What would you like to know about our budget?

Thank you to everyone who shared their ideas on how the city can best share information to the community about the city’s budget.

A total of 55 people completed the survey, and while the information cannot be considered scientifically valid based on the number of responses, the information did provide a snapshot into some sentiment regarding the city’s communications around its budget.

Among respondents, a few trends were identified, specifically:

• a greater clarity on how the budget is developed;
• a desire to understand how priorities for the community are determined; and
• a desire to have an opportunity to provide input into the city’s budget prior to council approval.

Respondents also noted that:

• the city does a good job of creating a budget where money is spent on things that are important to respondents; and
• the city communicates the budget in an understandable way.

Respondents were also asked to rank which city services were of greatest importance to them. Water services ranked as the most important, with loose leaf collection the least important. The survey also asked, among the services offered by the city, where would respondents like to see more money spent. Roads maintenance, repairs and upgrades was ranked more important with loose leaf collection the least.

Staff will consider this feedback as it develops the communication plan for the 2020 to 2022 budget. To review more details about the engagement findings, view the 2019 Budget Process Debrief in the March 18, 2019 council packet.

For more information about the 2019 budget visit www.waterloo.ca/budget.