Dear Brentwoodians,
Happy New Year!
The Brentwood Community Association together with The Bugle and its contributors wish all our readers a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2026. I am looking forward to another year of enjoying all the great people and places in our community!
Real Consultation
We are very happy to have Melanie Swailes back reporting on Development and Transportation issues. This month she summarizes the viewpoints she heard from our community opposing the City’s blanket rezoning law, which is now up for repeal or alteration by the new mayor and council. This is important, because the concerns she has heard focus on the size and scale of new developments, the lack of green space and trees, and the impact on neighbouring homes and streetscapes.
Unfortunately, these concerns are often mischaracterised as being about people when they are really about buildings and spaces. I have heard supporters of rezoning describe opponents as not wanting lower-income families, renters, or new Canadians moving into their neighbourhoods, which in addition to being untrue and unfair, betrays an arrogant attitude towards the public.
Community engagement exists on a spectrum that ranges from informing affected people about what is happening, through various levels of consultation, to empowering stakeholders to make decisions on issues that affect them (see graph). As a rule, the more far-reaching a change, the more engagement and empowerment is needed; while simply informing a community about, for instance, the spring street-cleaning schedule is appropriate, decisions that affect the enjoyment and value of people’s homes on a broad scale need more engagement.
For people who are accustomed to making decisions, such as politicians and business leaders, it can be very difficult to let go of that power and engage in true community empowerment. It requires a willingness to be sent back to the drawing board to come up with a whole new plan, or even to abandon your proposal if the community’s answer is “no”.
It was clear that the last city council was not interested in truly listening to the voices of Calgary’s communities, and in many cases the election results affected people’s disappointment with that. Let’s hope that the new council does a better job of listening.
Image source – International Association for Public Participation, 2014
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