MINTO – The municipality is launching a new community engagement tool.
Town council, at its Dec. 18 meeting, received a report from business and economic manager Belinda Wick-Graham regarding the new Bang the Table – Engage Minto initiative.
Wick-Graham explained the Minto economic development and planning committee (EDPC) heard from Dan Keane of Bang the Table in May about the company’s online community engagement platform.
“This platform provides municipalities with an opportunity to engage their citizens by listening, informing, understanding and building community,” Wick-Graham stated in her report.
She explained Bang the Table provides a variety of listening engagement tools for municipalities to use to gain feedback on projects and initiatives being considered by council and staff.
The online platform also:
– gives the municipality the opportunity to inform residents about the status of projects and initiatives or to share information and stories;
– gives staff insight into the public’s opinions, views and feelings about the projects being pursued; and
– allows staff to regularly communicate with the public in an open forum through polls, question and answer sessions, surveys, discussion boards and other options.
Wick-Graham indicated the EDPC felt the software would be a valuable tool for the municipality to use and asked staff to research further.
Recreation services manager Matt Lubbers and treasurer Gordon Duff indicated the tool could assist them in areas such as asset management, budgeting and strategic planning.
After further research and conversations with Bang the Table and other local municipalities using the platform, staff decided to move forward with the Bang the Table software in late November.
Wick-Graham notes the company offered free service for the month of December, which allowed staff to be trained on the platform, as well as to prepare branding and get the site ready for a mid-December launch.
“This platform can be used in concert with traditional public meetings and open houses,” the report points out.
“Depending on the timing and nature of the subject, these gatherings are typically not well attended. Online engagement is a convenient and additional way to hear a larger demographic of our residents.”
“Basically it’s a way for us to engage the community in initiatives we are working on,” Wick-Graham told council. “It’s basically taking a public meeting on line.”
However, she noted, “This does not take away from your public in-person meetings. We will still continue to do those. This just allows us another opportunity to get feedback from the community.”
People will need to register to use the system. While users can have a “screen name,” Wick-Graham explained, “we get their real name, first and last, which community they’re from and their ages, so then we can have some demographics.”
Wick-Graham said the forum will be moderated by Bang the Table.
“There is a policy and people who are not abiding by the policy will be removed and they will be contacted by Bang the Table,” said Wick-Graham. “So that kind of takes it out of our hands so people can’t say we’re removing things personally.”
The annual subscription cost for Bang the Table is $7,500 plus HST. Wick-Graham stated the funds have been budgeted for 2019 and the project will begin Jan. 1. This cost will be shared between the economic development, recreation and administration departments.
“We think this is a good investment and more and more communities in our areas are jumping on this platform,” Wick-Graham stated.
Council received the report as information.
The Engage Minto site can be found at www.engageminto.ca.
Engagement on cannabis
At the meeting, Wick-Graham announced the first engagement project would focus on the issue of cannabis retail stores in Minto.
Council has until Jan. 22 to decide whether the municipality will allow retail cannabis outlets in the community.
“The goal with this project is to help educate and inform our residents about cannabis retail stores, as well as to provide them an opportunity to have their voice heard as part of our engagement process, which will help council make an informed decision,” the report states.
Staff shout-out section
When engageminto.ca launched on Dec. 19, it contained a survey on the cannabis issue.
The site also contained a “staff shout-out” section, allowing people to point out positive actions by town staff, and a section to gather input on a street party planned in Clifford in June.
Wick-Graham explained that because the Clifford main street construction project ended so late in the year, a full-scale party is being deferred to next summer.
