I'm not saying they're completely pointless, but ...
The public consultation process for Tsawwassen's longest-running soap opera, otherwise known as the Southlands, is poised to get underway this weekend. The Century Group has a pair of public information meetings planned (this Saturday and next Tuesday, both at the South Delta Recreation Centre) before Delta hosts a gathering of its own, likely sometime next month.
In theory, these meetings are to educate the masses on what's undeniably a complex proposal for Delta's most controversial piece of real estate. And they should be a real eye opener for all those folks who've been living under a rock for the past half-dozen years or so.
For the rest of the community, however, they're merely a prelude to the official public hearings, assuming Delta council allows the project to get that far.
Ideally, these information sessions would attract Joe and Jane Average, typical Tsawwassenites that want to learn a little more about that intriguing development application for the Southlands before deciding which side of the fence they're most comfortable residing on.
Unfortunately, the Averages don't attend these types of forums, nor do they show up at public hearings or, for that matter, vote in municipal elections. They let others take care of those civic duty kinds of things.
Those who frequent public information meetings tend to be the ones who are interested enough to have already done their homework and, in many cases, have already formed an opinion. That's not to say there aren't particulars of Century's revised proposal they wouldn't learn, but let's just say they're not arriving at the recreation centre, or any other venue, as a blank canvas.
Most of those in attendance will be using information gleaned from the upcoming meetings to reaffirm their position or perhaps convince others to see the proposal in the same light.
There's nothing wrong with that, but it does bring the necessity of these sessions into question.
Yes, there's a mountain of information on a project of this magnitude so it's important it gets out there for all to see, but for the vast majority of those in attendance this will simply act as a warm up. The real action doesn't begin until the proposal reaches the public hearing stage and members of the community get an opportunity to state their case in an attempt to influence decision makers.
Until that time, we'll continue to go through the motions.
