It’s one of the tools used to collect feedback from those based in New Westminster—and now that it has a data set spanning about two years, the city is looking into its impact.

Be Heard New West (Be Heard) is one of the ways you’re able to share your two cents with the city, whether it’s about new development projects, changes to parks, and yes, even the impacts of bike lanes. It’s also one of the options available to residents if they’re interested in following the status of a project.

According to the city, there are 3,458 registered users as of Feb. 27, 2023. The total doesn’t include anyone who registered with a staff account, administration accounts, or those who have yet to activate their account via email.

The overwhelming majority of Be Heard users own property in New West, coming in at just shy of 71% of the registered participants. A closer look at the stats shows that those property owners are between the ages of 35 and 64.

In a report dated May 8, 2023—and passed along to council for its information—staff say the data was put together using not only the site, but also information from the overall demographic profile of the city from the 2021 census.

“While there are several limitations to the data, this information provides council, staff, and the community with specifics about which groups in the community are highly under-represented in the city’s online public engagement activities,” the report notes. “This demographic comparison does not include in-person engagement participants and reaching people ‘where they already are’ is a key strategy in reaching more diverse voices.”

Staff added there were some categories they weren’t able to compare, such as whether a participant was a member of the LGBTQ2S+ community. There were also “more info about you” sections that were not mandatory for those with accounts to complete. As an example, you’ll remember in the intro to this piece that nearly 71% of participants said they were homeowners in New West. 24% identified as a renter. That means there are approximately 5% of people unaccounted for.

The report’s summary made the following additional observations:

• Those who identify as people of colour and/or those who are racialized are “highly under-represented” on Be Heard: 46.8% of New West residents identified as visible minorities in the 2021 census—only 11.9%, according to the report, identified as people of colour.

• Young people and children are also under-represented, as well as those who were born outside of Canada.

• One of the unexpected results: seeing an overrepresentation of Be Heard members who have children under the age of 18 in their residence.

As for next steps, city staff are looking to connect in-person with to the various individuals and groups in the city: through pop-ups, the Youth Elections Ambassador Program, the Community Action Network New West program, and also talking about the website during City Hall tours.

If you’d like to browse the projects on Be Heard New West, or learn more about the feedback process, visit the website by clicking here.