Community Action Forum

On Dec 1st , 2022 - 26 members of the community participated in a Community Action Forum with facilitator Perry Phillips. Individuals attending represented various organizations of the community including Seniors, Recreation, Tourism, Economic Development, Business and Council. Age ranged from 23- 86 and Participants offered insights, learned from others’ perspectives and expressed their ideas about actions on developing the community of Gull Lake.

Early in the session participants were asked to complete the sentence “ This session will be a good use of my time if…”  At the end of the session participants were asked “This session was a good use of my time because…” These two exercises were helpful to gain a better understanding of people's expectations and what they find valuable in participating in events like these. Thank you for your open and honest opinions.

“A failure to plan is a plan for failure”

Perry presented and facilitated discussion about planning and how the planning process is as valuable as the plan itself. Perry described the plan as being hierarchical, from higher and broader ‘visionary’ components to very detailed strategic components, such as day to day actions. 

A full report of the forum and next steps can be found below. We hope participants and more community members will be engaged as we continue planning for an improved and sustainable Gull Lake and region.

You may be wondering “why now?” Why are developing a community plan?

• Gull Lake is at a key point in its history. While we have been slowly losing population since the 1980s, population loss has jumped in the last five years. Our town lost over 13% of its population in the last five years. If depopulation continues at that rate, Gull Lake has only a few decades left. We need to set a new path forward.
• A new and exciting opportunity has presented itself. For the first time since the 1960s rural growth is outpacing urban growth in Canada. With people increasingly working from home, and Gull Lake receiving fibre optic network upgrade next year, we are in an excellent position to attract people if we understand how to do that  and we can meet their expectations so they stay.

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