Community Attitude to Citizen Participation: The North Pickering Public Participation Experiment

Abstract

The primary purposes of the study are to explain the essentials of citizen participation and see how the community has reacted to an actual example of citizen participation, the North Pickering Public Participation Program. Citizen participation emerges as a consequence of both the planners' and the people's consciousness. It means different things to different people, but few cases represent true participation. In the study, an implicit comparison is made between an officially initiated public participation process and a community-preferred one. Urbanization and suburbanization have brought about intense growth in the existing urban centres and tremendous loss of agricultural land in Southern Ontario. The choice of North Pickering as the site for a new town is claimed to be an answer to the growth objective of decentralization and deconcentration. Its planning process has proceeded with a large-scale citizen participation program. "Information and consultation" are the official strategies from which "decision-making is to be a shared one". Most people are not happy with the participation process for they have not been truly consulted and their opinions have not been considered, although official sources say the final plan for North Pickering reflects public inputs. The community prefers a process in which they are given some power over the bargaining process.It is suggested that the North Pickering Participation Process represents some degree of tokenism. The officials have the intent, but not the proper way, of involving the people. Thus frustrations arise on both sides. This probably explains why a similar process will not go with the planning of Townsend, another new town to be built in Southen1 Ontario. Though not satisfactory, citizen participation in North Pickering is a worthwhile experience. It should be a start rather than an end in itself.