After that, who knows? Too often these things mostly just sit on shelves and get verbally referenced by members of Council on the odd occasion when it helps them to score a point. Witness the way that the Transportation Master Plan has only had lip service paid to it after all of the citizen participation that went into it.

In addition to this task force, I’ve also participated in the Parks and Rec Strategic Master Plan process, and the Downtown Master Plan process, and the ongoing ‘Smart Moves’ Transportation Master Plan review process. In each case, I’ve tried to emphasize the wisdomw of collating all of the recommendations that are coming out of all of these and prioritizing them accordingly. But whether or not City staff will ever present them to Council that way or not, remains to be seen.

The best way for citizens to respond to these recommendations (IMO) is to pick out the ones that you agree with, make your own priority list, and then lobby the *&^&** out of your ward Councillor, the Controllers, and the Mayor to implement them.

And of course, I’m always available to citizens who feel that they need assistance in doing that.

Appended:

Also, don’t forget that there’s a discussion forum on the City website that’s been created as part of the TMP review process. Which has been very under-used to date. Have your say!

Appended:

Also, talk about these things to the people that you know, and point them towards online sources of info and further discussion. Like this guy, who I’m lucky enough to be able to count amoung the people that I know.