Voluntary Planning

Also in this section:

• Message from the Chair of the Voluntary Planning Board
• History of Voluntary Planning
• Our Principles of Citizen Engagement

What is VP?

Voluntary Planning is unique in the world. It is an arm's length agency of the Nova Scotia provincial government and is responsible to the Treasury and Policy Board.

Voluntary Planning is uniquely positioned to gather public input and influence government decision making. By being positioned within government, yet being at arm's length to government, Voluntary Planning is able to work openly and genuinely with the citizens of Nova Scotia while offering the opportunity for citizens to aid and influence the decision-making process of government.

What does VP do?

Voluntary Planning's work is largely comprised of dealing with specific major projects. Generally, Voluntary Planning is asked by government to address a topic area (ie. Nova Scotia Heritage) and to seek public input as a significant part of the advice development process. The input extends beyond simply capturing public opinion, but instead is an iterative process by which the public becomes more knowledgeable in the topic area (through meetings, discussion papers, presentations, etc) and is provided opportunities to contribute to creating solutions and suggestions for improvements for the policy matter being addressed.

How does VP Work?

Voluntary Planning is about citizens engaging their fellow citizens on issues and policy. Major projects are led by volunteer citizens recruited by Voluntary Planning to lead the engagement process for times ranging from one to two years.

As experts in citizen engagement, Voluntary Planning conducts genuine engagement on behalf of the provincial government. A key ingredient to genuine engagement is to never start with an answer, but instead to honestly seek the solution through collaboration with the public and stakeholders. Voluntary Planning has successfully built its credibility over many years through doing just that.

The Voluntary Planning process empowers citizens through providing opportunities to volunteer as members on project committees or task forces or to provide input in a variety of means to an ongoing project.

Where does VP's work go?

Voluntary Planning's findings end up in a number of places. First and foremost, the findings and/or recommendations go to government (i.e. appropriate departments, ministers, cabinet, the Premier, etc). As a matter of course, Voluntary Planning will typically publish a final report that is publicly available to all citizens, interest groups, media and academia.

Voluntary Planning has, since its inception, been an advisory group to government. Government is in no way beholden to act on all or any of Voluntary Planning's recommendations. The work of Voluntary Planning is consistently taken seriously by government and will often lead to substantive policy change, though Voluntary Planning can in no way guarantee government action on any recommendations or findings it makes.

Citizen engagement is a key part of any democracy. Voluntary Planning has proudly been an integral part of Nova Scotia's democracy for over 40 years. It is an organization unique in the world and conducts its work in a genuine, transparent and principled manner. Voluntary Planning, the volunteers that devote their time, the citizens who contribute their thoughts and the work the organization does are features of governance in Nova Scotia of which we can all be proud.