As in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, public participation in planning and decision-making is established provincial policy. Most consultation in New Brunswick is project-related, but the provincial government is trying to get more participation in policy development and decision-making. A federal Member of Parliament (M.P.) is seeking public input to policy and program development through monthly "People's Forums," described below. On specific issues, there seems to be less involvement in energy and forestry but more in waste management, education and health. For example, the province requires consultation on educational issues. One observer suggests, however, that more public involvement is needed in implementation, not just in planning. While the New Brunswick government is doing more public involvement, especially in education and health, the public is footing the bill through such techniques as 900 telephone numbers, which require the caller to pay to participate. The present government has had some 85 consultations on a wide range of topics during the last six years under the rubric of "governing cooperatively." However, observers note that public involvement sometimes takes the form of "letting people know about a plan already formulated and learning how they react to it." In New Brunswick, the public sector is more in the spotlight and thus tends to do more public involvement than the private sector, which reportedly does what it has to. Civil servants are judged on how well they use public involvement and are audited regularly. Others see the private sector taking a more visible role than in the past and note that tighter budgets lead to a focus on stakeholders. Another practitioner suggests that the differences between the public and private sectors are based more on the experience and attitudes of project managers than on the sector in which they work. The provincial government uses a wide range of techniques, depending on the nature of the issue, and is also finding more creative ways to solicit public input by using personal computers and other forms of technology to bring government to the people. One observer sees less use of roundtables because of cost and time and more reliance on key informants for data; greater use of open houses and workshops is also reported. A consultant says that while public meetings, open houses and advisory committees continue to be used, a visionary M.P. is exploring the potential of the Internet and the province's new digital telephone technology. He holds a monthly all-day People's Forum, which breaks up into workshops and reports to a plenary meeting at the end of the day, and he is working on an electronic process to link constituencies across the country to discuss key issues. Other trends noted in the province include more coordination among government agencies to reduce duplication of public involvement activities and more focus on individuals rather than groups. Another practitioner notes that clients are learning from the public and show sincerity in information transfer.
The New Brunswick government recognizes that stakeholder opinions may need to carry greater weight on some issues, but, if stakeholders take a position detrimental to the greater public good, the government weighs the consequences. ADR and associated techniques are seen as an adjunct to public participation in the search for consensus, but in the end, governments must govern by taking the difficult decisions. Another practitioner doesn't see much use of ADR. The New Brunswick Departments of Environment and Transportation have public participation staff, as does one environmental consulting company; other government departments and private sector firms contract for professional help, often from communications companies which do issue management, participation and communication programs. Return to Public Participation in Canada
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