What is public engagement

On screen: What is Public Engagement?

Laura Wesley: Public engagement is anything that we do to involve citizens and stakeholders...

On screen: Laura Wesley, Executive Director, Consultations and Public Engagements, Privy Council Office

Laura Wesley: In government decision-making and the activities and business of government.

Laura Wesley: I think the question for me is why is Open Government important to public engagement...

On screen: “Public engagement is about involving stakeholders and citizens in the way government operates”

Laura Wesley: Because public engagement is about involving stakeholders and citizens in the way government operates. And in order for people to be involved, they need to know what’s going on.

Laura Wesley: And so it’s our job as public servants to work in the open, to let people know what we’re working on, to gather information and data. And the more we publish data openly, it allows people to come into the fold and have those conversations with us. There’s so much information out there. There is a website called Consulting Canadians...

On screen: consultingcanadians.gc.ca

Laura Wesley: And people can go there and get a list of the consultations that are happening, where they’re happening, when they’re happening, what the topics for consideration are.

Laura Wesley: Another place is Open Government website.

On screen: open.canada.ca

Laura Wesley: People can go to the Open Government website and see the topics of conversation. They can even feed into the opening of government. So the more people are involved in analysing data with us, in considering options, in pondering trade-offs, in thinking about what the possibilities are analysing the directions that we could go together in the future, the better off we’re going to be in terms of making evidence-based decisions.

Laura Wesley: A question that we have right now is how do you want to be engaged? How do you want to be involved? What’s missing from the equation that is preventing you from participating in consultations or from explaining your point of view to the government? Let us know on open.canada.ca.

On screen: Share your ideas on open.canada.ca

On screen: Canada Wordmark

On screen: Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat Signature