City hall should consult residents on how to consult

About a year ago, the City of Saskatoon posted results from a poll it commissioned that showed only half of residents surveyed think the city’s consultation with residents is sufficient.

In July, city council passed a new policy on public engagement designed to address perceptions of its ineffectiveness and banish the suspicion that consultation amounted to window dressing for decisions already made.

So, problem solved?

Actually, you don’t need to commission a poll to determine that city hall continues to struggle with how to engage with residents.

Last month’s council meetings showed a persistent lack of faith in city hall’s approach to gathering input from residents.

The city’s efforts to produce new rules for short-term rental accommodations, given the rise of online platforms like Airbnb, stands out as particularly egregious for its lack of credible consultation.

It’s difficult to conjure up sympathy for city hall politicians or administrators since heavily regulated bed and breakfast owners first asked for updated rules in July 2015.

Since then, city hall has conducted two online surveys and held two open houses. The summary of the city’s engagement efforts on this file is 16 pages long. Given all this effort and time, it’s truly astounding that engagement on this issue is taking a beating. There’s a difference, of course, between questioning consultation efforts and disliking the results.

Coming up with regulations that please both those who have traditionally offered shortterm rentals and those who list their properties on online platforms has posed problems everywhere. But local renters blasted city hall’s consultation on the issue as inadequate and dishonest.

The consultation took place before the cost of applying for a discretionary use application was more than doubled to $2,500. So, unsurprisingly, those who might have to pay this cost just for a shot at legally renting a property feel engagement on this issue lacked credibility.

Council opted to consider options other than the discretionary approval process, which will take another couple of months. Repairing damage done to the city’s reputation on engagement will likely take longer.

Then there’s a plan, which few have ever heard of, to alter the way motorists on the west side of Saskatoon access Circle Drive.

The city’s consultant held two open houses — one in June 2019 and one in January 2020 — to inform residents of the plans and seek input.

Coun. Ann Iwanchuk wants a third open house because she thinks the first two were poorly attended. Plus, the overall plan could be changed because of opposition expressed at the January event.

Just 25 people attended the first open house. Council supported Iwanchuk’s idea, but questions arose about how well the open houses were advertised.

This project could change the way people from multiple neighbourhoods gain access to one of the city’s main thoroughfares. Specifically, it could mean restricting access to Circle Drive at Laurier Drive and Clancy Drive.

If you live on the west side and are just reading about this now, that signals a clear failure of the city’s engagement efforts.

These two examples are hardly anomalies, either. They help establish an ongoing trend.

City hall consulted 13 groups on updating its cycling bylaw, but then opted to introduce a one-metre buffer between cyclists and pedestrians without talking to anyone. The pedestrian advocacy group Walking Saskatoon criticized the idea as unworkable.

City hall’s handling of the closure of Ninth Street in the Nutana neighbourhood shows a consistent inability to connect effectively to measure residents’ opinions.

In response to the temporary closure of Ninth, city hall proposed a new consultation policy in 2018 that would include a community ballot on such traffic-calming measures.

The January decision to permanently barricade Ninth came without any formal surveys of residents. City hall administration hauled out the excuse that since the issue arose before the new policy, no survey was needed.

It seems obvious that it’s time to consult residents themselves on how to consult, since city hall on its own is failing so badly.