Public Involvement Programs

2006
ISBN: 0-662-42960-5
Cat. No.: H128-1/06-445-3E
HC Pub.: 4147

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Resources are available to help make your public involvement strategies successful

Background

If your department is managing a contaminated site, you are also likely managing public involvement activities.

Each site is different. In some cases only a small number of public stakeholders may be involved. In other cases it may be a whole city. You have to know how to manage each situation.

An appropriate public involvement strategy will make your project go smoothly. It will develop stakeholder trust in your processes, and most importantly, stakeholder support for remediation plans.

The key is to implement a meaningful public involvement strategy from the start, and carry it through all stages of site identification, assessment and remediation.

The Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP) is a recent addition to Health Canada. Its mandate is to provide expert support to custodial departments dealing with contaminated sites.

A team of Public Involvement Specialists is now available to provide you with the expert guidance, training, and advice for a successful public involvement program.

More Information

Contaminated Sites Division
5^th Floor, 269 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0K9
e-mail: cs-sc@hc-sc.gc.ca

Guidance

• Why, when and how to involve the public
  
• Appropriate levels of involvement
  
• Lessons learned from other contaminated sites
  
• Reference materials and resources
  

Training

We have added new courses to the Risk Assessment series. Reacting to requests from custodial departments, we now offer a course, entitled Improving Stakeholder Relationships: Public Involvement and Contaminated Sites. Its contents include:

• Determining the need and scale of public involvement activities
  
• Developing an effective public involvement plan
  
• Dealing with psycho-social issues related to contaminated sites
  
• Implementing the capacity building approach to stakeholder involvement
  

Advice

If you have questions about effective public involvement strategies, how to develop a plan or if you would like someone to review your current public involvement framework, give our team a call.

Ontario/Capital Region

• Brenda Pichette
  613-952-9349

Atlantic Region

• Rosanne LeBlanc
• 902-426-5397

Quebec

• Frédéric Valcin
• 450-646-1353

Alberta and NWT

• Tannis Topolnisky
• 780-495-4850

BC and Yukon

• Sharon McCarthy
• 604-666-5714