The Critical Compass Podcast - Edmonton City Council's ＂Show & Tell＂ Public Engagement w⧸Jason Bale

00:00:00.000 well first of all how do you address the apathy side of things is that like is there an engagement

00:00:09.640 piece and like what do we do to kind of get that turned around so i think you kind of nailed it

00:00:15.580 there with that engagement piece and over the years the city's approach to public engagement

00:00:21.300 has become more show and tell rather than a two-way conversation and this was one of the

00:00:26.480 things that i noticed actually during covid with michael's park there was some first place housing

00:00:30.940 going in now first place housing the program intent is not bad i actually don't disagree with it

00:00:37.000 it didn't achieve the outcomes it was looking for uh and it's it was taking away green space from

00:00:43.740 the community so why are we taking away this this desired green space to put in something that does

00:00:49.260 that we know doesn't work and right during covid they were trying to to hold or to use covid as a

00:00:58.080 reason to not do public engagement and so i drafted them a nasty letter and i signed mike's name to it

00:01:05.440 and i made him read it and made him ink it and um but it was like look when it came to the lrt uh

00:01:12.820 construction you didn't listen to the to the residents of michael park michael's park when it

00:01:17.180 came to the christopher's pub development when they wanted four eight now 12 stories you didn't

00:01:22.600 listen to them when you asked them about first place housing you said do you want one or two units

00:01:26.560 and they said well we don't want any nice and then you came back and said well you get three complexes

00:01:31.180 then when it was the uh the public engagement for the the epcor drainage in the area and the dry ponds

00:01:37.800 you were asking them you know what's important to them they prioritize green space and then you still put

00:01:42.820 in these um these programs when you asked them about transit service they said yes transit's

00:01:47.480 important to us then you took off all the transit off of the uh 76th street there so they're not

00:01:53.940 engaging because it doesn't matter what they say you're not listening to them and you're demonstrating

00:02:00.000 that day-to-day and that needs to change uh so uh and in the letter i said absolutely absolutely not

00:02:08.160 are you skipping this uh um public engagement you will find a way to do it virtually you will

00:02:13.520 postpone it you will do something or we will make a motion to make you do it so do you think that uh

00:02:20.520 like what are the what are the barriers there like is it something where um the city has a plan and they

00:02:26.940 kind of already know what they're going to do and they're just doing this as lip service or is there

00:02:30.360 are there competing interests that come in like if they you know they'll they'll they'll do the the

00:02:35.480 engagement in earnest but when the answer comes back and something that might go against what

00:02:39.620 you know a a contractor might envision the contractor's you know desire overrides the

00:02:45.620 community like what what is the barrier there so i think it's a little bit of both uh for example the

00:02:51.060 the speed limit reductions that's a one that everyone knows about that they went down to 40

00:02:55.160 so when that result came the survey question went out do you want residential roadway speed limits to

00:03:01.020 be 50 40 or 30 and most people the it was pretty evenly split three ways but the winner was 50

00:03:10.020 kilometers an hour and they interpreted that as most people don't want 50 kilometers an hour so let's

00:03:15.700 compromise at 40 uh you know they knew what they wanted and then they just found a way to to

00:03:20.520 interpret the results so right it's it's a matter of uh of uh just wording the questions in such a way

00:03:27.920 that you shockingly you always get to the answer that you want

00:03:30.740 you

The Critical Compass Podcast - January 26, 2025