Comment 116667

By Missy2013 (registered) - website | Posted February 29, 2016 at 10:53:26

In my dealings with an adjacent City Corporation over the past few years I have discovered a similar pattern of 'engagement' & 'consultation' with the public that is really nothing more then fluffy 'window dressing'.

High profile P.R. consultants are hired, (usually by the 'stack-holder' developers who have the contracts long secured with City), to give the illusion that the public has been 'informed' and 'allowed' to participate. It is a total farce. It means nothing and amounts to nothing.

The monies involved, the tax potential, and the binding Contractual legalese are already IN PLACE long before citizens are ever 'invited' or informed. In sum, it's only about ONE Corporation talking to ANOTHER Corporation - with 'public engagement' used as 'window dressing' when citizens become more aware of obvious humanitarian or environmental 'problems' with the evolving 'deal' ...

There is little that is genuinely 'engaging' about these 'consultation' processes. And there is little that individual citizens can really do to effect change or alter 'the course' once these 'deals' are in place.

Yes, periodically citizens do band together, creating their own co-op business entities, hiring lawyers to take either the developers or City, or both, to court. But these procedures are very lengthy and very expensive propositions, (that can just as easily involve Provincial meddling or 'intervention' if City and/or the Developers aren't getting what they want...)

Ironically, it is too often taxpayers monies that supply City Legal with the flown-in BIG GUN 'experts' they need to counter LITTLE GUN 'local' citizen arguments and concerns. I have seen this happen more then once.

At the end of the day, it's ALL about the MONEY. First and foremost. In other words: How much short-term revenue can be generated for City coffers by this 'deal'? That's the bottom-line reality, and, that isn't going to change anytime soon.

As long as Corporations, (profit or non-profit), enjoy greater Rights, Privileges and the Power of the Law on THEIR side in this country, citizens, (together or alone), will always come second. That's just the way it is.

... big sharks, little fish ...

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