Engaging Citizens in Sustainable Development Policy in Regional Planning: A Comparative Study of the Regional Municipalities of York (Ontario) and Wood Buffalo (Alberta)

This paper explores whether changes in direct settlement patterns by recent visible minority immigrants influence the development and implementation of sustainability planning policy—the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP)—for two regional municipalities in Canada—York (Ontario) and Wood Buffalo (Alberta). Since 2005, having ICSPs has been required in Canada; furthermore, it has become a well-documented fact that Canada's current population growth is largely attributed to migration by ethnic visible minority immigrants. While historically, immigrants settled in traditional urban areas (i.e. Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver), recent immigrants are increasingly directly settling in suburban regions. As such, sustainability and sustainable development are the site of policy and politics at which this study will examine public engagement and consultation practices of the two regional municipalities, in regards to their changing social composition. Specifically, this study is interested in whether there has been culturally appropriate and adequate response by the two regional municipalities to the change in social composition that has occurred through migration by recent visible ethnic minority immigrants in terms of public engagement and consultation in the development and implementation process of their respective ICSPs.