The mountain of correspondence continues to grow at municipal hall - 1,924 at last count - but I have to wonder whether this effort will have much bearing on the eventual decision on Century Group's Southlands proposal.
It's obvious both sides in the debate are doing whatever they can to convince civic politicians to see the issue their way, and a deluge of letters, emails, comment cards, petitions and the like is as good a way as any to get that point across. However, I'm dubious whether this approach will ultimately make a difference. It certainly hasn't done so thus far.
Despite the fact a municipal staff report tabulating all correspondence found 67 per cent received to date expressed opposition, Delta council decided last week to give the application preliminary approval and send it to a public hearing this fall. To be fair, more goes into a decision than simply adding up every piece of communication, but it was telling nonetheless.
That isn't stopping both sides from trying to leverage the totals for all they're worth. Those opposed to the development, who enjoy the upper hand at the moment, argue the numbers are no different than a game, or an election, where the side with the most points, or votes, is declared the victor.
Those backing the development have glommed on to the fact that over the last seven months more than half of the correspondence received has been supportive, which they suggest signals a change in public opinion.
I don't think you have to be a statistician major to recognize such swings in opinion aren't necessarily reflective of public sentiment as a whole, but rather demonstrate the wishes of whichever side is doing the writing. As a result, I think it's impossible to take those results and extrapolate them to the wider community.
Couple that with the fact that not all correspondence is created equal and you have a hard time using numbers alone to tell this story. Form letters, multiple letters from the same person or family, correspondence from those with a tenuous link to the property, petitions that include the names of civic-minded cats and dogs... there are all sorts variables that can skew the totals.
Something tells me, however, none of those rationalizations will prevent both sides from sitting down at the keyboard to continue to pound out missives in an attempt to win the minds and hearts of the seven members of Delta council. There's too much at stake to do otherwise.
