Previous page: From theory to practice
This process links to a people-based budget approach, where the City, before it starts the budget process, spends time getting feedback from its citizens on the types of services provided, where they think money should be spent and what the priorities are, he says.
Although there's a chicken-and-egg relationship between the two, citizens aren't always clear on the connection. People understand there's an impact on taxes in budget discussions, so it's easier to get people to participate and provide their views, says Turnbull. "But with community strategic planning, we must do more targeting because it's harder to get people to understand what you're trying to do."
Multiple channels are needed to solicit their input, he says. "If you just use one, then you're excluding somebody." Paper, phone and Web surveys, newsletters in public libraries and town hall meetings are all used to hit as wide an audience as possible. "We need to ensure we're capturing their true views."
Turnbull believes digital methods will eventually supersede others in the future. "Web access is getting more widespread, and from a municipal point of view, where resources are tight, if you can have only one way to collect more information and compile the results, it requires fewer resources. Down the road, we are going to have to get to fewer approaches."
While the face-to-face contact in town hall meetings is invaluable, Turnbull says turnout at these is typically low, unless there's a really contentious issue. "We get better information by electronic means, and people find it easier to get to it. We're not seeing as good information coming out of town hall meetings," he says, adding that summarizing these verbal proceedings is a laborious, manual exercise. "Meetings become more a way to validate electronic feedback."
Digital methods for citizen engagement will likely catch on sooner at the provincial and federal levels of government, adds Turnbull. "It's harder for them to do town hall-type meetings due to geography, so they will have to rely more on technology - probably faster than municipalities have to. We do have to be quicker at getting feedback, but I think it's harder for us to get to doing things only one way. It's a catch-22."
At present, it's difficult to determine if citizen engagement is working effectively. "It's always hard to tell how good a job you're doing until you use a scientific approach. For example, in online surveys, generally any kind of citizen engagement is ad hoc and open because you want to get as much feedback as possible."
But a scientific approach would focus on the types of demographics that need to be covered to produce statistically accurate results, which means selecting a smaller representative population to complete the survey.
"One approach precludes the other," says Turnbull. "In order to be scientific, it tends to mean you have a smaller amount of selected feedback. And you need some kind of identity management in place, which throws up red flags for many citizens. But if you want to keep it anonymous, then it's hard to make it scientific."
Nevertheless, this hurdle needs to be resolved if citizen engagement is to move from consultation to decision-making. "A vote is no different from a survey: it's a yes or no question that can easily be put on a Web site to let people vote on an issue. But right now, we have no way of knowing if someone votes once or 200 times, which makes it difficult to use the results as a definitive answer," he says. "I think all levels of government must have some consensus on how we're going to know who we're talking to."
Next page: Wiring instant pressure groups
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