Question of the Week 2

 

New Opportunities for Engagement Question of the Week 2 Last summer, your answers to our Questions of the Week gave us guidance on where to focus on improving engagement and we want to hear from you again.   Question 2: Have you read a public engagement report or summary before? Question of the Week 1 Results We received over 125 responses to our first summer question of the week: Have you noticed any changes with regards to public involvement in City projects in the past several years? Thank you for taking the time to respond.   Over 60% (80 of 127) of you have noticed changes in public involvement in City projects in the past several years. Of those who noticed changes, 75% said they were positive or very positive and 9% said they were negative or very negative. In addition to the changes that have been noticed, we also received suggestions for improvements and questions we would like to address: Quote Response Would like more info in French The Office of Public Engagement works with French Language Services to ensure all projects that are city-wide or in the Riel District include French information. Visit winnipeg.ca/publicengagement for a full listing of projects. Those with French content include a link to the French webpage. Would like to see user friendly and centralized access for participating. Having a profile that people can log into would help avoid bots or other bad actors from manipulating the process. Although there is no log in process, there is a centralized webpage with all engagement projects and information available: winnipeg.ca/publicengagement By "Public involvement" do you mean folks like me at public displays/meetings? I rarely have ever attended an information or planning meeting. Public involvement could be attending a meeting or it could be participating in online engagement. We provide multiple options to engage on each project to recognize the different ways the public may want to provide input. Very disappointed in Route 90 public consultation. It is baffling why the project's so-called 'Public Advisory Committee' has deliberately excluded area residents who are directly affected. The Route 90 Improvements Study Project Advisory Committee members have been selected to represent key perspectives and interests and include community members, business groups, area schools, accessibility advocates, active transportation advocates, and transport organizations. Community members from the Carpathia Housing Co-op, Haven II Senior Citizens Residence and Kensaton Community Network are included on the Project Advisory Committee. Directly affected residents were involved at in-person meetings and pop-up events as well as online through two surveys. Additional engagement opportunities for directly affected residents will be provided during the next phase of public engagement in winter 2018/19. What happened to the Wilkes study? The audit of the William R. Clement Parkway / Sterling Lyon Parkway Extension Project is available here: http://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/DMIS/ViewDoc.asp?DocId=17180&SectionId=504500&InitUrl= It is still the squeaky wheel that gets the grease and I don't believe we are reaching our most vulnerable citizens who need a voice.  We need to do a better job of reaching out to them. We want to improve outreach to those who have been traditionally underrepresented. We plan to reach out to groups who may have input so we can develop a plan to do this better.   Suggestion would be to post on Facebook and Twitter and have a page where people can comment on posts. Thank you for the suggestion! We are looking into ways to include social media polls and feedback collection as part of engagement processes. I see the opportunity for public engagement but am not aware of the statistics for actual public input or have I noticed publication of actual results of public input. Perhaps that information is available, but I have missed it somehow. Therefore, if that is an representation of the average public citizen, how can the results be made more readily apparent? We are working on consistency with reporting to ensure numbers of those engaged, feedback, and responses to feedback are publicly posted. In the "Engagement Updates" section of this newsletter, we post public engagement reports. In addition, projects often have a mechanism to sign up for project-specific updates and email notification should be provided after engagement is complete to provide a link to a summary or 'what we heard' document.   Currently, the City is reviewing OurWinnipeg, the City's 25 year plan. If you are interested in City priorities, this is a great time to get involved! Maybe more effort needs to be put out there to let people know they can use that as a form of engagement. I think many of my colleagues are unaware of that fact and I think email is a great medium for many Winnipeggers. Great idea! We plan to promote this newsletter and other ways to get involved on an ongoing basis.  There is just too much engagement happening now - it's become overwhelming for people and then they stop participating.  Not everything needs to go to public engagement.  The City has a number of projects happening at any given time and we want to be aware of participant exhaustion. The Office of Public Engagement in the Customer Services and Communications Department is developing a policy for public engagement for Council approval to better define when we should be engaging the public. I haven't really paid attention because it seems to be that government at all levels will do whatever is on their agenda without really considering what the public wants. I think surveys like this and public forums are to make the public feel involved but in reality it doesn't really matter.   There is more public input but the outcome does not reflect the public input. The city had already made a decision on the outcome even before the public input. We are working on consistency with reporting to ensure feedback and how feedback was considered is included. Showing how input influenced a project or decision is important to improving trust and we want to improve in this area. I am happy with the emails sent out wanting involvement but have not really seen it our input helps or not. Specifically raising the speed limit on Pembina south of the St. Norbert bridge from 60 to 70. Public input on Pembina Highway speed review south of the La Salle River Bridge was considered by Standing Policy Committee on Infrastructure Renewal and Public Works on January 30, 2018. For more information on this and another speed review in the area, please visit: winnipeg.ca/Pembinaspeedlimit Ongoing Opportunities for Engagement Route 90 Improvements Study phase 2 engagement Phase two of public engagement provides Winnipeggers with an opportunity to share input on key areas for the preliminary design, including: active transportation, traffic changes, transit, local improvements and access, accessibility and other design elements. Winnipeggers are invited to participate in a second online survey, available from June 13 to July 30, 2018.    For more information, please visit: winnipeg.ca/route90. Engagement Updates Windsor Park Agate and Durham Parks Update A summary analysis of the public engagement results and explanation of how they were worked into the final project design are now available through the public engagement report.   The City broke ground on improvements at both Durham Park and Agate Park on July 12. Improvements include new play structures built at each location.   For more information, please visit winnipeg.ca/WindsorParkParks. East Fort Garry Walk Bike Project Update A full report, school travel plans, and public engagement report outlining the results of the public engagement process are not available on the project webpage under the documents tab.  For more information, please visit winnipeg.ca/walkbikeprojects.  This newsletter is sent out every other Thursday. We strive to promote events at least two weeks ahead through other means such as newspaper ads, social media, and direct mail. Connect with us Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/CityofWinnipeg Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/CityofWinnipeg Share this mailing with your social network by clicking on the appropriate link:     Related Office of Public Engagement OurWinnipeg winnipeg.ca Unsubscribe If you do not want to receive these emails anymore, unsubscribe. Please do not reply to this email. 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