For Residents

Program Manager Experience

The City of Edmonton is very committed to involving citizens in the decisions that affect them. How we spend our money affects all of us. That's why we partnered with the University of Alberta in this pilot project -- to add one more method of gaining citizen input into city spending decisions.
I learned from the Citizen Panel that we all want to be heard. We want our experiences and our values taken into account. During the six sessions of the Citizen Panel, members often commented that the other panellists heard and respected their views and that the organizing committee heard and acted on their suggestions for change.
City Council has agreed to seriously consider the Citizen Panel recommendations during their 2010-2011 budget deliberations. That's what the panel members want, for Council to hear and to act on their recommendations or to better understand why their recommendations weren't acted on.
A key part of the pilot project will be reporting back to Citizen Panel members how their recommendations are considered during the budget process and how and why City Council chooses to act on, or defer action on their recommendations.

The Citizen Panel brought Edmontonians together who may never have met. As one panel member commented in one of the first sessions, no one defined themselves by their occupation, but rather by their experience as citizens of this city.
Members of the Citizen Panel were drawn from all of Edmonton's communities. We have people from different age groups, incomes, and cultural background. The diversity of the group means that the recommendations represent in many ways what all Edmontonians might have concluded if they were able to meet together for six Saturdays."