With COVID-19 restrictions keeping St. Albertans at home, public consultation on major projects and municipal issues looks a bit different amid the pandemic.
The City of St. Albert’s new Cultivate the Conversation online platform has seen about 275 residents sign up since the website launched earlier this month. The website at conversation.stalbert.ca is under a three-year pilot with software company Bang The Table.
Cindy de Bruijn, community and social development manager, said the city is hoping the website will gain more traction in the future as a tool where people can share ideas, learn about major projects and complete surveys. Some pages, like organic waste collection, saw 1,000 visitors and 73 people participate in a survey.
“Sometimes we don't need experts to tell us stuff all the time. We want to hear from people who are living it every day, and we want this to be a tool to help us do that,” de Bruijn said.
Visitors can keep up with the latest issues before council, including the city’s COVID-19 recovery efforts, organic waste collection and policing. The site is open to anyone who is interested in commenting – they can register after providing an email address, postal code, age bracket and a user name. The comments are moderated 24/7 by Bang The Table.
Within a week after a topic closes, administration will compile a report summarizing the feedback, which can be used to inform council before a vote, de Bruijn said.
People can either comment under their own name or choose to stay anonymous if they want. That’s so people feel safe typing what they honestly think without judgement, she said, though any disrespectful or abusive language will be caught by site moderators.
Mayor Cathy Heron said she’s hopeful the platform will give residents a safe space to weigh in on municipal issues. She said she will give more credence to comments with an actual name behind them, but visitors can still comment anonymously.
"Social media platforms sometimes become a bit of an echo chamber for some people, or it allows for negativity to creep in ... so I'm hoping Bang The Table will allow that safe space for people to actually say what they feel without fear of retribution," she said.
"(Public engagement) has always been important. The problem is trying to figure out how to do it. If we can add more stuff to the toolbox, then I'm always supportive of that."
