In the summer of 2013, the City of Guelph announced that the municipality was embarking on a strategy to create Canada’s first Open Government Action Plan. The goal: to create a more open, accountable, transparent and engaging municipal government.
Using Delvinia’s Voice of e-Democracy platform, the City of Guelph sought to create new participation experiences designed to help the municipality increase citizen participation, gather opinion, promote informedness, and ultimately involve residents, local businesses and associations, and special interest groups in an ongoing dialogue with government.
To engage this audience, the City launched a broad-based online survey.
The Open Guelph survey began with a video of Mayor Karen Farbridge introducing the concept of Open Government and inviting participants to share their opinions.
Participants were prompted to answer a series of questions designed to provide the municipality with rich feedback and an understanding of the perspectives of stakeholders. This information was collected in an effort to generate a more cohesive and inclusive Action Plan.
A report detailing the survey findings and outlining the direction of the municipality’s Open Government Action Plan will be released in Spring 2015.
