Public Engagement FAQs

We're committed to providing authentic and meaningful opportunities for you to contribute your perspectives on Port Moody matters that matter to you. In addition to the ongoing ways you can share your input directly with Council or at Council Meetings, we conduct dedicated public engagement processes when there are significant opportunities for the public to provide input into decision-making.

What is public engagement?

Public engagement seeks to provide meaningful, inclusive experiences that give those who are interested/affected a chance to ask questions, gain knowledge and deepen their understanding of a topic, and share relevant values-based information and lived experience. Public engagement is not intended to be a vote, and the results are not intended to be statistically representative of the whole community.

When do we conduct public engagement?

We typically conduct engagement processes:

  • for significant policies or projects that have considerable impact on the public, and where there is an opportunity for the public to inform or influence the decision; and
  • when there is a legislative requirement to seek input from the public

The City follows these six principles of public engagement:

  1. authenticity – leading authentic, meaningful engagement practices that respect the efforts and time of participants and refraining from asking for input if the outcome is pre-determined and there is no opportunity to influence the decision;
  2. responsiveness – seeking to understand the public’s input and considering public input as one of the factors in decision-making;
  3. commitment – keeping the public informed, listening to and acknowledging concerns and aspirations, and sharing information on how public input was considered in the decision-making;
  4. accountability – dedicating sufficient resources and time to ensure the effectiveness and authenticity of public engagement processes;
  5. inclusiveness – striving to reach, involve, and hear from those who are impacted by reducing barriers to participation and providing equitable access for opportunities to participation; and
  6. transparency – providing clear and timely information to improve understanding of decision processes, procedures, and constraints.

Why do we ask you to register before you provide input? 

You'll only need to register once to create an account that you'll use to participate in all engagement opportunities through engage.portmoody.ca.

Registration helps us to:

  • verify that input collected is from Port Moody residents and business owners;
  • minimize the risk of skewed results due to repeat responses from bots or individual participants; and
  • understand who we’re hearing from, and which voices may be missing from the conversation, so we can conduct more targeted outreach and work to reduce barriers to participation.

Registration also has benefits for participants. You can:

  • answer our demographic questions once only, instead of every time you fill out a City survey;
  • find out when public engagement summaries (“What we heard” reports) are posted for projects that you provided input into; and
  • stay informed about new projects and opportunities to provide input.

How is your input used?

We value input from the public. Community input collected from participants provides the City with valuable information that is considered by City staff when making recommendations and developing draft plans and strategies, and by Council during their decision-making process. We balance consideration of community input with several other important factors such as technical information, advice provided by subject matter experts, available budget, strategic goals, and other plans or strategy documents.