Based on feedback that I received from residents, I reached out to Evolugen to inquire about their plans for a town hall type event. Please see below to review their answer, and my response to their comments, urging them to hold an event where community members can ask questions and receive answers collectively.
From: Wright, Geoff
Sent: February 03, 2025 3:51 PM
To: Kelly, Clarke <clarke.kelly@ottawa.ca>
Subject: Re: February 23rd Public Meeting format
Good afternoon, Councillor Kelly.
Thank you for your message. The February 23rd engagement is an ‘Open House’ style event from 1pm to 6pm at West Carleton Secondary School, which is designed to encourage information sharing and for us to solicit feedback from the community on particular topics so as to incorporate that input into our proposal. At the session, our entire development team, many of our external technical experts, and a few community partners will be stationed at topic-specific booths (Fire Safety, Local Power Grid Benefits, our Community Development Fund, etc.), where residents will be encouraged to ask questions and provide their feedback throughout those five hours.
Beyond providing residents with information as to the status and proposed future plans of the South March project, it will also be an important opportunity for us to directly hear about local concerns and ensure that we've prepared detailed answers on every subject for an 'open mic'-style Town Hall session that will be scheduled next month — aiming for the week of March 17th. To that end, please let us know if your Office has any strong preferences on timing in that window.
I want to highlight that the project design will evolve based on the input we receive from your Office and from the community. We eagerly welcome your direction on finding the best balance between proactively communicating project details with offering a meaningful window to incorporate community feedback.
We are actively working through equipment selection, prioritizing safety while working with an array of consultants to minimize impact of the project on the local environment. The choice of equipment will inform the ultimate design of our fire suppression and emergency response systems – of course pending further feedback from Ottawa Fire Services. The vendor selection will also determine the project’s maintenance procedures and incident insurance coverage, which we know are important questions for your constituents.
Respectfully,
Geoff
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Mr. Wright,
Thank you for your response.
I strongly encourage you to reconsider the format that you have outlined. At a time that you want to be to be engaging with the community in a meaningful way, respecting their preferred format and desire for a fulsome community dialogue, I believe would be beneficial to the health of the conversation.
As you can imagine, I have heard from many residents, and I have closely followed their comments through emails and through social media channels. They have questions and concerns that they want to have answered, and the format that you have outlined seems to limit that opportunity. As discussed when we met, without clear answers, people will fill in the blanks themselves, which they are already doing.
Many of the questions that they have and the concerns that they are raising should be familiar to your group. The community will lose further faith in your proposal if you take the position that you need to gather information before having a formal, open session dialogue. For the very few questions that might come as a surprise, a commitment to provide an email response, or a response on your website would likely be satisfactory.
The bulk of concerns for the Marchurst BESS includes the following issues:
• Fire risk and mitigation
• Environmental concerns
• Light and noise
• Property values
• Insurance risk and risk of increased insurance costs
• Evolugen’s experience/lack of with BESS
• Hydro rates/claims that they will be lowered
I fully expect that there will be dozens, if not hundreds of residents in attendance on February 23rd. I assume that your intention is to gain community support through positive engagement. Many will walk away disappointed if they are not able to ask questions or to hear the answers of all of the questions posed by others. Expecting the community to attend an event for five hours on a weekend in the hope that they will be able to access the individual subject matter experts will be equally frustrating for them. You also run the risk of individuals creating unique interpretations of the one on one answers that they receive.
My suggestion would be to provide a hybrid structure, whereby you have tables and subject matter experts available for the first half, and a scheduled Q&A for the second half. Delaying the opportunity to do will only further hamper your reputation with the community.
Kind regards,
Clarke Kelly
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As always, residents who have questions about this or any other municipal issue can contact our team at Clarke.Kelly@Ottawa.ca. Stay up to date by following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or Subscribe to our West Carleton-March (Ward 5) Newsletter.
Related articles: Evolugen to Host Series of Public Engagement Sessions on Marchurst BESS Proposal, Starting Feb 23 at WCSS