The word is Jasperites are craving more information and more opportunities for meaningful engagement with the municipality, or at least that鈥檚 what the 127 residents who filled out the Engage Jasper survey had to say.
The municipality created the survey in April in order to solicit public input on how the community wants to be engaged and what conversations it wants to engage in. The information that was gathered has now been compiled and is available on the municipality鈥檚 website. It has also been used to create the public engagement policy that will be presented to council next Tuesday, July 16.
The purpose of the policy, as stated in the draft, is 鈥渢o provide decision-makers, municipal staff, residents and stakeholders with a consistent and genuine engagement process that values input in decision making.鈥�
Christine Nadon, the municipality鈥檚 communications manager, said for the municipality to be successful, it鈥檚 key that it partake in two-way conversations with residents, giving the public an opportunity to get informed and to engage meaningfully in what鈥檚 going on at the municipal level.
鈥淵ou鈥檇 be surprised how many people still ask 鈥榳hat does the municipality actually do? Why is it so important to have the municipality?鈥� So, having those engagement processes in place will hopefully change that and make people feel empowered,鈥� she said.
The survey showed that in previous attempts to engage the public, residents felt there was a lack of clarity鈥攖hey weren鈥檛 sure how to engage or what their engagement would achieve.
鈥淭hat led to feelings of mistrust and engagement fatigue,鈥� said Nadon, who noted that the municipality鈥檚 new engagement policy, communications policy and procedure bylaw should remedy that situation.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e doing is setting the rules of the game,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e putting it out there that this is where the process will go.鈥�
Council approved the new procedure bylaw at the end of May, but it first came into affect at the July 2 meeting. That bylaw is a roadmap for council that formalizes meetings, so that they are conducted in an accountable, transparent and predictable way.
The bylaw also lays out how the public should communicate with the municipality, so that council isn鈥檛 bombarded with questions they don鈥檛 know the answers to. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what this bylaw did was set out how to formally approach council,鈥� said Nadon.
鈥淵ou should start with administration,鈥� she said 鈥淐all us or come for a visit with the people that know what you want to know, and if that鈥檚 not satisfactory, the CAO is the next step.鈥�
Of course, that鈥檚 not to say residents can鈥檛 approach councillors, either formally or informally.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e the community鈥檚 elected representatives, that鈥檚 what they鈥檙e there for,鈥� said Nadon, noting that if the municipality鈥檚 administrative staff doesn鈥檛 provide an adequate response, residents are encouraged to turn to council either through an informal conversation or through a request to speak at the next meeting.
Nadon said aside from the public鈥檚 desire for more information, what she learned while soliciting feedback from the community, is that it鈥檚 hard to engage residents.
Of the 127 surveys completed, she said only 26 of them were done by people who read about the process in the paper, or saw an advertisement. The others were people who she met with in person or who she sent emails to directly.
鈥淯nless there鈥檚 an issue that directly affects people in their daily lives, it鈥檚 really hard to get people to engage,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut at the same time, this is the current situation. I like to think that if we do a better job at providing meaningful engagement opportunities and we build trust and people believe its meaningful, we will have an impact.
鈥淚 think people in Jasper want to be engaged, but there鈥檚 lots of work to do.鈥�
To see the draft public engagement policy, visit jasper-alberta.com and search 鈥減ublic engagement.鈥�
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
