How do you productively engage the community without creating stakeholder fatigue or fostering dependence on municipal government? These are the questions with which the mayor and the District of Squamish are grappling.
Public process and engagement was the topic of the third Mayor’s Breakfast held by the Squamish Chamber of Commerce Friday at the Squamish Adventure Centre.
At this event, at least, encouraging constructive debate was not an issue.
Considering it was an early morning event at the end of a busy week of council meetings and public engagement on LNG, the event was surprisingly lively. About 20 people, including Councillor Karen Elliott, representatives from Woodfibre LNG and Squamish development company Bethel Lands Corporation, gathered to chat with Mayor Patricia Heintzman, district staff and each other.
“A big criticism of public engagement process is, ‘It is just lip service,’” said Heintzman. “Unless this is authentic, it’s a waste of money and time for everybody.”
The district is looking to adopt a framework for public engagement based on the International Association for Public Participation, which provides steps to public participation planning, according to district staff.
“It is based on the idea that public engagement isn’t something you turn on or off, it is a dial,” said Christina Moore, manager of communications for the district. The framework involves five stages: inform, consult, involve, collaborate and ultimately empower, said Moore.
With huge issues facing Squamish, including the proposed Woodfibre LNG project and the Official Community Plan review, getting public consensus is no small feat.
“This is not easy, what you are doing,” said Michael Hutchison, president of Bethel. “The value of this process is really to take a community that is otherwise fractured and turn it into something that has a vision where everybody is sort of pushing… in the same direction.”
At times it is also necessary for the municipal government to make decisions on its own, Heintzman said.
“You have to get it right, because you can actually have too much public engagement, you can burn out your community,” she said. “For example we are not going to have a referendum on whether or not we should evacuate this neighbourhood because there is a flood happening, that would not be a good use of our public engagement money or time.”
For several at the meeting, a big part of getting Squamish residents engaged is empowering them to see what it is they can accomplish in collaboration with each other without depending on municipal government.
“We don’t have to have all the good ideas or be in control, we enable goals and dreams to happen that come from our community,” said Elliott.
Maureen Mackell, executive director at Squamish Helping Hands Society, said more people in Squamish need to broaden their point of view.
“Each individual can’t always feel that the universe is there where they stand, we have to look at the greater good too. We have to be able to give up our selfish perspective in our little universe,” Mackell said. “It gets annoying, because we start thinking that loud is democracy. Loud is not democracy and we have to look at the greater good and give up a little bit to have a greater thing.”
Ultimately, Heintzman said, there’s a role for everyone in a democracy for public engagement.
“Whether you are an activist and you are waving your fist in the air saying ‘You missed the boat here and this is wrong’ or if you are the people sitting down at the table, in the whole spectrum of democracy, there is value in that, and you can’t have one without the other,” she said.
Check the Squamish Chamber of Commerce website for updates on the fourth Mayor’s breakfast at squamishchamber.com under events.
