It’s that time of year when municipal governments must prepare their budgets, and for the second year in a row, the City of Quesnel is using an online survey as a tool for local residents to offer their feedback.

The City is currently preparing its operating and capital budgets, as well as its five-year financial plan, and is asking residents to share their priorities for the 2019 budget.

“This year, Quesnel City Council’s job of developing a prudent budget that results in the lowest tax increase possible for property owners is compounded by the need to include the tax increase for the new Public Works Facility that was approved by the vast majority of the electorate in the last election,” Mayor Bob Simpson says in his Council News report. “This long-overdue and absolutely necessary initiative will result in an increase of 3.14 per cent in taxation alone (or about $15.50 per $100,000 assessed value for residential ratepayers).”

Simpson says that as the City’s Financial Sustainability and Audit Committee develops the operating and capital budgets over the coming months, the City is looking for guidance and input from taxpayers.

“Unfortunately, we don’t often get much feedback from the public during our budget deliberation process, regardless of the form of engagement we’ve tried,” says Simpson. “But, last year, we tried, for the first time, an online budget survey and had more uptake from this form of public engagement than any of the others we’ve tried in the past.”

The online survey can be found at quesnel.ca/budget. Paper copies are available at City Hall at 410 Kinchant St.

The survey is open until Jan. 30.

editor@quesnelobserver.com
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