By Khang Nguyen

P.A. residents brainstorming to improve the community’s culture

Oct 2, 2015 | 5:22 PM

The first phase of a community culture plan began with a community forum at the Margo Fournier Centre on Friday.

In association with the city, Prairie Wild consulting, a company out of Saskatoon, led a brainstorming session with those in attendance.

Danny Roy, with the company, said the importance of the brainstorming session was to hear directly from the residents of the city.

“There are all the First Nations aspects and all the multicultural tribes that existed before settlement, but also moving forward to modern Prince Albert, there’s such a mix of people here,” Roy said about the diversity of culture in the city.

Each table was designated a certain theme such as sports and recreation, food, culture and arts.

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Participants sitting at the tables were invited to write what the city already had pertaining to these themes, what they wanted to see in the future, and where and how they would implement it on a city map.

“It’s one thing to say Prince Albert is great … It’s another thing to really put it down on paper,” Roy said. “(It’s) so the community members can look back on it or the city administration can look at it and say, ‘Wow. We have a lot of things going on so what can do to move forward with it.’”

A group discussing the open and natural green spaces focused on areas such as the Cooke Municipal Golf Course, and Little Red River Park and how to continue their standings in the city.

Participant Mark Zulkoskey made recommendations on how to improve tourism for the parks.

“We don’t have land mark signs that tell people that are coming through why they should stop here,” Zulkoskey said. “We’ve got a rich, rich heritage and culture starting from the aboriginal people, moving into the industry, and now going into the service sector that we can really grow in terms of tourism and bringing people in and explaining to them the purpose and the history of the city.”

Zulkoskey said the parks should be both informative and fun for visitors including information plaques or interactive activities.

“Let’s use our parks and create centres where we really discuss our heritage,” Zulkoskey said. “Let’s design our playgrounds around that so they’re not just recreational opportunities, but they’re also educational opportunities.”

The second phase of the cultural planning process will be taking suggestions made at Friday’s open forum to create a cultural planning plan which is expected to be prepared by July 2016.

knguyen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @khangvnguyen