Wednesday, July 07, 2010

The Bridge

The City is now talking about doing the sort of detailed public engagement that they should have done in the first place.  Dean Fortin has a piece in the TC today explaining how the City will proceed.

There are open houses coming up:
Saturday July 10th 10am to 2pm Wednesday July 21st 6pm to 8pm

Though details of where, I assume at City Hall.

There is also a guided tour being offered in Saturday July 17th, though space is limited and you need to call 250-361-0288 to get a spot.   No mention of what time of day, but I can not go in any case as I have offered to volunteer at Taste.  I hope the have a few more tours, ideally I would love with Ross Crockford talking about the unknown history of the bridge.

I have to commend the mayor in getting the council to approach community engagement and input in a meaningful manner this time around.   The last time it all felt like all the decisions were made and the public should just accept what was coming down the pipe.

What will the public reaction be?  I have no idea.

My issue remains the same since the start - what will the final cost be and what certainty do we have this will not be exceeded?

1 comment:

Mat said...

One should remember council itself was, and still is, divided, on the options for the bridge. The public engagement should allow for direct individual and group input on rail - yet that is not to be discussed.

More importantly, and just like the process last Sept., there is no 'none of the above'. This continues to be the largest capital spend in Victoria's history, and the Ipsos Reid survey clearly illustrated that voters and taxpayers view other issues as more important. No matter what their preference for the bridge - will they see borrowing %50 million+ as worthwhile?