CHARLOTTETOWN – In November, the city of Charlottetown hosted a public meeting to review the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan with the hopes of garnering feedback on ideas relating to the fiscal, social, environmental and cultural fabric of our city. Instead of feedback on the ICSP, Stantec and the city got an earful about the failure of the ‘dot-mocracy’ methodology, including at least one urban advocate walking out on the process. The process was, from the outset, the subject of criticism for targeting a specific demographic, socially, fiscally and politically — a criticism I summarized as the STP — same ten politicians.
In an about-face, Stantec and the City are opening the ICSP for public review. Now is our chance to overcome the tyranny of dot-mocracy and become true stakeholders in this process! (Ok, maybe that is a little over-doing it, but you get my drift.) The reality is that we have an opportunity to give feedback on the document that was produced by input garnered from fellow citizens, corporate entities, elected officials and civil servants. While the process may be flawed, failing to participate in this review is an even greater failure. With the absence of feel-good exercises, dot filled charts, and the ability to submit comments at your leisure, there is simply no reason not to voice your opinion, whatever it may be.
Check out the city of Charlottetown website for details on submitting your ideas and a copy of the draft ICSP. Hurry — the submissions are due January 1st!
photo by Martin Cathrae
3 comments
I hope you don’t mean ME as the person who “walked out.” I did leave early, and thought the process somewhat primitive and silly, but I left more from boredom than as a protest.
Peter, the very fact that you left, whether out of protest or boredom, is indicative of the overall experience of most who were not part of the ‘same ten politicians’. Whether during the initial ‘stakeholder’ meetings, during the two-day follow-ups, or the public review you attended, the feeling was always the same — not enough people engaged, not representative of the demographic of the city, and certainly not enough of the ‘out-of-the-box’ thinkers required to plan for the next 50 years.
Protest or boredom — the result is still the same, a document that was framed by politics instead of unabashed optimism.
Agreed.