City administration is committed to finalizing a date for the East Acreages roundtable event, despite setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The purpose of the round table was to examine the next steps, explore all the information in detail, and to consider potential options,” said the Director of Community Growth and Infrastructure, John Popoff.
“The meeting would require informal conversations, and group interactions to build a consensus on the key issues,” he said.
During the Feb. 11 Committee of the Whole meeting three options for development on East Acreages were presented to city council, including engineering, planning and legal, and the implications of each option.
Following the presentation, city council passed a motion directing administration to coordinate a roundtable with council, East Acreages residents, and the administrative team.
“The purpose of the roundtable was to have all of us in one room, council, residents, and the administrative team to openly and actively discuss how that information could be used to craft the next steps and explore the details,” Popoff said.
“The feedback would be intended to assist council in making a decision on moving forward,” he said.
Since the Feb. 11 Committee of the Whole meeting, the administrative team has been working on a plan to create an effective roundtable.
Originally, the roundtable event was going to be approximately three hours long, with facilitated group discussions prompted by a presentation, and the information would be provided by using boards, maps, PowerPoint, and documents.
As administration anticipated 50 to 100 residents were going to attend the roundtable, the event needed to be cancelled because of the restrictions on large gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our intention then was to find a time later in the second quarter to hold the event,” Popoff said.
“We looked at the potential in a virtual meeting, and it doesn’t lend itself very well to this format, and we don’t think it’s appropriate,” he said.
Adding, “We need to prepare maps, display boards, and other visuals and display them in a way that would be easy for everyone to navigate and interpret.”
Currently, the administrative team is waiting for the restrictions on large gatherings to be lifted before finalizing a date for the roundtable.
“These folks have been waiting for so long. Of all the things that we’ve had to put on hold, I hate to see it being this one,” said City Councillor Yvette Kind.
“A group get together and a dinner, I don’t think is a priority to them. They are looking for some answers after years of waiting,” she said.
The purpose of the roundtable event was for administration to facilitate dialogue between council and the public.
“We wanted to do it in a roundtable because then you can engage in a back and forth discussion to understand the significance of the project,” said Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Bernie Morton.
“There is no easy fix to this, this is a very expensive proposition. It’s unfortunate that this type of information wasn’t provided to the public in advance of the decision to proceed with the annexation,” he said.
Adding, “It’s about straight dialogue with the public, and unfortunately at this time during COVID-19, we’re not in the position to do that properly, but that doesn’t prevent members of council in having engagements or discussions with the public about it.”
Deputy Mayor Michelle Young believes the roundtable event will be effective, as it gives residents and council an opportunity to have a casual discussion.
“The thought process was let’s put everybody in a room like we have done with other cases when there are many people involved and we need to have a casual, fluid conversation,” Young said.
“When we planned that, nobody knew that a global pandemic was about to strike. It wasn’t to make any fast decisions or present residents with anything, it was to get in a room casually sit, rehash the information and have an open dialogue with the residents,” she said.
Councillor Ritesh Narayan added, another reason council passed a resolution to have a roundtable discussion was to have a better understanding of what the East Acreages residents want.
“This was an issue before we got elected, this is still an issue,” Kind said.
“Having a get together to have open dialogue and casually sit with them isn’t why they show up at every meeting looking for answers, or call me every month looking for answers,” she said.
