{"id":599217,"date":"2026-04-12T14:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T14:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/599217\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T14:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T14:01:10","slug":"municipal-public-hearings-direct-democracy-in-action-or-outdated-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/599217\/","title":{"rendered":"Municipal public hearings: ‘Direct democracy in action’ or ‘outdated model’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout weeks of public hearings on blanket rezoning, Calgary city councillors were obligated to approach each of the 411 speakers and nearly 3,300 written submissions with an open mind.<\/p>\n

Being \u201camenable to persuasion” is an expectation of councillors in every public hearing, even on long-debated subjects that become major campaign issues<\/a> like blanket rezoning. It was also the expectation for councillors during the largest public hearing<\/a> in council’s history two years ago, which was also about blanket rezoning.<\/p>\n

But more than half<\/a> of the council members who participated in public hearings on blanket rezoning, including Mayor Jeromy Farkas, had already publicly committed to repealing the policy. <\/p>\n

Just one vote shifted on council between the 13-2 decision in December that began the process to repeal the controversial housing policy to the 12-3 vote to repeal that followed public hearings, which began March 23 and concluded April 8.<\/p>\n

While some politicians praise the hearings as a true form of direct democracy, others see it as a less effective way to reach the public.<\/p>\n

‘Direct democracy in action’<\/p>\n

After the final speaker, Farkas proclaimed the eight-day public hearing had been “direct democracy in action.”<\/p>\n

\"MayorCalgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas called the recent blanket rezoning public hearing ‘direct democracy in action,’ praising its effect. (Helen Pike\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Farkas promised to repeal the policy months ago<\/a>, a stance he maintained in the vote. But he told CBC Radio\u2019s Calgary Eyeopener on Thursday that he\u2019s still always willing to keep an open mind to new evidence, even citing criticism he faced during last fall\u2019s election for flip-flopping on views he previously held as a city councillor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m willing to take a look at the evidence, I\u2019m willing to take a look at good arguments, and I\u2019m willing to change my mind,\u201d said Farkas.<\/p>\n

During the marathon public hearing session on blanket rezoning two years ago, Calgary’s city solicitor reminded councillors they can’t arrive at the meetings with a decision firmly made, but instead must be open to persuasion.<\/p>\n

LISTEN | Calgary’s mayor on the city’s decision to repeal blanket rezoning after two years:<\/p>\n

Calgary Eyeopener9:31After two weeks of public hearings, Calgary City Council has voted to repeal blanket rezoning<\/p>\n

Following hundreds of spoken testimonials and thousands of written submissions, city council voted to axe blanket rezoning in Calgary. For more on what happens next, we spoke with Mayor, Jeromy Farkas.<\/p>\n

The expectation was raised again in a failed court challenge<\/a> to blanket rezoning’s introduction from some Calgary residents, who claimed then-councillor Gian-Carlo Carra was not open to persuasion, which a judge ruled against.<\/p>\n

While a binary vote on blanket rezoning doesn\u2019t reflect the nuances of what council heard about how to manage the city’s growth, Farkas argued the hearings will guide their work.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was taking notes, and for many of my council colleagues, it\u2019s going to inform motions that they\u2019re bringing back to council in the coming weeks or months,” said Farkas.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Calgarians react to blanket rezoning repeal:\"\"<\/p>\n

Builder says affordability will suffer without blanket rezoning replacement <\/p>\n

Shameer Gaidhar, the chair of the Calgary Inner City Builders Association, reacts to city council’s vote to repeal the blanket rezoning policy. Gaidhar said the policy must be replaced immediately to avoid a housing affordability crisis and to prevent developers from moving investments to other cities. <\/p>\n

While the majority of council members ran on repealing blanket rezoning, Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Yule was one of the few exceptions. He was elected without a stance on the subject. <\/p>\n

He was also the lone councillor to change his vote, after supporting beginning the process to repeal in December. He then opposed the decision this week.<\/p>\n

\"AndrewWard 3 Coun. Andrew Yule said his stance on blanket rezoning was shaped by days of public hearings, as his opinion drifted back and forth. (Helen Pike\/CBC)<\/p>\n

He said he couldn’t support a repeal without a replacement in place, adding the move will push the city’s tax burden to its outskirts.<\/p>\n

He also pointed to speakers who provided insight that helped shape his opinion.<\/p>\n

“As someone who didn’t campaign any which way on rezoning, the public hearing was extremely important for informing my vote,” said Yule during Wednesday’s council meeting.<\/p>\n

“One day I would come into the office after a day of speakers and say I was persuaded one way, and the next day I was persuaded another way.”<\/p>\n

‘Outdated model’<\/p>\n

Former city councillor Courtney Walcott said it was rare for a public hearing to sway members’ votes during his tenure from 2021 to 2025. But he noted being open to persuasion can sometimes just mean being open to amendments.<\/p>\n

During 2024’s marathon hearing, Walcott said an ultimately unsuccessful amendment he proposed about how to incentivize developers to offer more affordable units or green space, came from a speaker’s suggestion.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t see that very often. A lot of the reason why is because most people have already made their decision in advance, and they\u2019re just looking for that one thing that could change their mind,” said Walcott. <\/p>\n

\"aFormer Ward 8 councillor Courtney Walcott said he’s rarely seen a vote on council changed, in his experience, by public hearings. (Helen Pike\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Most of the time, councillors enter public hearings with their minds made up from months of discussions with constituents, said Walcott. And if they’ve done that homework, he said they’ll rarely hear something new in a public hearing.<\/p>\n

“If you\u2019ve done your job well, nothing surprises you at council,” he said.<\/p>\n

Those conversations, including seeking out people who would never enter city hall or contact a councillor, are far more important than public hearings, Walcott argued. He criticized hearings for often being filled with heightened emotions and misinformation, rather than real debate or discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an outdated model of engagement that goes back to the times where we had town squares,\u201d said Walcott.<\/p>\n

\u201c99.9 per cent of the time, council has done their legwork, they should know the issues when they enter into that room. You don\u2019t want us coming in blind and making decisions on the fly. That would be dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opportunity for councillors to better reach public<\/p>\n

Being open to persuasion in public hearings is a common value in municipalities across Canada, said University of Calgary political science professor Jack Lucas. <\/p>\n

He pointed out while a similar standard is expected of committees at the provincial and federal levels, it’s more noticeable in local government because councillors are often seen as more accessible to the public and don’t often have a party system influencing their votes.<\/p>\n

But Lucas noted there’s good evidence to show public hearing participants often aren’t representative of the wider community they’re drawn from, and the public may not want this form of engagement alone influencing votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a bit concerning if after public hearings, councillors were just completely changing their views on the basis of who happened to show up in that particular hearing,\u201d said Lucas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the blanket rezoning hearings, council has an opportunity to think about what they want public engagement to look like moving forward, Lucas said.<\/p>\n

He pointed to promising alternatives that could be more efficient and representative, like surveys, focus groups, small citizen assemblies or town halls where politicians meet with a randomly drawn sample of constituents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a whole range of creative approaches that municipal councils are taking across Canada,\u201d said Lucas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there are certainly important goods that come out of a public hearing process, it\u2019s not the only game in town.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout weeks of public hearings on blanket rezoning, Calgary city councillors were obligated to approach each of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-599217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}