Via Ipsos Reid

Public consultations are an indispensable element of effective stakeholder relations. At a time when more and more Canadians are expressing their opinions on social media, we wanted to explore how Canadians felt about public consultations in general and how they want to take part in the consultative process.

Data for this infographic was generated by an online survey of 1,000 Canadians conducted from Feb 20 – 25, 2014. The results were used to inform an online Ideation session with more than 30 public consultations experts in the federal, provincial and municipal government, and non-profit organizations held on April 24, 2014.

Key Takeaways

Here are some highlights from the infographic:

• Just one-fifth of Canadians participated in a public consultation session or a town hall in the past year.
• Those who participated in a public consultation were more often male and those with higher levels of education.
• A majority think that consultations are just for show and many question whether their participation really makes a difference.