This month, UBC researchers will bring together twenty-five Vancouver-area residents to provide advice on using biotechnology to improve the environment. Explosives and the Environment: A Public Deliberation helps citizens learn about the options for disposing RDX, a toxic explosive used by the Canadian military in combat and training.

Over four days, participants will hear expert presentations on bioremediation, a process that uses microbes to clean up toxic chemicals. Their task will be to provide advice on using bioremediation and other biotechnologies to reduce the risks of RDX pollution.

UBC researchers prefer deliberative processes because they believe in the capacity of citizens to make informed recommendations on complex public problems. To bring citizens together, UBC’s Centre of Applied Ethics worked with MASS LBP to conduct a Civic Lottery. Invitations to participate in Explosives and the Environment were sent to 5,000 households, randomly selected from Vancouver-area postal codes. Each person that accepted the invitation was included in a second draw of twenty-five names. This second draw was balanced for age, gender, and other demographic attributes.

They also believe Civic Lotteries are the right approach for convening a representative sample of the public. The random sampling technique ensures that diverse members of the public, rather than those with vested interests, have the opportunity to participate, and it produces an accurate profile of the public within a geographic region. This is the second time UBC’s Centre for Applied Ethics has collaborated with MASS LBP in the use of Civic Lotteries. We are pleased to work with an advanced research institute that shares our commitment to democratic innovation and citizen engagement.

You can find out more about the project here.

To read about the Civic Lottery process, download our publication Sorted: Civic Lotteries and the Future of Public Participation.