Talking with Canadians - related material

July 19, 2000

Talking with Canadians:
Citizen Engagement and the Social Union

This 42-page paper examines the Canadian experience with citizen engagement, and applies this experience to the renewal of Canada's social union. It builds upon the work of other advisory and research bodies to provide both a resource and a focus for discussion, useful to citizens in and out of public or political service.

The social union includes the values, practices and relationships among governments and between governments and citizens concerning Canadians' social and economic well-being. Political leaders, government officials, advocacy groups and others share a commitment to the meaningful engagement of citizens in the current reconsideration of the social union.

In this study, citizen engagement is taken to have the following features:

1. It involves the participation of citizens as individuals, as well as groups.

2. It may be initiated by government, intermediary institutions or citizens themselves.

3. It includes expression and exchange of views, group and individual deliberation, reflection and learning.

4. Sponsors have an obligation to provide adequate information in advance; participants have an obligation to inform themselves adequately.

5. The process is open, inclusive, fair and respectful, and most commonly, facilitated.

6. The process is sufficiently long to permit deliberation to a satisfactory end; it will rarely comprise a single isolated event.

7. The process is accountable: feedback about decisions and the reasons for decisions must be provided to the participants.

Citizens already have many opportunities for political participation, but a number of forces have converged to suggest that more concerted efforts to engage citizens are required. There are signs of declining confidence in the traditional paths of political influence. Canadian society is increasingly diverse, an advantage that creates the need for measures to ensure that no group is systematically excluded. On some issues, there is a problem of representation, a poor fit between the territorially-based traditional political institutions and the non-territorial (issues or rights-based) ways in which citizens organize themselves for political action. Changes in the orientation of the public service to citizens, and new technologies, have created new opportunities.

A review of the Canadian experience with citizen engagement reveals a rich repertoire of at least 15 well-developed tools, ranging from innovative royal commissions to study circles and focus groups, search conferences and polling. These tools are assessed in Talking with Canadians by reviewing important instances in which each has been used. Then, in the final two section of the report, the lessons from this review are applied to the current opportunity to involve citizens fully in deliberations about the social union.

The authors conclude that the shift from traditional consultation – usually a snapshot of public opinion captured at a particular moment in time – to genuinely deliberative and interactive citizen engagement will require fundamental change on the part of governments. Governments cannot decide unilaterally when to consult, on what, with whom, and by what means. Ultimately, citizen engagement involves a greater sharing of power over the process of policymaking.

Six key lessons are:

1. Governments must make a serious commitment to the process of citizen engagement. This includes not making decisions until the conclusion of the process, and taking discussions with citizens thoroughly into account.

2. Good information and the capacity to use the information is essential. Citizen participants must have the opportunity to learn – as well as vent – during the deliberative process.

3. The method of citizen engagement should be tailored to the goal and the phase of policymaking in question. It is not necessary, and sometimes not desirable, for the process to focus only on general and "front-end" tasks, such as values clarification. Citizen participants can also make hard choices and assess outcomes if appropriate means are made available.

4. Experience to date demonstrates that Canadians are able to initiate and complete their own processes of engagement, without direct involvement of governments.

5. Some distinctive regional processes have evolved that have created useful traditions and important expectations of knowledge and influence.

6. Citizen engagement processes should be sufficiently flexible to evolve and be responsive to new issues, concerns or constituencies that arise in the process.

There is considerable potential for effective citizen engagement in shaping the social union, especially if:

• governments make explicit political and economic commitments to engagement;

• more than one government is involved;

• there is a "watch dog" – an overseeing body to hold processes of citizen engagement accountable.

The authors propose the creation of a Panel of Citizens that would have a watch dog role.

A final challenge is that Quebec remains outside the social union negotiations. Given this circumstance, a major contribution of citizen engagement to the social union might include the establishment of a mechanism for citizens from different provincial and territorial jurisdictions to attend the deliberative processes underway in other locations. This would advance their education, understanding and inspiration.

Frances Abele and Susan Phillips are members of the faculty of the School of Public Administration and affiliates of the Centre for Policy and Program Assessment at the School of Public Administration, Carleton University, Ottawa. Katherine Graham is Associate Dean, Faculty of Public Affairs and Management, Carleton University. Alex Ker is a research consultant with the Centre for Policy and Program Assessment. Antonia Maioni is a member of the faculty of the Department of Political Science at McGill University, Montreal. This research project was coordinated by Susan Carter, associate director of the Canadian Council on Social Development. It was made possible with the financial support of Human Resources Development Canada and the Ontario Ministry for Intergovernmental Affairs.

Talking with Canadians - Related Material

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