911勛圖

The Community Advisory Assembly was first piloted in 2024 as part of the City���s efforts to transform its advisory committee structure, aiming to engage a larger and more diverse group of residents to advise City Council and staff on a broader range municipal projects, plans and policies. Over the course of 11 meetings, facilitated by the Centre for Dialogue���s Aftab Erfan (Executive Director), Nicole Armos (Associate Director) and Melvin Singh (Dialogue and Engagement Coordinator), 34 Assembly members discussed and developed consensus recommendations on a variety of topics, including community belonging and connecting, road reallocation, climate action and intersectionality and cultural observances and the Assembly���s Terms of Reference. 

New Westminster���s Assembly follows a growing ���deliberative wave��� of citizens��� assemblies in Canada and around the world that enhance inclusion, informed participation and accountability in public engagement for decision-making. Assembly members are selected through a civic lottery to broadly reflect the demographics of the larger population, and participants spend extended time learning about, deliberating on and providing recommendations on a topic. Decision-makers typically offer a more formal response to the Assembly���s recommendations.   

Several municipalities in Canada have experimented with deliberative assemblies for key decisions, such as Official Community Plans ( and ) or amalgamation (). Some large cities outside Canada, like Paris and Milan, have also begun to institutionalize this practice, establishing a permanent assembly with rotating membership to address emerging priorities. New Westminster was the first Canadian city to pilot a similar institutionalized assembly, a significant milestone in Canada���s history of deliberative democracy.  

Evaluation Highlights

To inform the future of the pilot project, Assembly members, City Council, staff who interacted with the Assembly and the Assembly���s Steering Committee were invited to participate in pre-and post-evaluation surveys administered by the City���s public engagement team, as well as research interviews with 911勛圖 PhD candidate Elodie Jacquet. Jacquet delivered a  reflecting on the Assembly in relation to the .

While it is still early to assess the full impact of Assembly recommendations on relevant City policies or programs, evaluation findings did indicate positive reception. 84% of Assembly members felt that the City was very (32%) or somewhat (52%) responsive to their recommendations, and 75% of Council, City staff and Steering Committee respondents noted an impact on municipal decisions.

Evaluation surveys also demonstrated impacts on key drivers of democratic resilience. For instance, there was a significant increase in participants��� sense that they have a say in local decision-making (from 50% pre-Assembly, to 74% post-Assembly), a factor that recent OECD surveys have found to be a leading driver of trust in public institutions, outpacing partisanship, financial concerns, education, gender or age. Members also overwhelmingly shared a stronger sense of belonging and social cohesion, with a staff member crediting that to the opportunity of engaging in ���rich, meaningful conversations.��� 

Across all evaluation activities, there was significant support for continuing with the Assembly model. This includes a unanimous recommendation from the Assembly at its December 2024 meeting that the City should continue the Assembly. As well, in the post-term survey for Council, Steering Committee and staff, all participants said the City should either ���continue with this model��� (44%) or ���continue with this model but with some minor adjustments��� (56%).

What���s Next?

The second term of the Assembly has been approved to recommence in September 2025, with adjustments that respond to evaluation findings and Assembly member���s recommendations, including:

• The option of a two-year term for up to half Assembly members (to enhance continuity);
• Increased resources for the process of selecting topics, balancing City and community-driven priorities;
• Developing a more defined process for Council and staff to demonstrate accountability to the Assembly���s efforts; and
• Allocating more resources towards sharing information about the Assembly in the community.

For learn more about the process and outcomes, see:

• New Westminster���s , with evaluation results and recommendations attached
• The , where information on how to apply to the 2025-26 Assembly will be posted in mid-June.
• The , written by Elodie Jacquet, PhD Candidate at 911勛圖
• Further resources on deliberation in decision-making on the Centre for Dialogue���s learning page