No attempt at promoting civic engagement is ever a waste.
We applaud the District of West Vancouver for launching west vancouver ITE, its online tool to complement the old fashioned way of carrying out a public process.
It's targeted at people too busy or too shy to speak at a public meeting. But there is an unfortunate and predictable side effect to this.
It gives people an out from some of the more meaningful parts of civic engagement.
There is something to be said for the folks who turn off the hockey game or reality TV for an evening, find a seat in a crowded council chamber and listen to staff, proponents, and neighbours cover all sides of a debate then wait their turn to have their say on the record.
It's not particularly pleasant (we know, we attend them too) but democracy is messy, inefficient and it requires sacrifice.
It takes courage to stand up in a room full of peers and speak an unpopular opinion into a microphone. All it takes to use west vancouver ITE is an Internet connection.
There's no requirement that council members even know the names of those commenting.
It may well be that someone with very real and practical reasons for not attending meetings would still love to have their say about the Grosvenor project or Park Royal towers.
But it's more likely this will be just another reason for folks to stay home, forgoing the whole "public" part of democracy, where decisions are made by those who show up.
We're not sure this is an improvement.
