10/29/2026
my comment (which has disappeared now?): "Well I gave a comment when you first brought this up that if they changed the 3:00 p.m. it shows the true intentions of this Council and that is that they don't really care what the public has to say. Public meetings are way to delay or potentially even cancel development projects and developers don't like delays. And that gets in the way of the money flowing into the Ivory Tower. We knew that this Council didn't really care since most of it was comprised in the previous council members who leaned left, and now we know for certain. Despite the changes in the Province this year toward common sense it appears that Red Deer remains 10 years behind."
I would have moved to public meetings to Saturday afternoons. There's not much difference between staff working on a Saturday versus them working 5 hours later on a week night- it seems they can't even be asked to do that now either though.
PUBLIC HEARINGS AT 3 P.M., PART 2: WHAT DID RESIDENTS ALREADY TELL THE CITY?
After my post about Council moving statutory public hearings from 5 p.m. to 3 p.m. starting in 2027, the City’s 2025 Living in Red Deer Survey was brought to my attention. What it says about public hearings concerns me.
Residents described work schedules, childcare and the cost of taking time off as barriers to attending. The City’s summary says some respondents appreciated the evening start time. Others suggested evening meetings and more ways to participate remotely.
Among 254 respondents who had attended a hearing and answered a question about access, 41% agreed or strongly agreed that hearings were easy to access and participate in. Another 30% disagreed or strongly disagreed, while 28% were neutral.
This was an opt-in survey. It did not ask people to choose between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., so it cannot tell us exactly what the change will do. It does show that residents had already raised timing as an access issue.
That makes the October 27 discussion hard for me to understand. A councillor directly asked whether the public had been consulted about moving hearings earlier. Administration discussed other municipalities and feedback received through the planning department, but did not mention this survey. The report recommending the schedule also did not mention it. Instead, the report said no public participation was undertaken because the decision had “limited direct community impact.”
I cannot tell from the public record whether anyone reviewed the survey before the vote. I can say that its findings were not brought into the public question and answer discussion when Council was weighing the change. To me, that is relevant feedback being passed over at the very moment it should have been examined.
Written submissions and virtual participation will still be available, and those options matter. So does the ability to speak at a hearing without leaving work early or losing wages.
Council approved the new schedule unanimously. A councillor asked for participation to be reviewed after a year. I hope that review measures whether residents can take part, not simply whether meetings finish earlier.
Sources: City of Red Deer, 2025 Living in Red Deer Survey Summary; October 27, 2026 Organizational Meeting agenda and public meeting.
