A Tale of Two Cities: Public Participation Processes in Banff & Calgary

February 16, 2008

This policy brief, by Christopher J. Bruce of the Institute for Advanced Policy Research at the University of Calgary, analyses two public involvement processes in Alberta, imagine Calgary (2006) and the Banff Bow Valley Study (1996). Bruce looks at the lessons to be learned from these two processes about how formal consensus-building processes might work and the difficulties that might be faced. The policy brief also investigates whether these processes allowed broadly representative groups of people to become directly involved in the development of public policy. Read the policy brief.