Dear Editor,
I see in the Advance’s June 30 edition, Township tries on new plan process, was a report made of the open house and new community engagement process.
I have attended both a community dialogue session and the open house and was pleased with the overall running of each event.
I can, however, tell you I also have real disappointment and frankly anger with what I have seen and heard about these events.
These events were meant as a means for community members to come together to be able to communicate with each other, get informed and then share their ideas and opinions about a future OCP, but alas, this process has been corrupted.
It would appear vested parties have brought their members to both the dialogue sessions and open house, and used various tactics to leave, in large numbers, their say and opinions. Community members (both here and in Williams neighbourhood where a similar community engagement process has happened) when in attendance at a dialogue session, have mentioned the rudeness which some individuals have displayed when voicing their pro-development stance.
It turns out in one of these cases, when asked directly, the said individual was not a resident of the community. Others have mentioned, as was reported in the article, seeing individuals using multiple post-its to leave their opinions, thus skewing the results.
At the open house, when waiting to sign in, people would walk in and linger then go into the open house. Were they residents? If so why not sign in with your address? Or were they outsiders leaving their opinions to again possibly influence an outcome better suited to their needs and not those of the community?
It is a sad indictment of what lengths it would appear some individuals and vested parties will go to to have their way and profit off a community.
I will be addressing these issues with the TOL and MODUS, the consulting company conducting the engagement process.
This is supposed to be the community’s opportunity to have their ideas and voices heard, and not for those unethical individuals and parties who are out to undermine the process for their own gain.
Kristine Gleeson Brookswood
