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Presente by:d THE OAKVILLE CHILDREN'S CHOIR Music Director: Sarah Morrison Associate Music Director: Janet Stachow Conductor: Jeff MacLean Accompanist: Cheryl Duvall Carol SingCaro Sin CommunityCommuni Sat., Dec. 4 7:00pm Sat., Dec. 11 3:00pm WHERE St. Andrews Catholic Church 47 Reynolds Street. Oakville, Ontario In Person: Atelier Grigorian (Oakville) By Phone: 905 337 7104 Online: www.oakvillechildrenschoir.org Or: At the door TICKETS Adult: $25 Child/Senior: $15 WHERE St. Cuthberts Anglican Church 1541 Oakhill Drive. Oakville, Ontario TICKETS General Admission: $25 Family: $50* * Includes 2 adults + 3 children or seniors Special Guest: LIANNE TAN. 0rganist / Q P F C [ 5 C V W T F C [ C O R O 5 W P F C [ R O R O 3 Thursday , N ovem ber 25, 2010 O A KVILLE BEA V ER w w w .o akvillebeaver .co m By Christina Commisso METROALND WEST MEDIA GROUP A handful of Halton residents will soon receive a golden ticket, giving them an opportunity to help shape the Regions vision, plans and politics for the next four years. Traditional methods of engaging with the public are broken, Peter MacLeod, co- founder of government advisory firm MASS LBP, told the regional administration and finance committee last week. You dont get enough people turning out to meetings and its often many of the usual suspects. The caliber of the conversation, its depth, usual- ly doesnt reach the level to actually make a valuable contribution to the policy-making process. His answer to apathy a civic lottery that will determine the make-up of a citi- zens panel. We call it a lottery because we want peo- ple to feel good about being selected to par- ticipate, he said. MASS LBP has been hired by the Region to facilitate a new civic-engagement initia- tive. Over this week 10,000 randomly-selected Halton residents will receive information about a citizens reference panel a panel that will be asked to spend four Saturdays in the new year learning about Haltons most pressing issues, discussing the issues in focus groups, and finally, presenting a col- lection of recommendations to council, which council will use to shape its four-year strategic plan. From those 10,000 invited to participate, 36 residents will be selected. Participants will be chosen based on age, gender and location, so the group is a balanced repre- sentation of Halton. Many municipal strategic plans suffer from vagueness, they lack clarity, and often theyre difficult to measure progress, said Halton CAO Pat Moyle. He said by develop- ing a roadmap with a clear direction, the public can measure the Regions success at the end of the four-year term. MacLeod told the committee attendance levels at town hall and public meetings, are not good indicators of civic engagement. For many people in this room, theyve been through some pretty dysfunctional town hall experiences. A lot of that has to do with the way those meetings are designed. They bring together people when theyre upset, (politicians) talk to them from the front of the room and then invite them to stand up and say their piece, but they only have 20 seconds to make their case. One of the principles that shape MASS LBPs approach to public engagement is the realization that not all opinions are neces- sarily valid. How can we create a kind of common base knowledge, MacLeod asked. What learning needs to occur in order for people to make a valuable contribution to the discussion at hand. His answer is the citizens panel. Beginning early January, the panel will begin the education process. The 36 chosen residents will be presented with information about the Regions top issues and hear from community leaders and subject matter experts. In late January, the panel will partic- ipate in a public roundtable meeting and early February, working with expert facilita- tors, the panelists will develop a series of informed recommendations to present to Regional Council. He said the Region will also make use of social media and consult with citizen adviso- ry committees for constituent feedback. If people arent available to participate in the panel, which is very intense with the amount of time they commit, they can still send us information, said Carr, adding the simplest way to provide input is to e-mail garycarr@halton.ca. Between all these various methods, at the end of the day we want to have a very strong strategic plan that has been put together with real input of residents, he said. This is a unique process. Its a very business-like and professional way of doing it. I think well be one of the first (municipal- ities) to do it. Were trying to be the leaders in Halton in terms of public engagement. The deadline for eligible candidates to enter the civic lottery is Dec. 6 and the pan- elists will be drawn Dec. 16. For more information, visit www.hal- ton.ca/citizenspanel. Lottery will select Halton focus group View our entire inventory online at: WWW.QEWMAZDA.COM 905-827-4242 . 1501 NORTH SERVICE ROAD WEST, OAKVILLE . MON.-THURS. 9AM - 9PM . 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