After a recent $3 million revamp of the City of Vancouver website, citizens are gradually discovering what has been taken away. A considerable amount of information about neighbourhood planning is gone. And here is another example — in the past, the City 
website carried the same notices that appeared in print in the weekly Vancouver Courier newspaper under the heading “Vancouver Matters.” These ads in the paper are critical public announcements about upcoming open houses, public hearings, consultation, budgeting, and major policies, etc. In the past, they were available also online. But now, it appears, they are not. One citizen has found that even the web links indicated in the newspaper ads end up leading to nowhere on the City website. And below is one real interaction between a citizen and City staff about “Vancouver Matters” advertisements disappearing from the website. Text was supplied from an information-hungry taxpayer.
Citizen’s concluding comment: So the “web development team” decides on removal of information? Not plausible. This City is not being info-starved by the techies. Anyone not finding anything that used to be there should bombard City of Vancouver at http://vancouver.ca/your-government/tell-us-online.aspx
CityHallWatch says … and let us at CityHallWatch know too (citizenYVR@gmail.com). We’ll try to keep a running tally of what’s missing. And please take action too. Write mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca telling them that despite the official spin about Vancouver being a champion of “open data,” City Hall is actually going backwards in many ways. Ask for improvements.
—– Original Message from Citizen to City—–
From: smartform@vancouver.ca
Sent: 2012-10-23 22:46:57.0
To: info@vancouver.ca
Subject: Tell us online
Form Name: Tell_us_online
Message_type: Question
Message_details: I used to be able to find City of Vancouver
advertisements online. The bookmark now redirects me to useless
generalities. Where are those advertisements, the ones that run in the
newspapers? More data please, NOT LESS.
—– Reply from City of Vancouver —–
Thank you for contacting the City of Vancouver.
When the new City of Vancouver website was implemented, information was added in certain areas and removed in others. I have forwarded your comments to the web development team via case number [redacted4privacy] for their consideration.
If you require further assistance, please contact us at:
3-1-1 (within Vancouver)
604.873.7000 (outside Vancouver)
We are open to take your call from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm, 7 days/week, 365 days/year (including holidays). We also offer interpretation services in over 170 languages.
We invite you to visit the City of Vancouver’s website for further information on City services at http://vancouver.ca
Regards,
Vanessa
City of Vancouver
3-1-1 Contact Centre
It appears that the ability to search for a city employee’s business email address and phone number by employee name has also been removed. This, of course, restricts citizens’ direct access to employees.
The old web site provided this ability at http://app.vancouver.ca/qf_net/Default.aspx