THUNDER BAY — Less than 20 people showed up to the Italian Cultural Centre to engage with city officials on the 2025 proposed operating budget on Wednesday.
Keri Greaves, commissioner of corporate services and city treasurer, said these Information sessions give people an opportunity to provide feedback on the budget.
“If the public doesn't tell us what they like and don't like about the budget, then we don't know and we can't implement anything,” said Greaves, commissioner of corporate services and city treasurer.
The public feedback from those who attended the session will be put into a council report to inform council during budget deliberation.
Greaves also noted the city has an online survey about the budget, which will be open to the public until Feb. 4.
Dougall Media asked what the city can do to get more people civically engaged.
The city stated that once the 2025 operating budget is approved, they will “explore new and creative ways to make it easier and more meaningful for everyone to participate.”
"While attendance at this year's city budget Q&A was low, we remain committed to finding the best ways to engage our community. We’re always evaluating how, when, and where to connect with people—offering both in-person opportunities and online options to meet diverse needs,” a spokesperson for the city said.
Among those in attendance, members of the public had mixed feelings about the budget.
Vernon Seymour said the city has ways to trim the municipal tax levy increase.
Seymour takes issue with the 24.7 full-time equivalent employees added to this year's budget.
“I understand that the argument is that it's money that comes from the feds or the province. I don't care. It's the same wallet, (it’s) still mine, so it doesn't make any difference to me,” said Seymour.
He said the city has “a lot of duplication” and they could consolidate some positions to save money.
Another point Seymour raised was the lack of support for public deputations during the budget deliberations.
“I think that's a loss that's hurting us, especially a person such as myself that tries to stick his nose in it. I may be wrong, but I try to stick my nose as much as I can, but I think the deputations are a big loss,” said Seymour.
Andre Gagne had a positive view of the operating budget.
He said he was pleased to see that administration has met its target of a 3.7 per cent increase and “if council decides to hold the line, that would be nice.”
Gagne noted over the last couple of years, the tax levy increase was too high with inflation.
“That's kind of the highlight of this budget is just hitting that target, exceeding the target, and that was great,” he said.
He also added that the new budget format has “vastly improved” from previous years.
“Before it was a little more of a puzzle box, not to disparage anybody but it's much more accessible. You can read it better. You can see the improvements,” said Gagne.
“If you just look at it there's even a glossary where it describes commonly used terms. It just seems like the city is taking priority in communicating these documents clearly to the public."
Gagne said it is hard to be “too critical” about the budget due to the restructuring the city has done by adding the new growth department to the corporation.
“You want to give some grace to kind of see how things settle and then before being too critical,” said Gagne.
