Public Input Policy

Alberta’s Municipal Government Act now requires all Alberta municipalities to adopt “public participation policies” that outline their approaches for engaging with stakeholders.

A public input policy would be beneficial to establish expectations residents would have about opportunities to have input on decisions that affect them. A core value advocated by the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) holds that those who are affected by a decision have a right to be involved in the decision-making process. A policy and a supporting procedures would identify Council’s expectations and role, and clarify the Town’s responsibility to determine if a public engagement process is beneficial, and what a process would look like to best fit the needs for a specific issue, policy or activity of the Town.

A public input policy will recognize the value of public input in making better Town decisions, foster opportunities for meaningful public involvement in the Banff community, and guide administration in the processes and considerations for effective public engagement.

(Note on terminology: for the purposes of this topic, these terms are considered interchangeable: public participation, engagement, involvement, consultation, opinion research, and public input. The key is that the process involves members of the public and is related to a decision of Town Council or members of Administration.)

In developing a public input policy, the Alberta Municipalities organizations states that:

“Effective public engagement can make in improving the quality of municipal decision-making. However, the development of public participation policy must be balanced with the understanding that councils are elected to make decisions that set the direction for the municipality. While taking into account all of the information available to them, including the input of the public, councils must ultimately bear the burden of making significant and often difficult choices. Furthermore, to allow for timely and efficient governance, public participation policies must be proportional to the scope of the decision to be made.”

Have your say on the Public Input Policy

The Town is organizing several activities to compile input on a Public Input Policy in a phased approach:

• Phase 1– What should public input look like? Principles, themes, barriers
  • Public Input:
    • Resident Panel – November 2, 16, January 2023
    • Survey – November 4 - 25
    • Public Drop-in Session – November 22, 3:30-6:30 p.m., Town Hall, Council Chamber
      • Join us for a drop-in session about the new Public Input Policy. Tell us how you want to be consulted on future municipal decisions in the Town of Banff. This drop-in session is open to everyone. Your input will join the feedback of the Resident Panel, which has been convened to provide an in-depth review of public input opportunities. All input at this meeting will be compiled and reviewed when developing the policy.
    • Special outreach to hard-to-reach people
  • 2 x Council workshops
  • Town staff workshops
• Phase 2– What do you think of the draft policy?
  • Public Input
    • Survey
    • Resident Panel & Public session
    • Special outreach
    • Town staff review
  • Council Policy Review
• Phase 3– Continuous Improvement
  • Create procedures, framework and tools
  • Review of tools (methods of engagement)
  • Review of framework (ways to assess a project to determine scope and methods of engagement)

Resident Panel

We are seeking applications for people to join a Resident Panel who will dig deeper into this topic and provide advice for the new policy. We need up to 50 Banffites with different backgrounds and experiences to provide advice over two pizza-lunch meetings on these dates:

• Wednesday, November 2 at noon to 2 p.m. in Town Hall
• Wednesday, November 16 at noon to 2 p.m. in Town Hall

The Resident Panel will discuss what topics should involve public input in Town decisions, commitments of the Town, what are good and bad processes, and ways to remove barriers for people in the community.

At least one follow up meeting will be held in December or January, based on the availability of Panel Members. We are asking for applications with demographic information to help make sure the panel has diverse representation. Applications closed on October 29.