What does planning in the public interest mean for Sooke?

For Sooke, planning in the public interest means making decisions based on the community's shared vision, not one project, one private interest, or one election cycle.

And that shared vision is our Official Community Plan.

Over more than five years, more than 2,000 residents helped shape Sooke's new Official Community Plan through the Picture Sooke engagement process, one of the most extensive public engagement processes in our community's history. The Plan was adopted in December 2025.

Helen chaired the Official Community Plan Advisory Committee through much of the process and saw firsthand how years of community conversations shaped the Plan.

No community plan is perfect, and no plan will ever have unanimous support. That's why we support reviewing the Official Community Plan in December 2026. Good planning means continuing to listen, learning from experience, and improving our plans as our community changes.

Some candidates are running on a platform to roll back environmental protections, reopen planning decisions that have already been made, and revise the Official Community Plan.

That's not our approach.

Planning in the public interest isn't about one Council getting its way. It's about respecting the work that's already been done, continuing to listen, and making thoughtful decisions today that reduce costs and difficult choices for future councils and taxpayers.

Keeping It Sooke.

Because the community's long-term vision should guide Council's decisions today.