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In general I seem to have managed to locate a fair amount of information that the City and others have made available about the bridge, but i know there is information out there that has not been made public, or at least I have not been able to find it.
One aspect I have not been able to find out much about is the Citizen Advisory Committee the City created for the project. I have no idea how often they are meeting and what they are talking about at those meetings. The City project website has almost no details on it at all. If you drill down through some of the pages, you eventually find some of the background detailed work.
What I have still do not know or have not seen are the following:
- What are the terms of the contract with the MMM Group Limited? Are they financially on the hook if the project were to go over budget?
- After the stimulus funding was no longer available, why was no timeline made public?
- Did the City make any requests of the Province for money?
- The design for the replacement, has it been fully designed? Are the designs ready for construction? All I have seen are nice looking pictures and no engineering drawings.
- Who will decide on the company to build the bridge? What process will be used to find the company to build the bridge?
- What methodology was used to come up with the price tag for the project?
1 comment:
The CAC process really worries me. Take the CAC appointments to the OCP for example.
Here's a bit from a city PDF "CITIZEN ADVISORY COMMITTEE OFFICIAL COMMUNITY PLAN/NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING PROGRAM PROJECT"
QUOTE
10. COMMUNICATIONS
The Committee is expected to communicate as a team, to maintain the integrity of the process and project timelines. The City’s Director of Corporate Communications will manage all external communication regarding project progress, key milestones, and major recommendations made by the Committee and may, from time-to-time, request the Committee and/or individual members to provide comments and/or interviews with the media.
11. INFORMATION DISSEMINATION AND CONFIDENTIALITY
The public has a right to be informed of Committee business. The Chair will ensure the timely posting of the Committee agenda and minutes on the project webpage on www.victoria.ca . Committee members must refer all questions from media or other parties to the Chair and the Director of Corporate Communications, and hold in confidence matters discussed at committee meetings not released by the City.
UNQUOTE
Not only are the CACs appointed (basically in camera by the mayor, without input from voters), but they're also effectively muzzled (in the name of team-work) so that they cannot release information to the public unless approved by city staff.
In my mind, the CAC functions as another level of "gatekeepers," not as conduits of citizen input.
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