The first of five Talktober sessions kicks off in College Heights Wednesday night.
Built in the same vision as last year's inaugural talks, Mayor Lyn Hall said it's all about reconnecting council to the community.
"It's a very casual setting and when you have a single location where all of our departments are represented it's kind of a one-stop shop," said Hall, stressing that while sessions are based in neighbourhoods, residents should feel free to go to whatever night works with their schedule.
It's also why the city added an earlier downtown session at the Wood Innovation and Design Centre for those leaving work.
The service kiosk is new this year, with staff available to chat about requests and day-to-day operations.
The nights will cover topics like park strategy, community association review, transit operations and bike lanes, capital project priorities and stormwater infrastructure. Residents can give feedback on the draft park strategy as well as the budget For the second year, the city will use an online budget simulator called Citizen Budget to collect those opinions.
"It's kind of an interactive piece where you as a citizen can go on and take a look at the citizen budget and develop your own budget as if you were sitting around the council table," said Hall.
Residents can enter their personal property assessment into the survey and then view how their tax is allocated across city operations.
The sessions are:
Oct.12, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Columbus Community Centre in College Heights
Oct. 18, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Hart Community Centre
Oct. 20, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Blackburn Community Hall
Oct. 24, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., Wood Innovation and Design Centre
Oct. 26, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., College of New Caledonia atrium
