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Letter: Burnaby 'just doesn't get it' – Post-it notes aren't public engagement

A resident says the City of Burnaby’s idea of public engagement isn’t good enough when it comes to the Official Community Plan, and offers suggestions on how to do better.
Contributed
Burnaby City Hall 1
Engagement: This letter writer says Burnaby needs to improve its public engagement, especially for official community plan studies.Lauren Vanderdeen / Burnaby Now

Editor,

It seems like our city council just doesn’t get it when it comes to public/community engagement.

The city is creating an Official Community Plan to 2050, covering a critical time period for our city and for the planet.

The city did not invite citizens to participate in designing a public consultation process. It did not ask citizens what information citizens might need in order to participate in a meaningful way. And it has not allowed sufficient time for real public engagement to take place with the broader citizenry.

So, what exactly is the city’s idea of community engagement?

At the last signature OCP visioning event at Confederation Park, people who had been able to register were given one hour to write their ideas on three topics on sticky notes and submit them to city staff. The topics were:

(1) describe Burnaby today (good and bad),

(2) say what you would like Burnaby to look like in the future; and

(3) record your ideas on how to get from here to there.

There was really no time for discussion. As he was, no doubt, instructed to do, the staff member facilitating at my table was not engaged in the discussion but was busy arranging sticky notes and trying to summarize the themes. (The sticky note process was essentially the same as what was going on at a pop-up I attended a couple of weeks ago.)

So what should community engagement look like? This is not difficult to figure out. A quick look on google can explain a lot about how public engagement (or community engagement) is supposed to work today – see, for example, https://granicus.com/blog/what-is-community-engagement/).

Also, one can ascertain what public/community engagement should look like by looking to our neighbouring cities. Unlike Burnaby, cities like Coquitlam and Vancouver have in place a “Community Engagement Framework”.

Among other things, the Frameworks set out for Council, staff and citizens the extent of community engagement required for a specific situation. See Coquitlam’s Community Engagement Framework, especially page 5: https://www.coquitlam.ca/DocumentCenter/View/8193/CCE—-Coquitlams-Community-Engagement-Framework.

In their Community Engagement Frameworks, both Coquitlam and Vancouver follow guidelines set out by the International Association for Public Participation or IAP2 for public participation and they expect to be held accountable for following those guidelines. The City of Vancouver’s website states:

If you participate in one of our public engagement processes, hold it accountable to these values.

  1. We believe that people who are affected by a decision have a right to be involved in the decision-making process.
  2. We promise that the public’s contribution will influence the decision.
  3. We promote sustainable decisions by recognizing and communicating the needs and interests of all participants, including decision-makers.
  4. We seek out and facilitate the involvement of people potentially affected by or interested in a decision.
  5. We seek input from participants in designing how they participate.
  6. We provide participants with the information they need to participate in a meaningful way.
  7. We communicate to participants how their input affected the decision.

If the City of Burnaby had given citizens input into designing Burnaby’s OCP public engagement process and identifying the kind of information the citizens feel they need in order to be able to participate in a meaningful way, what might have happened?

  • a minimum one year timeline for individuals to participate in a meaningful way in setting the vision, goals and objectives of the OCP instead of a few weeks?
  • An invitation to citizens to request information they might need to make informed comments?
  • a live-streamed, keynote presentation from a member of the Indigenous community (like architect Rianna Moraste) on how to grow a city while honouring nature and the land?
  • a live-streamed, keynote presentation from an urban planner and thought leader (like former city planner Brent Toderian) on how to design a sustainable, climate resilient city for 2050 and beyond?
  • townhall presentations hosted by city councillors and staff in school gyms, malls and community centers where staff present information (maps, videos, charts, etc.) on what’s happening in Burnaby today – the state of our climate action plan, how many km of cycling network have been built, the state of our emergency preparedness for climate change, a map of areas designated as protected habitat zones, current plans for housing homeless people, sewers and storm drains, etc.?
  • citizen workshops at community centers on a variety of topics led by local experts such as immigration services, stream-keepers, architects and heritage building enthusiasts?
  • workshops where children and youth present their dreams and goals for the future of Burnaby to adult citizens in pictures, songs and presentations?
  • substantial efforts to reach people with English language and accessibility challenges?

I am not reassured by city staff’s comments that citizens may have input any time over the next year or so.

The city’s formal communications have not indicated any other processes besides the pop-ups, one signature event per quadrant for those who were able to register, and the survey, all of which will be completed by July 16, 2023.

As I see it, the visioning phase is the most important step in the process as it will determine the future vision, goals and objectives of Burnaby for decades to come.

It is the visioning phase where citizens could have the greatest impact. Once this phase is over, and the city has moved on to “Drafting”, how realistic is it to think that the vision will be revisited? And if visioning is never really done right, then how good will our OCP be?

If done right, I believe visioning could be an opportunity for citizens to create positive relationships with each other and with city councillors and city staff and for citizens to learn about different aspects of city life and contribute their knowledge and experience to enriching it. And, surely, the more widespread and inclusive the public engagement is, the more the OCP will truly reflect the values and expectations of the people.

In conclusion, I share the disappointment in Burnaby’s OCP public/community engagement process that Ms. Alzner expressed in her letter to the Burnaby Now dated June 10, 2023.

On May 8, 2023, Councilor Keithley made a motion to “greatly improve” community engagement in Burnaby. Most on Council seemed to think there was nothing to improve upon - see https://www.burnabynow.com/local-news/burnaby-councillor-motions-public-communications-better-transparency-6982168. I believe they are mistaken. If we want Burnaby to be a world-class city, we should act like one and apply the IAP2 international standards for public/community engagement!

Christine Cunningham, Burnaby