Public engagement for the City of Burnaby’s upcoming transportation plan will likely be held almost entirely by virtual means, unless the pandemic sees significant improvement in the coming months.
The city announced its guiding principles for the upcoming transportation plan in February, when council approved the document as a basis for public engagement. Those principles include sweeping improvements to pedestrian and cycling infrastructure and support for public transit in the city.
Since that time, the COVID-19 pandemic has reared its head in B.C., leading to new rules around public gatherings, which hamper governments’ abilities to host public engagement events.
As a result, the city released a new framework for public engagement this month. That plan calls for participation entirely online and by telephone, including a survey posted to the city's website.
“After the March 19 lockdown, there were some national surveys, and even from the City of Vancouver, a survey of the public to see whether there was an inclination from the public to have virtual consultations, and the results were rather surprising,” said Coun. Pietro Calendino in council.
“Up to 85% of the public think that it’s more important now to have public engagement than (wait for) regular times.”
With that in mind, staff have prepared the new framework for public engagement, said Calendino, who presented the matter to council. In June, the issue had gone through the planning and development committee, of which Calendino is the chair.
In an interview, Calendino acknowledged that going ahead now may preclude the participation of a minority of people who don’t have the means to access virtual consultations, which could leave specific transportation needs unresolved in the final report, such as the needs of people with disabilities.
“But then staff will be consulting with the associations for people with disabilities. So it’s not just an individual. Stakeholders would include organizations for people with disabilities,” he said.
The plan, which was endorsed by council this week, involves three main actions from the city: inform, engage and involve.
The “inform” portion includes providing information on the city’s website, online advertising and an email subscriber list through [email protected]. The “engage” part includes an online survey, webinars, “coffee conversation” discussion guides that direct people back to the survey and static displays at public locations. Finally, “involve” includes stakeholder meetings by phone and online, and virtual public events.
Following Phase 2 of consultations, which began this month and is expected to run until September, the city will produce a report on the public comments, which will be used to develop a draft plan.
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Email [email protected].
