The survey has three sections - climate action, land use and biodiversity, water and coast - and asks people to rank their conflicting priorities around environmental outcomes and goals.
ECan chair Peter Scott said the feedback will help the regional council update its plans and policies, such as the Canterbury Regional Policy Statement, which directs regional, district and climate action plans that address climate change risks.
"The plans and policies we’re writing will impact everyone in our community differently," Scott said.
"We know people value different things about our unique environment and sometimes those are in competition.
"We need to understand what’s most important to our community because the decisions we make now will have a lasting impact, so it’s important we get them right.
"As a council we need to make some tough decisions about our priorities for the environment, along with responding to central government requirements and the impacts of climate change.
"We need to make sure that the decisions we make represent the expectations and experiences of our community."
Scott said the survey asks some challenging and specific questions that required the community to rank different environmental scenarios.
"This survey gets straight to the heart of what people in Canterbury are passionate about. They’re questions about how we use and manage our water, air and land.
"For example, we have heard there is a lot of support for investing in renewable energy and power, however, this could have an impact on native plants, animals and landscapes, so we need to find out how far people are prepared to go one way or the other."
Scott said decisions relating to the Regional Policy Statement and future expenditure are yet to be made by ECan.
"It’s important that people take some time to complete this survey because their answers will help us determine how hard a line to draw on some of the decisions we need to make.
"We need to have these conversations now to explore what compromises we can find, and so we can try to pick the right path between what needs to be done, and what can be done."
- To complete the three survey sections - climate action, land use and biodiversity, water and coast - visit https://haveyoursay.ecan.govt.nz/hub-page/pick-a-path-ourfuture
