'Only representative of the folks that show up': Few Albertans aware of public consultation

One hundred and sixteen of the Alberta government's 192 ongoing consultations seek public input on topics ranging from how the province should spend money to where trails should be built in parks.

But when CTV News asked Calgarians which ones they know of or participate in, we found few had any knowledge of the engagement process.

"I know of none of them," Cory Brazen said.

"I haven't responded to any of them, to tell you the truth."

That's not unusual, says political scientist Lori Williams, who warns it skews the results -- and ultimately government policy -- toward special interest groups.

"They (special interest groups) are the ones that are going to be aware, they're going to be organized to try to participate," Williams said.

"They can really significantly skew the results in a particular direction that they desire, so it isn't really a representative sample of Albertans."

Alberta's most recent public engagement is about insurance rates.

It was opened to the public on April 26, but not announced publicly until early May.

Nathan Neudorf, Alberta's Minister of Affordability, will ultimately steer insurance reform.

Neudorf won't say how much the public comments will ultimately mean.

"I think it will be a factor," Neudorf said.

"I couldn't tell you how much it will weigh. ... There's obviously large cost implications, so (we'll) try to weigh all those things in balance, but it's important."

NDP finance critic Shannon Phillips says the public consultation on insurance is just a delay tactic.

"We've seen these sort of half-hearted attempts ... surveys and reviews and that kind of thing," Phillips said.

"What consumers are looking for is affordable auto insurance."

A big reason people told CTV News they didn't pay attention to public engagement is they don't think they'll be listened to.

"We’ve come to the conclusion that the government just wastes our time following whatever their intentions are," Calgarian Alian Sanders said.

"They do whatever they want regardless of our opinion."

Williams says the current government has a history of bypassing public sentiment in enacting new policy.

"We've got really high numbers of opposition to parties in municipal politics. Seventy per cent. High numbers of opposition to changing the Canada Pension Plan to an Alberta pension plan, and majorities opposed to the introduction of a provincial police force," Williams said.

"Despite what Albertans have clearly said in significant numbers, the government persists in trying to move in their own direction -- the one that they had in the beginning, and they're willing to use tax dollars to advertise to try to persuade Albertans to go along with that."

Nik Nanos of Nanos Research says sometimes, consultations are for show, but it's still important that people speak up.

"Governments want to change a policy, (they say), 'Let's do a consultation so that we can say that we've done a consultation,'" Nanos said.

"It also allows governments to say, 'Listen, you had a chance to say your bit. If you don't show up, it's your fault, not the government's fault.'"

Nanos also warns against interpreting the results of public consultation as the voice of the majority.

"We should never confuse a consultation with being representative of what people think," Nanos said.

"A consultation is only representative of the folks that show up. If nobody shows up, it's not representative of anything, and for those advocacy groups that show up, it's representative of them.

"We shouldn't confuse what's said in a public consultation with what the public truly thinks. That can only be done through a scientific survey, or like a referendum or plebiscite or something like that."