The Public Debates…

Here’s what’s being said in some other public forums:

In Calgary, about Plan It:

 

Hopefully the people of Calgary will engage in the debate and tell their elected representatives what they want. Developers have not done a good job in Calgary, it's time the people took the city back and expressed what they wanted…not what real estate developers give them. [comment: ginny June 25, 2009 - 6:02 PM ]

 

Haven't engaged enough Calgarians, need citizen task force, not just industry and city [Maxim #yycCC Tweet June 25, 2009]

 

For too long, we've let groups with vested interests-- be they developers, business groups, or single-issue community organizations-- act as though they are the only ones who matter.   They can pay people to attend council and committees, they can make donations, they can make meetings and lobby.   But the real stakeholder is the citizen, and council would do well to remember that.   [“People do care about their city, after all”, by Naheed Nenshi, for The Calgary Herald July 2, 2009]

 

Nationally, about health care:

Imagine if the balance of power within Canada's health care system swung from provider to the patient. Th[is] report expresses hope that, with comparative data in hand, Canadians will start demanding more of their health scheme.   [Jan 24, 2008 What a Concept: The Patient as a Health Care Consumer, http://www.fcpp.org/main/publication_detail.php?PubID=2029]

 

Voters for Taxis is about promoting the public debate about the kind and level of taxi service Calgarians not only believe they should have, but actively participate in getting it.

It’s about raising the profile of the taxi industry in the minds of Calgarians and that industry’s fit with Plan It, Local and Regional Transportation Plans, and the Calgary Regional Partnership and regional taxi delivery, amongst others, so that there is an integrated transportations system seamlessly serving  a much broader and growing clientele.

It’s about giving the issues [LINK, section following] the careful, if not objective, consideration they deserve, so that citizens and customers will come away better informed rather than more confused, and as is often the case, increasingly apathetic and disinterested.

And there’s the rub. What of the citizens and customers?