Collaboration Practitioners Network Teleconference on the Alberta Climate Dialogue

I am delighted to announce that EPA will coordinate one more teleconference/meeting of the Collaboration Practitioners Network in conjunction with our partner hosts from Environment Canada and the Canadian Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation in May. Two additional sessions will be hosted by our Canadian partners during the 2010 calendar year. Anyone not already on the Canadian Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation list and wishing to receive invitations to participate in those calls should send an e-mail to: Sandra Zagon szagonascentum [dot] ca and Miriam Wyman miriam [dot] wymangmail [dot] com

On Thursday, May 6th from 1:30-3:00 Eastern Time, three members of the Alberta Climate Dialogue (ABCD) will introduce this new citizen deliberation project and lead a discussion of some of its key aims and challenges. There will be only 150 lines, so please call in with friends and colleagues to: dial in number 1-866-299-3188 with Conference Code: 202-566-2196 or join us in Room 4118 EPA West. Though the call will be taped and a post session mailing will detail how to access the recording, I urge you to participate.

ABCD seeks to engage thousands of citizens and stakeholders in climate change planning and action at the municipal and also provincial levels in Alberta, using tools of deliberative democracy. ABCD will support its government partners in designing and running deliberations, and will carefully document and evaluate these processes. One of ABCD’s goals is to advance the field and build knowledge about citizen engagement on climate that can be used in other jurisdictions. In particular, the project explores how particular elements of deliberative design (e.g. recruitment goals and methods; duration, scale, and iterativity of citizen involvement; how citizen and stakeholder processes are combined within a particular jurisdiction) correlate with two key outcomes: degree of influence on policy, and degree of influence on participants' motivation and ability act individually and with others on climate issues.

ABCD's projected five years of work is funded with $1 from the Community-University Research Alliance Program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and with $3 million in matching cash and in-kind support from community organizations and partners. More information on the project and a full list of participants can be found at www.albertaclimatedialogue.ca Information on the site underscores the intent to have a strong evaluation component in this effort as well as recognition of the need to fully engage aboriginal partners and their perspectives.

Three members of the ABCD team will present on the May 6th call:

·David Kahane (Department of Political Science, University of Alberta). Kahane's research deals with theories and practices of democratic dialogue and deliberation; his most recent publication is Deliberative Democracy in Theory and Practice, edited with Daniel Weinstock, Dominique Leydet, and Melissa Williams (University of British Columbia Press, 2010);

·Mary Pat MacKinnon (Ascentum and University of Ottawa) is one of Canada's best known deliberative democracy practitioners. From 2002 to 2007 she served as the Director for Citizen Engagement at the Canadian Policy Research Network, where she led citizens’ dialogue projects and coordinated a multiyear research program on the involvement of citizens in government decision-making and democratic life.

·John Parkins (Department of Rural Economy, University of Alberta) specializes in public and stakeholder consultation in the environmental and forestry sectors and is the author, most recently, of "Managing Conflict in Alberta: The Case of Forest Certification and Citizen Committees," in L. Adkin (ed.) Environmental Conflict and Democracy in Canada (UBC Press, 2009).

The presenters will circulate supporting materials and questions for the conference call a few days before the call. If you have questions or comments you’d like the panel to address, please send them to me [bonner [dot] patriciaepa [dot] gov] and I'll share them with the panel and sponsors.