Citizen Engagement
No one knows their community better than the people who live, work and play in Victoria's diverse neighbourhoods.
At the City of Victoria, the decisions we make impact the daily lives of people in our community. Public participation creates opportunities for individuals with diverse perspectives to come together and share their ideas with staff and elected officials. It's also an opportunity to listen and learn from others and to assist decision-makers as they explore ways to improve plans, programs and services.
If you'd like to share ideas and feeback on a current project please visit our Have Your Say page.
Engagement Framework
The City of Victoria’s All Our Voices Engagement Framework [PDF - 2 MB] puts inclusion and equity at the heart of City engagement processes. It aligns with the City’s Equity Framework which is grounded in the concepts of decolonization, anti-racism, disability justice, gender diversity and dignity.
In 2022, the City of Victoria, in partnership with a team from the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser Univeristy, asked equity-seeking communities in Victoria how we can be more inclusive and equitable when engaging on City projects, services and initiatives. We connected with over 55 community organizations, hosted over 50 community members for roundtable sessions and community chats, connected with over 65 new Canadians and hosted one pilot project to explore what reciprocal relationships and co-designing and co-hosting engagement opportunities could look like. You can learn more about this process and what we learned here.
The Engagement Framework outlines a set of guiding principles for engagement and seven pillars for equitable engagement. This work builds on the City's original Engagement Framework [PDF - 8.7 MB] to maximize the meaningful and equitable inclusion of diverse voices into City decision making.
The Engagement Framework is guided by the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) principles. The City of Victoria adopted IAP2 core values in 2011 and has been continually refining its engagement approach since, a commitment honoured in 2015 when it was awarded Canadian Organization of the Year.
