Comment 74581

By H+H (registered) - website | Posted February 21, 2012 at 13:34:27

Nicholas - thanks for the insights and the info.

Not to take us off topic but just to reinforce your point about the public consultation process, I've been both frustrated by and disappointed with the sequence used in our public consultations. We have a basic topic in mind; then we ask the public; then we ask the Councillors if they like what the public said; then we ask if there is any money to fund the ideas generated by the public and shared with Council. Seemingly invariably, Council says we can't afford it.

Case in point from my own experience is the Gore Master Plan process. As a member of the public stakeholders group, I was very impressed with the consultation step. We had hands on and very direct input to the final proposal. It was engaging, collegial, exciting. Problem was, Council had not approved any money for the pilot project, only that there might be a pilot project. We invested many hours at many meetings. It was a good plan. But, Council said they could not afford the $200,000 for the pilot project.

Instead, the buses were removed from the Gore and parking meters were installed seemingly overnight. Two years passed with no communication whatsoever and we have just been invited to get together again to continue to work on the next phase of the plan. I still admire the way the public input part of the process was handled by staff, but think the steps are out of sequence, just as Nicholas states based on his own experience. It makes for a less than satisfactory experience. Having said that, I will be attending the next meeting. Can't give up now, can I? :)

gcrawford

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