Great expectations, mixed results: trends in citizen involvement in Canadian environmental governance

摘要: The trend toward greater citizen involvement (CI) is beyond doubt one of the most influential and yet least well-defined aspects of environmental decision-making in Canada and other countries. How a nation involves its citizens in defining, structuring, and analysing key environmental questions can have a major influence on what is decided. The emergence of this trend is demonstrated by the proliferation of diverse CI efforts in environmental governance processes around the world. Its growing importance is underscored by recent recommendations for greater CI in environmental policy and sustainability choices, such as those by Canada's National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, ¹ two prestigious advisory panels in the United States, and the World Bank. 3At the same time, recommendations for greater CI are not without controversy. For example, responses to the US advisory panels' recommendations for greater CI in managing environmental risks have ranged from wholehearted endorsement to deep scepticism. Such a range in responses is understandable. On the one hand, it is clear that policy for environmental and health risk management involves public resources and public values, so it is easy to argue that judgments by the public should be used to help guide such decisions. On the other hand, all concerned parties would agree that risk-management decisions are enormously complex, replete with technical uncertainties and perplexing value trade-offs. Making and implementing wise policy choices is difficult, even for those who have specialized in riskmanagement efforts for decades. How then could members of …