A recent social media post about bridge location has some community members wondering about the process surrounding public consultation.

Jim Uffelmann, says although he was repeatedly reassured that the bridge site over the river would be closer to the island, Uffelmann believes the area the bridge is starting at will have a huge impact on usable dog park space as well as river access.

The bigger concern for Uffelmann is not so much surrounding location of bridge but the lack of consultation he feels done by town officials.

Uffelmann says it seems the town at times has it's own agenda; although bridge location was discussed in an open house it was by no means publicly consulted.

"It was basically here is what we are doing, it wasn't what are your ideas and let us know what we should do, but they did quite a bit of that with the developers apparently."

Mayor Brooker says at times public consultation is not an option. 

"Not every single thing we do in the Town of Cochrane goes out to public consultation and this is one of those. The work involved in determining the road alignment, the bridge location, the bridge design, there is so many complicated components to this that it is much more technical in nature and it is not something we have ever gone to the public for consultation on, this was entirely done based on studies of river hydrology, designs of bridges, length of crossings, location of bridges in the course of a river, this was all very technical in nature and one of the ones 100% determined by consultants work through administration."

When it comes to public consultation, could we do things better? 

Uffelmann says when it comes to notifying the public perhaps reaching out through social media community pages already in existence and direct email would be a good place to start. The other thing is making sure questions are followed up on quickly and efficiently.

"Even if I got a response it might be four months later, it needs to be two way because if it is just them shovelling information at us and not listening, people are going to stop listening to them too."

Mayor Brooker feels they have done the best they can, and understands not everyone will share the same sentiment.

"Honestly, people tend to get involved when they are personally affected. I have been here for 10 years now, if it is not something that pertains to them or a passion of theirs, it is just not of interest, and people don't come out."

Councillor Mary Lou Eckmeier says a big issue with consultation comes down to understanding. Eckmeier believes the public as taxpayers need to understand where and when their input will be heard, versus when decisions need to be made by professionals in a certain field. 

"I believe we do need to take consultation to the people and not expect the people to come to us as council. Truth, full explanations, full disclosure are necessary."

The question remains is there more that can be done?

 

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