The challenge of engaging ethno-cultural and immigrant residents in the development of urban sustainability policies - the cases of Brampton, Ontario and Surrey, BC

In an era where the levels of immigration are changing the size and the context of municipal populations throughout Canada, immigrant rich municipalities are forced to find ways to ensure that all voices are heard, and are part of the urban sustainable land-use policy development process. I have chosen to conduct a comparative case study of the municipalities of Brampton, Ontario and Surrey, BC, to discover how they have managed to engage the voices of their ethno-cultural and immigrant populations in their sustainable policy development processes. In order to answer the research questions posed I bring together the theories of “just sustainability” and municipal readiness/responsiveness and have developed a checklist to provide a set of criteria that will allow me to systematically examine the extent to which Brampton and Surrey have been inclusive of their ethno-cultural and immigrant residents.