City of Victoria BC’s Post

The Victoria-Saanich Citizens’ Assembly (VSCA) on Municipal Amalgamation is preparing to convene its first of eight meetings. Forty-eight randomly selected residents of Saanich and Victoria will represent all residents of these municipalities on the Assembly, which is tasked with exploring the costs, benefits and disadvantages of amalgamation between the two municipalities and issuing a report to their councils. Much like a jury or task force, the deliberations of a Citizens’ Assembly are generally confidential and closed to the public. However, there are several ways for the public to get involved: ➡️ Make a Public Submission to the Assembly: provide your perspective on the question of amalgamation or raise an issue you would like the Assembly to consider. ➡️ Register for one of the Public Meetings (Nov 20 and 21): learn more about the Assembly’s process and the work of local government, provide your perspective on the issues and learn what your fellow residents think. ➡️ Sign up for Assembly Updates: receive copies of the presentations, reports, meeting summaries and other resources, so you can follow the Assembly’s work. Learn more at victoriasaanich.ca. #citizensassembly #victoria #saanich #VSCA

The Victoria-Saanich Citizens’ Assembly (VSCA) on Municipal Amalgamation held its first meeting on Sept 21. Visit victoriasaanich.ca to read a summary of the meeting and view the presentations and other materials provided to the Assembly. There are 3 ways for residents to get involved in the Citizens’ Assembly: ➡️ Make a Public Submission to the Assembly: provide your perspective on the question of amalgamation or raise an issue you would like the Assembly to consider. ➡️ Register for one of the Public Meetings (Nov 20 and 21): learn more about the Assembly’s process and the work of local government, provide your perspective on the issues and learn what your fellow residents think. ➡️ Sign up for Assembly Updates: receive copies of the presentations, reports, meeting summaries and other resources, so you can follow the Assembly’s work. Learn more at victoriasaanich.ca. #CitizensAssembly #Victoria #Saanich #VSCA

The Victoria-Saanich Citizens’ Assembly (VSCA) on Municipal Amalgamation held its first meeting on Sept 21. Visit victoriasaanich.ca to read a summary of the meeting and view the presentations and other materials provided to the Assembly. There are 3 ways for residents to get involved in the Citizens’ Assembly: ➡️ Make a Public Submission to the Assembly: provide your perspective on the question of amalgamation or raise an issue you would like the Assembly to consider. ➡️ Register for one of the Public Meetings (Nov 20 and 21): learn more about the Assembly’s process and the work of local government, provide your perspective on the issues and learn what your fellow residents think. ➡️ Sign up for Assembly Updates: receive copies of the presentations, reports, meeting summaries and other resources, so you can follow the Assembly’s work. Learn more at victoriasaanich.ca. #citizensassembly #victoria #saanich #VSCA

Note that there is no allowance for public transport infrastructure; the backlogs here have been out for 15 to 20 years, especially on the Eastern Seaboard of Australia's outer metropolitan suburbs. There are hundreds of billions of dollars of unfunded heavy railway infrastructure corridors today; most of the existing railway corridors are surrounded mainly by single-detached dwellings; these thousands of billions of dollars of public-funded infrastructure across Australia's Metropolitan suburbs could be better utilised primarily for much-needed affordable housing for Essential Workers accommodation who need easy access to their jobs from Sydney's vast public transport network, not energy-sapping soul-destroying commuting 3 to 5 hours daily to their stressful jobs in Public Hospitals, Healthcare, Teaching and many other providing such valuable services. For example, Sydney--“To achieve the state government’s targets, 75,000 new dwellings are needed each year, and with 82 per cent of them in infill locations, the majority will be apartments. An estimated 35,000 apartments must be built each year at a time when forecast completions over the next three years are running at 10,350 units a year, Charter Keck maintains” https://lnkd.in/gZnuAEKP

Citizen engagement is the cornerstone of policy-making and critical impactful governance and success of development projects. To achieve this, civil servants need more than traditional bureaucratic methods; they need tools that foster creative, inclusive approaches to policymaking. At our recent Design Thinking workshop, participants embraced these tools—gaining essential skills to bridge the gap between government initiatives and community needs. "By equipping officers with this human-centered methodology, we’re transforming the way they engage with the public and address real-world service delivery challenges." - Dr. Hafeez Ahmed Jamali, DG, BCSA. https://lnkd.in/dTAHS4Mg #CitizenEngagement #InclusiveGovernance #DesignThinking #PublicServiceInnovation #CreativePolicyMaking #BCSA #Collaboration #AccountabilityMatters

Monitoring and implementing agreements is always the most delicate component of a #disputeresolution process. We are happy to see commitments being honored and solutions fully materialized in Inter-American Development Bank funded projects. #infrastructure #communitydeveloment #sustainability #MICI #peacebuilding

🌍 Dr. Lars Brummel Speaks at EGPA Conference in Athens 🇬🇷 At the annual conference of the European Group for Public Administration, Dr. Lars Brummel presented key findings from the LEGITIMULT project on legitimacy in times of crisis. Find out more about his presentation on our website. 📖 #LEGITIMULT #PublicAdministration #Legitimacy #CrisisGovernance #egpa2024

Was on a panel in Canberra yesterday for this mob. Delighted to be there especially as the session on housing was chaired by my friend, the rather wonderful and defo effective Linda Scott (GAICD) who is the retiring chair of the excellent Australian Local Government Association. I also caught up with a fellow panel member the equally smart Nicola Lemon now of KPMG formerly of Hume Community Housing. I said I would Commend, Defend and Offend - and did what it said on that tin. I Commended the Federal government for its focus on and innovation around housing - though pointed out that they had picked possibly the worst time for the private sector development sector in decades (cost of money, lack of skilled workers, uncertain market demand). I Defended local government who have been and must not remain the whipping boy for the failures of a pretty wrecked housing system: the idea that reducing the approval time for a planning application from 110 days to 80 in such a market context is the answer is ludicrous and parochial given the international nature of this housing crisis. But still we hear nonsense on this subject and absurd expectations placed on planning reforms alone when the private sector cannot build out the approvals/permissions they already have. I Offended, sort of, by pointing out that the private sector has never anywhere been able to build the number of homes we need - and we need to recover political will to do a shedload of public housing - and that negative gearing, QE and promiscuous interest rate policies had over financialised residential property since the Crash if not before and that we need a broader economic (and equality) re-set over decades to refocus investment priorities. Not that offensive actually. Truth is after all only inadvertently offensive. Its function is to promote thought. Anyway, I had fun. Great event and turn out and some very thought- provoking contributions from councillors present. Thanks also to Grimshaw for supporting my efforts at civic dialogue around core urban issues. Two upcoming Grimshaw Cities podcasts are BTW with CEOs of big city councils, one in Leeds and the other in Parramatta, Sydney.

Up to now, the traditional approach in respect of collective agreements was that the civil courts do not have jurisdiction in respect of the interpretation or application (inclusive of breaches) of collective agreements – e g Aucamp v South African Revenue Services [2014] 2 BLLR 152 (LC) and Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality v South African Municipality Workers Union [2015] 1 BLLR 34 (LAC). The supreme court of appeal recently, in MEC for Economic Development, Environment and Tourism, Limpopo v Leboho (2022) 33 SALLR 281 (SCA); (2022) 43 ILJ 2695 (SCA), adopted a very different approach that, as is apparent, will in future have an important impact as to the dispute-resolution path selected by a party who alleges non-compliance with a collective agreement. What does this approach entail? https://lnkd.in/dqT5WBjZ

Check out page 30 for the National Rural Economic Developers Association article in FDI Alliance International! #ruraldevelopment #econdev #economicdevelopment