ABOUT US
Renovate the Public Hearing is a collaborative initiative exploring improvements and providing evidence-based recommendations to British Columbia's provincial local government land-use public hearing requirements as a means to enhance upstreamed value-based public engagement, streamline affordable housing approvals and other land-use processes, strengthen community building, and bolster democratic principles.
The public hearing process has become something of a battleground forum, particularly when it comes to affordable housing proposals. This video provides a glimpse of what the public hearing process can be like and why we need to Renovate the Public Hearing.
Renovate the Public Hearing is an initiative of SFU's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue.
About the Centre for Dialogue
The SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue creates real-world impact for society's most pressing challenges by using dialogue and engagement to co-create solutions, exchange knowledge, support community-engaged learning, and to build the capacity of others in the knowledge and practice of dialogue.
Project Partnerships
CMHC exists to make housing affordable for everyone in Canada and ensure the health and stability of Canada’s housing system. The CMHC Housing Supply Challenge targets housing experts and professionals, aiming to remove or reduce barriers that hinder housing supply and awarding $300 million in funding over 5 years.
The Renovate the Public Hearing Initiative received CMHC Housing Supply Challenge incubation funding for project development, to allow for collaboration building and to develop ways to identify evidence-based solutions.
As one of our key partners, BCLI will work collaboratively on the legal reform report for the Renovate the Public Hearing initiative. BCLI also published an initial study paper on the origins and legal landscape of public hearings and have collected public input online for their upcoming Consultation Paper on Renovating the Public Hearing.
CityHive is a youth-led organization that works to transform the way young people shape their cities and the civic processes that engage them. In partnership with RPHI, CityHive ran a three-month cohort program for youth to engage on the topic of public hearings. At the end of the cohort, participants proposed their own creative "renovations" to the current public hearing process.
The Renovate the Public Hearing Initiative is in partnership with the Burnaby Community Assembly, which is a part of the three-year Urban Resilient Futures Initiative. This initiative originated through a partnership between the City of Burnaby, Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue and Vancity. Over 61% of the Burnaby community have at least one mother tongue besides English. Equitable engagement with Burnaby’s diverse language communities has been supported by generous contributions from both the City of Burnaby and the Renovate the Public Hearing Initiative.