The 2025 city operating budget was ratified but council didn’t discuss the results of the city’s public consultation study before the ratification vote.
Public engagement in the budgeting process was beyond disappointing with less than 20 people showing up at the in-person session and less then 80 participants taking part in the survey.
The city treasurer pointed out that using public opinion is an important step for administration to gauge the desires of the public while also ensuring that the corporation is fiscally responsible.
Why was there less engagement ? Dougall Media asked what the city could do to get more people civically engaged?
Yes, the municipal budget is complex. This year, city administration tried to make the budget document simpler and easy to read in order to get more people engaged. I hope that the 2026 budget can be simplified even more.
Maybe there should be more deputations.
We may have to jump out of the budget box and instead look at the auditing processes. Taxpayers are more interested in seeing how their money is actually spent which could get them more engaged in the budget process.
The city has its auditing system which for the past 40 years has required approval of the audit report by council. Council can ask questions line by line in the budget process. However, the auditing committee only holds a few meetings annually to deal with auditing issues. Should every department be ready for a random audit and be prepared to answer questions by council and taxpayers, line by line?
Taxpayers should know where, when, how and why the money is spent. A good job done by spending less in a department should be rewarded. Reducing funding in the next budget for the fiscally prudent department is not a reward.
The budget is only a game plan. A detailed audit can help to make a better budget in order to win the game.
Budgets and audits are just like Yin and Yang. When citizens know how their money is spent, they will pay more attention to the budget.
