Involving the community

In the fall of 2005, Gartner Lee Limited was engaged by Cameco to design and conduct a consultation and communications program around the Vision 2010 project. Between November 2005 and January 2006, Gartner Lee Limited implemented a series of targeted communications and community engagement initiatives, with the goal of including a wide and representative cross-section of the Port Hope community in open and creative discussions about how the project should evolve.

To ensure participation from as many segments of the community as possible, the overall engagement strategy employed a range of communication materials and consultation activities that fit both the needs of the project and the Port Hope community context. This strategy sought to develop areas of agreement where possible, and where it was not possible, to identify areas of community convergence and divergence for Cameco to consider in moving Vision 2010 from planning through to implementation.

Underlying Gartner Lee’s community engagement plan was the philosophy that there are no ‘wrong’ ideas, and that every piece of stakeholder input would be listened to and documented for consideration. This willingness to consider and document all feedback was communicated to stakeholders at each step of the consultation process.

Over the course of the consultation’s three-month duration, Gartner Lee engaged directly with over 150 stakeholders and received 422 responses to a mail-out questionnaire. The Vision 2010 communications and consultation program included:

• a dedicated website
• a Vision 2010 1-800 information line - 1-866-383-0307;
• two consultation announcements on separate dates (advertisements on Nov. 4 and 11, 2005) in both local print media (Port Hope Evening Guide and Northumberland News);
• one consultation announcement on local radio (30-second spot), five times per day over a seven-day period (Nov. 4 - 11, 2005);
• one media release announcement of the consultation program, sent to the Port Hope Evening Guide, Northumberland News, CHEX-TV, and CHUC Radio;
• seven community roundtables;
• two Cameco employee roundtables;
• one meeting with members of Port Hope Council;
• one meeting with members of Port Hope senior staff;
• two meetings with local environmental community groups;
• three meetings with the Vision 2010 stakeholder liaison committee;
• one mail-out to every household in the Municipality of Port Hope including a postage-paid questionnaire reply (over 6,000 delivered);
• one media release announcement of the mail-out, sent to the Port Hope Evening Guide, Northumberland News, CHEX-TV, and CHUC Radio;
• a January/February 2006 display at the Port Hope Library; and
• presentation of the Vision 2010 Independent Advisory Report to Port Hope Council.

The consultation program benefited from the formation of a 15-person Vision 2010 stakeholder liaison committee (SLC) that met three times during December 2005 and January 2006. This group of community members provided valuable feedback and guidance to Gartner Lee as it developed the Vision 2010 Independent Advisory Report.