By the Editor, Ottawa Citizen, June 29, 2016
The National Capital Commission was recently handed an unenviable, but incredibly important task: study and recommend the best site for the future Civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital. The NCC has very little time in which to do its work, and no guarantee that the final decision won’t be based entirely on political considerations anyway. But it will try its best. Its best, unfortunately, is still lacking in one crucial respect.
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It plans to spend the summer drafting the standards by which to judge the best site – talking to the city, the province, federal departments, the hospital, regional health experts and so on. It’ll arrange “targeted engagements” including face-to-face meetings with interested groups such as Friends of the Farm, First Nations, Heritage Ottawa, accessibility advocates and community groups. In September and October, it’ll hold its public consultations.
All good. Where this falls down, in our opinion, is on how to consult the general citizenry, people interested in health care who don’t already have an entrenched view.
http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/editorial-consulting-on-the-new-hospital-not-quite