The City of Vancouver unveiled a new online public engagement tool Wednesday that it hopes will halt or at least slow the erosion of participation in civic affairs.

Concerned by persistent low voter turnout, lack of public interest in city council business, and the rise of small-base lobbying interests that can sometimes skew public opinion, the city is turning to technology to reach out to more of its citizens.

In doing so, Vancouver is joining a growing number of municipalities that, if they are not entirely bypassing traditional means of communication, are relegating such low-return ideas as open houses and household mailers to the back burner.

Vancouver's new tool, "Talk Vancouver", is similar to an online engagement program Surrey launched in April called "CitySpeaks", in which people can sign up to participate in surveys and online forums, all tailored around civic issues, programs and ideas.

Show up at a regular city council meeting and the pews in council chambers are largely empty. Attend open houses for neighbourhood projects and you usually find just those with vested interests, or a few intrigued residents.

And yet when elected politicians proceed with controversial decisions, they face stiff criticism from people who complain they weren't properly consulted. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver-majority council has discovered this repeatedly over their bike lane policies.

Last year, the growing disconnect between the public and its civic government spurred Vancouver council to create an "Engaged City task force" to look for solutions, similar to what Surrey did last year. In May, the Vancouver group came back with a number of ideas, including the creation of an online communications tool.

Surrey's CitySpeaks program was recently used to get feedback about replacing the aging Pattullo Bridge to New Westminster. More than 1,500 people took part, far exceeding the input the city could have expected from traditional open houses, according to Surrey Coun. Barinder Rasode.

Both cities' programs are designed and operated by Vancouver-based Vision Critical, a public opinion and research firm. The company developed software with which registered participants can send in comments or take part in surveys on smartphones, tablets and computers. Although it was officially unveiled Wednesday, the tool was quietly launched last week at www.talkvancouver.com.

Vancouver's system is open to anyone over the age of 15 who works, lives or goes to school in the city. Surrey, on the other hand, limits engagement in its CitySpeaks to those over 16 who are residents or business owners.

Both cities are trying to break a worrying trend in civic affairs — the decline of public interest in issues that may affect them.

"CitySpeaks is another way to engage the public on public policy issues, things that are going on in the community that we want feedback on," Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said. "It is not government that creates community, it is the residents in conjunction with government that create public policy and community."

People lead busy lives and can't always get to public events, Rasode said.