Evaluating the Conceptions of Public Participation in Environmental Assessments in Alberta: How Proponents and Regulators Understand the Practice
Abstract
The use and encouragement of public participation in policy and decision-making, and in environmental and risk assessment, has increased considerably over the past couple of decades. However, there is a lack of consistency in the justification of public participation exercises to stakeholders and sponsors. This research explores the range of variations that exist in the understanding and implementation of public participation in environmental legislation in Alberta, and how those variations affect the evaluation of success. Proponents and regulators were surveyed and interviewed to examine their understanding and perceptions when dealing with public participation under two dimensions – intentionality and geographic framing. It was found that the success of public participation is constructed from both, but the understanding of how each dimension can guide the results is not fully grasped. Public participation is in danger of becoming a tokenistic practice if the tensions arising between these two dimensions are not addressed. The language and practice that surrounds public participation in environmental assessment needs to be redefined before lack of trust and public confidence become further barriers to development.
Description
Keywords
Geography
Citation
Higuerey, M. B. (2017). Evaluating the Conceptions of Public Participation in Environmental Assessments in Alberta: How Proponents and Regulators Understand the Practice (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25971