Public Engagement during COVID-19

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Consultation has concluded

As we all adjust to doing business in a time of COVID-19, there are many conversations happening about how we continue to do the regular day-to-day business of cities. This includes seeking feedback from the public on policies, programs and projects. On March 17, the City postponed any planned public engagement activities based on public health recommendations around in-person meetings and physical distancing at the time.

As we listen to our provincial and federal updates, it is becoming clear that working virtually and maintaining physical distancing is going to be the new normal for a while. With that in mind, we want to consider how we continue to do our public engagement work virtually in a way that respects our public engagement principles.

There are several projects the city had planned to engage on this spring including: sidewalk snow clearing, Churchill Square and wayfinding signage.

Before we restart our public engagement efforts for projects, we want your feedback. Please take a few minutes to answer the questions below.

As we all adjust to doing business in a time of COVID-19, there are many conversations happening about how we continue to do the regular day-to-day business of cities. This includes seeking feedback from the public on policies, programs and projects. On March 17, the City postponed any planned public engagement activities based on public health recommendations around in-person meetings and physical distancing at the time.

As we listen to our provincial and federal updates, it is becoming clear that working virtually and maintaining physical distancing is going to be the new normal for a while. With that in mind, we want to consider how we continue to do our public engagement work virtually in a way that respects our public engagement principles.

There are several projects the city had planned to engage on this spring including: sidewalk snow clearing, Churchill Square and wayfinding signage.

Before we restart our public engagement efforts for projects, we want your feedback. Please take a few minutes to answer the questions below.

Consultation has concluded

  • What we Heard Document released

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    CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.

    Today the City released a What we Heard document noting that 534 people visited the project page here on engagestjohns.ca during the two-week period, 150 people actively engaged on the site and three emails were received. Interestingly, 110 registrations on the site took place during the promotion time for this project and a total of 200 new registrations have occurred since March 17.

    What we heard was:

    • 90% of respondents indicated that the City should engage on projects/initiatives not related to the current public health crisis at this time.
    • Regarding using online tools for work or personal purposes, 70% indicated they are using tools such as Zoom and Miscrosoft Teams and a comfortable with them; 16% are still learning and getting comfortable with these tools; and 14% had not used any of tools.
    • 63% are very likely to participate in city public engagement activities using engagestjohns.ca or other online tools; 24% are somewhat likely and want to participate; 12% are not sure; and 1% are not comfortable participating in online engagement.

    Based on what we heard there appears to be an appetite to move forward with public engagement work. Most people who participated said they were comfortable participating online using existing or new tools; however, while engagestjohns.ca can be a primary site for information related to the project, it cannot be the only way people participate. It will be important to ensure people can provide input through other means such as email, phone and live virtual events.