AYLMER, QUEBEC | During question period at a city council meeting earlier this year, one of the councilors from the Gatineau sector was heard to mutter, in frustration, " Blankety-blank Aylmer! Why do they think they should get everything? Why do they have a comment on everything we do?"

The answer is that, yes, Aylmer is a special place, but in the following sense: Aylmer has the highest average education in the city; it has the highest family income. Aylmer has the strongest residents' associations, and those associations work together in a coalition. Aylmer is the home of both the Regional Association of West Quebecers and Imperatif français.

People here are interested in what's going on around them, and most important, they know what's going on around them. They have a community newspaper. Simple as this: Aylmer is the only sector of Gatineau that has its own newspaper.

So the people of Aylmer know a little of what's going on, especially as it affects them, their beach and marina, parks, streets, trees, schools, artists, water quality, and their businesses. A family living in old Gatineau or suburban Hull doesn't have this information. Guess who ends up at the city council meetings?

The councilor should have praised the citizens from Aylmer who show such civic interest and involvement, not criticize us. People get fired up about a field of trees being cut, or by plans dropped to us from city hall. This interest is no reason for city governors, elected or public servants, to disparage public engagement.

We know in our hearts that public involvement is the basis of democracy (not merely the staging an election every four years); a widely held understanding of the issues Ð the problems as well as the possible solutions and ways of paying for them Ð is what makes democracy work. Aylmer shows positive in these things. This should be encouraged by the councilors.

"Democracy" is pretty abstract, but public involvement is also the best way to reach a decision that is practical. The more minds working on a problem, the sooner a solution will be found, and it will be tested by all those people involved, with weakness found out before expensive repairs are needed. This is community networking.

Consultations with the public can be a real pain in the butt for functionaries, but good administrators know that a project will proceed better with popular support than without it, and that a difficult project will be less onerous once it has been thoroughly explained and hashed out in public.

There is absolutely no substitute for clear, early, and thorough information to the public.

Decisions made in secrecy or "at a professional level" are the most open for manipulation and corruption. Most scandals in other levels of government are the result of secrecy that blew up, as it usually does.

Secrecy can't succeed -- there are too many people in government, in residents' associations, and in the media. And the media still means a local newspaper.

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Copyright © 2008 Fred Ryan/Log Cabin Chronicles/04.08