I've talked to our public consultation team, and I just wanted to drop you a note to answer your question on how we determine stakeholders, and why all the meeting times were not really distributed widely.

Basically, we're at the very start of the large and complex study on Surrey rapid transit, and consultation with a smaller “stakeholder” group is an early and important stage of the much larger process.

First, stakeholders are basically specialized groups or individuals who are already thinking in some way about the issues involved in the study. We find them through previous consultations we've done, and we ask the municipalities to pass along contacts if they know of anyone. (And at every stakeholder meeting, we ask if there's anyone we think should be included.)

The consultation with these stakeholders is important, because we're so early in the consultation process that we have no strong material to present to the general public for discussion. We are looking for these stakeholders to narrow down key discussion points, issues, and more, so the general public will then have some meatier concepts and questions to discuss at a later stage.

The stakeholders' input is not written in stone, guaranteed to be delivered, or privileged higher than input from the greater public. It just provides direction for the discussion for the general public, and the public is free to criticize, disregard, and remold any of the concepts or issues that the stakeholder group has provided. Both opinions ultimately provide equal weight in the discussion.

We do it this way this because it's frustrating for the general public go to a feedback session where there is absolutely no direction for discussion. It's also hard to get meaningful feedback when there is no structure for a discussion.

An example that might illustrate this is the ongoing consultation on a regional bike strategy. In our early stakeholder discussion, many stakeholders came from the cycling community, as well as institutions like UBC and more. In these early discussions, the stakeholders can talk about their aims for a bike strategy and what they are concerned about. Then we will eventually be able to go out with a bike strategy to the wider public that they can discuss and offer feedback on, informed by the insight of the bike community but not ultimately decided by them.

And these discussion tend to be smaller because the stakeholder groups are a smaller group than the entire public at large. That's why the meeting times are not widely distributed—-because otherwise then the public will end up at a meeting where there is hardly any structure and few meaty concepts to discuss.

Anyway, for anyone who considers themselves a stakeholder, you are more than welcome at the consultations! Just know that the venues have limited room, as these are meant to be smaller discussions, and you must RSVP to Vincent Gonsalves at vincent.gonsalves@translink.ca to ensure you can attend.

Hope this helps!

Jhenifer

I've talked to our public consultation team, and I just wanted to drop you a note to answer your question on how we determine stakeholders, and why all the meeting times were not really distributed widely.

Basically, we're at the very start of the large and complex study on Surrey rapid transit, and consultation with a smaller “stakeholder” group is an early and important stage of the much larger process.

First, stakeholders are basically specialized groups or individuals who are already thinking in some way about the issues involved in the study. We find them through previous consultations we've done, and we ask the municipalities to pass along contacts if they know of anyone. (And at every stakeholder meeting, we ask if there's anyone we think should be included.)

The consultation with these stakeholders is important, because we're so early in the consultation process that we have no strong material to present to the general public for discussion. We are looking for these stakeholders to narrow down key discussion points, issues, and more, so the general public will then have some meatier concepts and questions to discuss at a later stage.

The stakeholders' input is not written in stone, guaranteed to be delivered, or privileged higher than input from the greater public. It just provides direction for the discussion for the general public, and the public is free to criticize, disregard, and remold any of the concepts or issues that the stakeholder group has provided. Both opinions ultimately provide equal weight in the discussion.

We do it this way this because it's frustrating for the general public go to a feedback session where there is absolutely no direction for discussion. It's also hard to get meaningful feedback when there is no structure for a discussion.

An example that might illustrate this is the ongoing consultation on a regional bike strategy. In our early stakeholder discussion, many stakeholders came from the cycling community, as well as institutions like UBC and more. In these early discussions, the stakeholders can talk about their aims for a bike strategy and what they are concerned about. Then we will eventually be able to go out with a bike strategy to the wider public that they can discuss and offer feedback on, informed by the insight of the bike community but not ultimately decided by them.

And these discussion tend to be smaller because the stakeholder groups are a smaller group than the entire public at large. That's why the meeting times are not widely distributed—-because otherwise then the public will end up at a meeting where there is hardly any structure and few meaty concepts to discuss.

Anyway, for anyone who considers themselves a stakeholder, you are more than welcome at the consultations! Just know that the venues have limited room, as these are meant to be smaller discussions, and you must RSVP to Vincent Gonsalves at vincent.gonsalves@translink.ca to ensure you can attend.

Hope this helps!

Jhenifer