What happens when you ask Calgarians how to make the city healthy, vibrant and sustainable? 

You get more than 1000 people working together discussing, debating and deciding how to build a city for everyone. The result is the Citizens' Agenda - 12 Priority Policy & Action goals that if implemented over the next five years will create that vision.

The Citizens' Agenda - 12 Priority Policy & Action Goals

1. A Living Wage – is guaranteed for all Calgarians.
2. Community-Oriented Development – living close to work and services - is the standard in all new and established communities and plans.
3. Transit Spending - a minimum of 65% of the transportation budget is spent on transit, walking, wheeling, and biking.
4. Affordable Housing – zoning is implemented so that 15% of housing stock in all communities is affordable.
5. A 100% Renewable Energy Strategy - is developed for Calgary.
6. Sustainable Education – is part of the core curriculum for grades K-12. 
7. Transit-Oriented Development - is mandated with minimum densities of 14-20 units per acres throughout Calgary. 
8. Green Buildings  - standards are established for commercial, public and residential construction in the city.
9. Sustainable Economic Diversification - a strategy focusing on sustainability and diversification is implemented
10. A Foreign Professional Accreditation - a program is implemented by the City of Calgary to hasten accreditation and success.
11. Preventative and Primary Health Care - an increase in the CRHA Health Care Budget from 3.6% to 10% in these areas.
12. Zero-Waste - a strategy is developed for Calgary to become a 100% Zero-Waste city.
    
    

The Process

The project began with the publishing of the 2004 State of Our City report in March 2005. The findings of the 2004 Report and the Citizens' Agenda project vision were presented to a wide range of non-profit organizations from the Chamber of Commerce to The Developmental Disabilities Resource Centre. Through the outreach activities individuals were invited to consider their participation in the Citizens' Agenda project. In July, the first meeting of the Project Steering Committee and a Policy Experts Advisory Group took place.

The Steering Committee was made up of individuals with process design and facilitation expertise and experience. This Committee guided the project design, assist in the recruitment of citizens into the process and facilitate project working groups and workshops. The Policy Advisors were individuals with experience in the policy-making process. This group provided advice and assistance to the citizens who will be engaged in the creation of the Citizens' Agenda.

The Result

The Citizens' Agenda was originally supported by funding from Tides Canada, The Calgary Foundation, The United Way of Calgary and Area, and The Arusha Centre in Phase One. Now in Phase Two of the project the Alberta Real Estate Foundation, The Alberta EcoTrust and the United Way of Calgary and Area are the sponsors.

12 Prioirity and Action areas to work on in the next 5 years to assist Calgary become the healthy, vibrant City that we know it can be! The project proceeded through a 6-stages:

• Policy Mapping to Identify Existing Policy-Design.  Our first task was to collect as much information as we can about policy design work that had already been done by NGOs such as Vibrant Communities and The Pembina Institute, research organizations such as Canada West Foundation and by the City of Calgary. Existing policy was the starting point for our deliberations.

• Municipal Policy-Making 101. Recognizing that policy is a fuzzy concept for most citizens, the project, in collaboration with The Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations, hosted a municipal policy-making 101 symposium and workshop in the first week of October. This event included an open symposium where policy experts were provided an overview of the municipal policy-making process and the provincial and federal context of municipal policy-making. The symposium also introduced the concept of deliberative or participatory policy-making - a process whereby citizens can become fully engaged in policy-design and action. The second half of the event focused exclusively on the adaptation of the concept of deliberative policy-making to the Citizens' Agenda project.

• Indicator Workshops. In October and November 2005 several working groups were formed with the goal of assessing the implications of the State of our City Reports and identifying a preliminary list of priority policies and actions that addressed the issues raised by the reports. The sector working groups were formed through an open invitation to citizens and were  facilitated by members of the project steering committee. The sector and indicator working groups met four times through October and into early November.

• City-Wide Workshops. The sector working groups  involved a limited number of individuals. Our past experience demonstrated that in order to engage a wider spectrum of citizens other strategies were needed. The Action Workshops were held in each quadrant of the city. They were hosted by a local organization, for example a community association or local resource centre. They was a one-day event designed to give the findings from the Sector Workshops to a wider group of citizens. The workshops were designed to be interactive using popular education approaches to engage citizens in discussions about priority policies and actions. The City Quadrant Action Workshops took place in January 2006.

• Special Sectors Workshops. Experience in public processes demonstrates that despite good intentions, structural inequalities in our society mean that marginalized or specially challenged groups and individuals face difficulties in having their voices heard. In order to be as inclusive as possible, the Citizens' Agenda project hosted special sector workshops. These workshops were designed to meet the special needs of individuals who risk being excluded from the process. The workshops focused on accessibility, design and timing to ensure the participation of special sectors. These special sector workshops were held through October and November 2005.

• Final Plenary. The Final Plenary was held in the first week of February 2006. The goal of the symposium will be to make the final selection of policy and action priorities to be included in the Citizens' Agenda Report. In making their final decision, the sector working group members will consider the preliminary priorities and actions they themselves drafted, the input from the City Quadrant Action Workshops and from the Special Sectors Workshops. This symposium will also include representation from the special sectors and the city quadrant workshops.
  
  In the Winter of 2006 and the Spring of 2007 the Citizens' Agenda for the Transformation to a Sustainable Calgary was be prepared and published.

The relationship of the Citizens' Agenda to ImagineCalgary

ImagineCalgary is a city-led process designed to engage Calgarians in the creation of a 100 year vision for our city. ImagineCalgary began in 2004 and will culminate in the presentation of the city's vision at an international gathering in Vancouver in the spring of 2006. The Citizens' Agenda is being designed as an independent citizens process but with the view that it will be complementary to ImagineCalgary. Sustainable Calgary has made an effort to meet regularly with the ImagineCalgary team. The Citizens' Agenda was presented to the ImagineCalgary team in the winter of 2006.

ImagineCalgary is a 100-year visioning process. It will orient the 30-year transportation, landuse, social development and municipal development plans for the City of Calgary. In contrast, the Citizens' Agenda is an immediate call to action by citizens. The Citizens' Agenda report will present a policy and action agenda to city council, decision-makers and the citizens of Calgary. It is an agenda designed to influence policy and action over a five year period - roughly through the next council term. We anticipate that it will be complementary to the ImagineCalgary vision and provide an impetus for us to act immediately on that vision. Where it differs from the vision, it will provide another thoughtful perspective for consideration by the ImagineCalgary team.