Mining for Leading-Edge Practices with Public Involvement across Canada

Technical Resource Materials
	Final Assessment Report with the Program (English) Evaluation on the learning results achieved from the learning, including details of the programmed activities and Canadian organizations and individuals involved.
	Example Mission Report from the Field Visit in British Columbia (English) Examples of a few interviews with BC consultation practitioners and on-site observations of open-house sessions and legislative committee hearings
	“Public Participation in the Chinese Legislative Process” “Observations and Reflections on Canadian Experiences” Two presentations delivered by Chenfeng Cai and Chunhua Li at the learning session with Canadian School of Public Service Ms. Chenfeng Cai and Ms. Chunhua Li, Analysts of the Research Office, the National People’s Congress of China
	“Overview of the Chinese Legislative Process” A background paper prepared by Ms. Chenfeng Cai and Ms. Chunhua Li
	“Comparison Between Chinese and Canadian Legislative Procedures” Presentation delivered by Ms. Chenfeng Cai at the learning session with CIDA

From August 2-October 19 2006, the Parliamentary Centre, in collaboration with Canadian Policy Research Network (CPRN), hosted a three-month learning program in Canada for Ms. Chenfeng Cai and Ms. Chunhua Li, two researchers of the National People’s Congress of China. The purpose of the learning program is to facilitate a comprehensive study on the leading trends and practices in Canada to involve the public in the policy process and provide an extensive exposure to cutting-edge expertise and practices that might assist the Chinese legislative staff in optimizing the consultation results. The learning program is developed around practical aspects of public involvement and focused on the mechanisms and methods in action to ensure all citizens, including the socially disadvantaged, have an equal chance to voice their opinion and concern in the policy process and influence the ultimate policy actions.

The study attachment included on-site visits and interviews in 5 provinces from coast to coast, i.e. Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and British Columbia. The learning process involved relevant readings, key informant interviews with policy makers, academics and practitioners, observation of public involvement initiatives and periodic meetings with CPRN to review progress, consolidate findings, answer questions, and assess needs. With the contribution of more than 100 Canadian experts or practitioners including government officials, civil society organizations and academics, this study attachment has become one of the most far-reaching, in-depth and revealing research that have ever been done on the consultation practices across Canada.

Site visits have been arranged for the delegates to reach out to organizations and individuals working at the grass-root level and connect head on with real-life examples of public consultation across Canada. The cases selected represented different stages along the full continuum of public involvement: from routinized opinion-finding exercise of government departments and legislative hearings of parliamentary committees all the way up to emerging cases of deliberative dialogue among citizens to make value-based policy choice, citizen empowerment to choose electoral regime and make budgetary allocation. Interviews with consultation practitioners and observance of consultation sessions in action have revealed a set of operational principles, rules of procedure and institutional mechanisms that were crucial to improve the transparency, equality and accountability of the consultation process.

The learning program has nurtured some vigorous two-way knowledge exchanges between the visiting Chinese researchers and the Canadian practitioners that proved to be a mutually educational experience. The NPC researchers attended seminars and debrief sessions with some leading Canadian consultation experts not only to disseminate their fresh knowledge and insights gained from their field visits in various Canadian jurisdictions, but also challenge their Canadian colleagues with new thoughts and queries on some basic issues on public consultation. The two NPC researchers delivered a presentation at the Canadian School of Public Service and Canadian International Development Agency to summarize their findings from a comparison on practices in Canada and China to elicit public inputs into the legislative process and some important lessons learned from the Canadian model that can be considered for improvement of the of the Chinese consultation process.