No problems with consultation process for pedestrian and cycling plan: review

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This article was published 19/06/2015 (3734 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City officials have endorsed the public consultation process that was used to develop proposed pedestrian and cycling strategies.

Staff from the newly created office of public engagement said public consultation for the proposed 20-year plan had been adequate and complied with industry best practices.

The plan, which proposes a series of cycling and pedestrian routes to be established across Winnipeg over a 20-year period, was set to be presented to council this month for approval.

But it was held up at executive policy committee in mid-May after a complaint from Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt and Mayor Brian Bowman, who said large segments of the business community had privately told them they hadn’t been consulted and were concerned their businesses would be negatively impacted.

Despite widespread support from a variety of organizations and no formal objections from the business community, the office of public engagement was asked to review its public consultation process.

In a report to the public works committee, the office of public engagement, established this year by Mayor Brian Bowman, concluded that more than 3,000 Winnipeg residents had been consulted during the plan’s development in an acceptable manner.

The report will be presented to the public works committee Tuesday.

Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of the public works committee overseeing the pedestrian and cycling strategy, said she was pleased no fault had been found with the consultation process.

Lukes (St. Norbert) said the office of public engagement also recommends that before sections of the plan are implemented, further public consultations be conducted within the affected neighbourhoods according to methods prescribed by the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2).

“I think that’s an excellent approach and that’s what I promised would happen,” Lukes said. “The city already has 30 employees who are IAP2 certified.”

Lukes said that while the 20-year pedestrian and cycling strategy is a comprehensive outlook of how Winnipeg will be transformed with new pathways, she said that the idea was always for council to annually approve which segments of the plan were to be implemented and for thorough community consultations to take place before the work is carried out.

The 356-page document recommends a dense network of protected bicycle lanes be focused within the downtown core. This year, if approved by council, the city will allot $205,000 for the development of a functional design for the first phase of a downtown protected bike-lane network at Fort Street and/or Garry Street.

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Wyatt said the strategy had detailed routes for pedestrian and cycling paths, adding he’s not convinced they will be changed through a consultation process.

“People haven’t a clue about where these paths are going and we will be spending public money to build them,” Wyatt said. “That’s not transparency and openness.”

Wyatt said the $300-million proposed to build a new pathway network would be better spend repairing city streets.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca