Dear Editor,
The Mayor and City Council’s recent insistence on “formal, transparent, and structured consultation” with the elected council over the Georgetown improvement plan is, frankly, rich. Consultation is good governance. But it must cut both ways.
Subryanville’s Farnum Ground—one of the area’s few remaining open green spaces—has seen decisions taken without the very openness now being demanded. Residents learned after the fact that portions of the ground were being used for private purposes, first as a temporary response to the Mae’s Schools fire and then with more permanent-looking installations. Objections were raised. Answers were thin. Process was opaque.
The result is a troubling double standard: consultation as a rallying cry when City Hall wants a bigger say, silence when communities ask for the same respect at their own playing field. Public trust can’t survive that kind of pick-and-choose accountability.
If the M&C&C believes consultation is essential for national plans, it should demonstrate the same discipline at the neighbourhood levels, especially where health, safety, and access to public space are at stake.