Council has endorsed a new, more comprehensive, public engagement process for the upcoming city budget.
Aimed at fostering a culture of openness and collaboration between residents and local government, the expanded engagement initiative, for the 2025 budget process, is to ensure meaningful input from residents.
The budget engagement process is beginning much earlier than in prior years.
The community is invited to consider the city’s progress on its goals and priorities and complete a feedback form to share their ideas online.
That feedback will be collected until Sept. 28, and the information will be made available to the community and shared with council at a public meeting to introduce the draft 2025 Financial Plan.
The next phase will occur in October and November when the draft financial plan will be shared with the community for feedback. Residents will have the opportunity to attend a pair of open houses: Oct. 24 at the North Delta Centre for the Arts from 6 to 8 p.m., and Oct. 26 at the South Delta Rec Centre from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Anyone not able to attend those in-person meetings, can attend an online information session where they will receive a presentation from staff.
Results of the engagement program will be shared publicly and with council at the start of council budget workshops.
A staff report notes that for the first year of the expanded consultation, the efforts are focused on informing the community about the budget process and providing opportunities to participate that are accessible.
The last budget consultation process drew a mostly negative reaction including how the city first revealed the proposed tax increase for 2024 and then gathered public feedback online, from Nov. 22 to 29, 2023. Preliminary approval of the financial plan was given by council on Dec. 4, 2023.
According to the city at the time, 969 residents participated in the online survey, a 28 per cent increase from the previous year.
For 2024, council approved a 7.75 per cent municipal property tax increase.
