Report on Renovating the Public Hearing

The British Columbia Law Institute (BCLI) is pleased to announce the publication of its latest report, the Report on Renovating the Public Hearing. The report is the culmination of work BCLI started in late 2022, with the assistance of an expert project committee, to examine how local governments engage with the public on land-use bylaws.

Public hearings are required by provincial legislation to give people a forum in which to express their views on local land use. For a long time, public hearings were viewed as having a sort of halo, which enhanced local democracy and improved decisions on land use. More recently, critics have begun to question the effectiveness of the public hearing.

The report contains eight recommendations for reform, all geared to answering an overriding question: What is the best way for local governments to engage the public on land-use bylaws? It also contains findings from the Reconciliation and Community Listening Exploration Series, which BCLI carried out as a part of this project to consider how law reform on public hearings can be aligned with Indigenous governance.

You may download your own copy of the Report on Renovating the Public Hearing at bcli.org.