City Launches Budget Engagement Process

This week marks the beginning of the engagement process towards the development of the City’s next three-year budget, 2016 to 2018. 
 
“We want to ensure that residents and stakeholders have an opportunity to be engaged in the budget discussion,” said Mayor Dennis O’Keefe. “Our goal is to offer more ways for citizens and key groups to engage with us in development our budget plan.”
 
Today, the City will launch a new online engagement community; engagestjohns.ca will provide a new way for individuals to participate that doesn't require in person participation. Within this online community people can sign up to fully participate or simply go online to become more informed. They can read information about the city's programs and services, revenues sources, debt policy and capital works plan and provide their thoughts through online discussion groups, Q and A, polls and a budget allocator tool.
 
“The budget allocator is a unique tool that allows residents to build a budget based on what's important to them,” explained Councillor Danny Breen, Chair of the Standing Committee on Finance and Administration. The tool allows residents to increase or decrease budget areas and see the consequences of those decisions. “We hope this tool will help people understand the budget process and provide them with an opportunity to tell us what's important to them.”
 
The City is also planning a series of roundtable discussions with stakeholders in a variety of sectors - business, tourism, arts and culture, community sector, and education to name a few. These targeted discussions will help us focus on the programs and services that matter most to the community. There will also be kiosks for one-on-one discussions throughout the summer months at community events, and an open house is planned for the fall to share with the community what we heard through the engagement process - what stood out as key priorities and where the challenges or opportunities may lie.
 
 “Our goal is to ensure that residents are informed, listened to and that their concerns and ideas are considered as we develop our next three year budget,” said Mayor Dennis O’Keefe. “We commit to provide feedback on how the public input influenced our decisions.”
 
The new online engagement community will be used for all city projects with public engagement components to supplement in person activities. All residents are encouraged to sign up and engage in the conversation.
 
Media Contact:
Kelly Maguire
Media Relations
City of St. John's
709-576-8491
kmaguire@stjohns.ca