Evaluating procedural justice in regional planning process: Lessons from Alberta’s regional plans – http://scholar.ulethbridge.ca
Improving fairness in Alberta’s regional plans
With a focus on the Lower Athabasca region, a researcher from the University of Lethbridge reviewed procedural justice in the preparation of Alberta’s regional plans.
Parastoo Emami analyzed policy documents and the input from stakeholders and the general public. He published his results in 2014 in a paper called Evaluating procedural justice in regional planning process: Lessons from Alberta’s regional plans.
Emami recommended that procedural justice and fairness should be improved in three areas of the planning process:
- In the design of regional plans
- In the public consultation phase
- In the decision making process
To improve fairness in the design of regional plans, there needs to be clear procedural rules and goals. For fair public consultation, unbiased representatives and effective public engagement are required. The decision making process can be more fair with clarity of the process, mechanisms to resolve conflicts and understanding the challenges of implementation.
For planning professionals in Alberta, they have the challenge of supplying fair input and implementing the regional plans. The researcher highlights the core challenge within he decision making process: “the decision making process in Alberta’s regional planning process is designed from a top down approach.”
Municipalities and planning departments can improve fairness by defining the decision making hierarchy for their decision making processes and outlining the roles of every position.
“Key informants and public documents expressed the view that the perception of a fair decision-making process will improve considerably if the planning process provides clear description of the decision makers’ responsibilities for various layers in the decision-making hierarchy.”
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