can control everything as long as we can measure it and bend it our way, without regard for the initial conditions or the unintended consequences of our best laid and man-made rules, regulations, or plans on others.