Citizens’ Assembly to play a key role in Victoria-Saanich amalgamation decision

No doubt, the amalgamation issue is what we call a “hot button.” Capital Daily has reported before on the frustrations that arise when 13 municipal governments make decisions separately on issues and policies with significant overlapping impacts. One of the greatest examples of the municipal silo effect was the fiasco around the planning, construction and maintenance of the $775M Victoria wastewater treatment facility that, after 14 years of inter-council squabbling, was finally opened in 2020 on McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt.

It’s difficult, after all, to forget Mr. Floatie.

In a move that disperses and democratizes decision-making pressures, the municipalities of Victoria and Saanich announced, this week, the appointment of MASS LBP to lead their Citizens’ Assembly on Municipal Amalgamation. MASS LBP works with public-sector, not-for-profit, and business clients to better involve the public, stakeholders, or members in difficult decisions, in planning or policy-making processes.

The first global citizen assembly was hosted in BC 25 years ago. Peter MacLeod, founder and principal at MASS LBP explained to Capital Daily that citizens’ assemblies (CAs) have an excellent track record of influencing major policy decisions around the world. Citizens’ assemblies are quite common contributors to policy reform in Europe. In Ireland, the same sex marriage was legalized by a citizens’ assembly and referendum, and in Belgium, citizens’ assemblies inform policy making across diverse fields from education to health care.

In BC, it’s  old hat when it comes to using CAs. In 2004, the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform, consisting of 161 members randomly selected from each of BC's 79 electoral districts, recommended replacing the province’s first-past-the-post system with a single transfer vote. When it went to referendum, the CA’s recommendation failed to get the required majority vote of 60% to pass.

In 2018, Cowichan and Duncan voted down their CA’s recommendation to amalgamate.  In a more positive outcome, the province used a Services Card User Panel, an entity similar to a citizen’s assembly, to inform the privacy policies that currently govern the BC Services Card.

As a concept, the engagement of citizens assemblies is hardly new to residents of Victoria or Saanich. In 2018 voters in both cities supported exploring the idea of amalgamation through an assembly by a margin of 57% and 67%, respectively. Then the pandemic  hit and the project was temporarily put on hold.

In the ensuing years, some people have challenged the role of a citizens’ assembly and have questioned why any part of such an important and complex decision such as amalgamation would defer to the opinions of a group of unelected citizens who do not possess any particular expertise on the subject.

One online resource contains a number of emails to Saanich city council from people expressing their concern about the transparency of the CA process. One of those emails, addressed to a Saanich city councillor, questions whether CA recommendations should be binding, and yet another, whether they should be used at all to answer “yes” or “no” questions, such as the current one of amalgamation.

To detractors and skeptics, the words of MASS LBP’s MacLeod sound reassuring: “We want to build on this legacy and we take very seriously our responsibility to ensure the Victoria-Saanich Assembly meets a high standard for transparency and inclusion.”

The CA for this project will comprise 27 people from larger Saanich and 21 from Victoria. They will be chosen by lottery and will reflect a proportionate number of Indigenous residents, various age cohorts, and housing circumstances (urban and rural, renters and owners). Together, they will study the issue and deliberate before offering their recommendations to policy makers and legislators.

Proponents of assemblies, such as MacLeod, will argue that, as a public resource, they work precisely because their participants aren’t elected officials or experts. But that’s not to say assemblies make decisions that are ill-informed.

He confirmed that his organization will invite guest speakers—diverse sector and policy experts—to speak at assembly meetings. Speakers are chosen specifically, he said “so that the participants in citizens’ assemblies receive good information and the opportunity to engage with a range of critical perspectives.” He declined to speculate, at this early stage of the amalgamation project’s design process, who those guest speakers will be.

The announcement indicates that MASS LBP will launch a website early next month that will provide information, for CA newbies, advocates, and skeptics alike, about the assembly and what people can expect throughout the process.