By KEVIN BERGER, Local Journalism Initiative
As the City of Martensville prepares to develop a new Transportation Master Plan (TMP) that will guide future road projects, residents and businesses will be asked to give their input on barriers to transportation and safety concerns during a series of workshops and stakeholder meetings this fall.
During their committee of the whole meeting on September 8, city councillors reviewed an engagement plan prepared by ISL Engineering that lays out public input will be gathered to help shape the TMP.
As noted in that document, the city is undertaking a TMP to establish “a long-term framework for transportation infrastructure, mobility, connectivity, accessibility and safety as the community continues to grow.”
The city does have an existing TMP, but it was developed over the course of 2016 and finalized in 2017, so it is rather dated.
The engagement plan stresses that meaningful communication and community engagement is a key part of the TMP. To that end, two phases of public engagement are planned.
The first phase, which will be carried out this fall, will focus on understanding how people experience the city’s transportation network, identifying issues and barriers, and establishing community priorities.
This will consist of one workshop lasting 1.5 hours, to be held either in person or virtually and involving the city’s civic leadership; a “pop-up” event at another high-traffic community event or location; and two stakeholder meetings. As well, the engagement plan also recommends conducting a public survey with up to 15 questions.
The second phase will commence in the spring and will summarize what was heard in the first phase, along with providing a series of recommendations, so the public can give their input.
In addition to in-person and virtual sessions, the engagement plan recommends the use of website and social media updates, newsletters, posters and notices on bulletin boards, signage and hard-copy surveys.
While reviewing the engagement plan, Councillor Brad Blixt pointed out a reference in the engagement plan to consulting with Indigenous partners (in addition to schools, community organizations, developers and so on). He then pointed out the input of Indigenous people on transportation would be very similar to anyone else, at least in the context of Martensville.
Economic Development Manager Dillon Shewchuk said the fact that Martensville doesn’t have a large Indigenous population was touched on when developing this engagement plan.
That said, there are some Indigenous landholders in the region, and during the process of constructing the Martensville Recreation Centre (MRC), Indigenous partners were still contacted and asked if they wanted input.
Ultimately, he said those partners might be interested in what is happening generally in Martensville. “It’s as much about relationship-building as it is about transportation,” he said.
Councillor Spencer Nikkel then asked if consulting the City of Warman had been included as part of the engagement plan.
After confirming they weren’t included, Nikkel suggested that it might be better to limit the scope of this consultation to either Martensville only or commit to reaching out to all other communities that are close by.
He also asked if perhaps the consultation should be delayed a month, adding, “There are some pretty fresh frustrations in mind (relating to local transportation) and I’m just concerned that might skew responses.”
Though he didn’t state what those frustrations are, city councillors have heard in recent months a series of complaints from local business-owners about a lack of notice before the start of construction on Centennial Drive.
“My big concern is that you get people responding to this solely because of that issue,” Nikkel said, adding that he wasn’t sure if his concern about skewed input was actually a valid worry.