The Health Canada Policy Toolkit for Public Involvement in Decision Making

Information Toolkit
Terminology

Terms such as "consultation," "involvement" and " engagement" are often used interchangeably, although they mean different things to different people. The following definitions should help Health Canada employees to cut through the jargon around concepts relating to public involvement and develop a common usage of language in this area.

Citizen - an individual Canadian who is neither a delegate nor a representative of any government, organization, association or interest group.

Citizen engagement - the techniques that facilitate an informed dialogue among citizens and government officials, elected and/or non-elected, and encourage participants to share ideas or options and undertake collaborative decision making, sometimes as partners.

Communications - the techniques that inform the public about policies, programs and services. Consultations - the techniques involving a two-way flow of information that offer options for consideration and encourage feedback, such as additional ideas or options from the public.

Continuum of public involvement - the full range of public involvement in issues of public concern. This document refers to five levels of public involvement and pinpoints an array of public involvement techniques along a continuum. Communications techniques are at the "low end," consultation is in the " mid range" and citizen engagement is at the "high end" of the public involvement continuum.

Governance - the set of processes and traditions that determine how a society steers itself, how citizens are accorded a voice on issues of public concern and how decisions are made on these issues.

Involvement - the level of participation by the public, or the extent to which the public is actively involved, in understanding, assessing or resolving issues of public concern.

Partner - an individual, group or organization who participates in, or is responsible for, sharing responsibility for the implementation of various aspects of policy or program decisions.

Public - individuals, consumers, citizens, special interest groups and/or stakeholders.

Public involvement techniques - a broad range of strategies and methods used to inform citizens and/or accord them a voice on issues of public concern and/or include citizens in decision-making processes relating to these issues.

Social cohesion - refers to the building of shared values, reducing disparities in wealth and income and enabling people to have a sense that they are engaged in a common enterprise and face shared challenges as members of the same community.

Stakeholder - an individual, group or organization having a "stake" in an issue and its outcome (e.g. specific matters relating to health, environment, consumers, volunteers, industry, science).

Sustainable community development - communities empower themselves to achieve a hopeful and common vision of the future. Effectively responds to change through community-based decision making, economic self-reliance and environmental sustainability.