The City of Prince George is looking to expand its public consultations for next year’s budget when they launch this fall.
At the Wednesday, Aug. 20 meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance and Audit, communications manager Claire Thwaites outlined what existing and new ways the public will be able to chime in on how their tax dollars will be spent.
A page on the city’s website will serve as a central hub listing all the engagement opportunities for the 2026 budget as well as financial documents like the capital plan, corporate work plan and the 2024 Statement of Financial Information.
In September, five satisfaction surveys will be launched through a survey platform on the budget page letting residents air their thoughts on five core municipal services including parks and trails, events and recreation, roads and sidewalks, snow removal and protective services.
These surveys will also be printed out and brought to facilities around the city like Prince George Public Library branches, city hall and seniors’ centres. The filled-out forms will then be manually entered into the online system by city staff.
Thwaites said 270 paper satisfaction surveys were filled out last year.
Then, the next month, the city’s annual citizen budget survey will return. However, this survey will be digital only, with staff considering the distribution of flyers and posters with QR codes linking to the survey.
“That allows residents to enter in their own BC Assessment value and move the needle around and plus or minus taxes and see exactly how it would impact them,” Thwaites said.
As part of that effort, city staff are discussing with the library whether its computers and staff might be available to help residents fill out the survey at its branches.
Rather than hosting a budget town hall, staff are instead planning pop-up booths set up during various events around the city in October and early November.
It’s still in the planning stages, but Thwaites said appearances at Pine Centre Mall and the CN Centre are under consideration.
All of these efforts will be advertised in local media, social media and other traditional advertising methods.
When it comes to costs, the city has an existing contract with a company named Ehtelo to complete the citizen budget surveys and there will be no additional expenses on that front.
For advertising, an estimated $3,000 to $4,000 will be spent from the communications budget.
There may be various costs to host the pop-up events at various venues, which have yet to be determined. There will also be costs to print materials like poster and handouts as well as staff overtime during the pop-ups.
On top of information about property taxes, committee chair Coun. Cori Ramsay said she thought it might be helpful for city staff to provide information on utility bills and compare how much locals pay compared to residents in other communities across the province.
Ramsay and Coun. Tim Bennett talked about having members of the committee present at the pop-ups to speak with residents. City manager Walter Babicz said it would be better if all members of council were invited to participate.
Coun. Ron Polillo wondered whether a pop-up could be set up during the CN Centre 30th anniversary celebration event in September. Thwaites said she had brought that up with the organizing committee for the event and it wasn’t warmly welcomed because there’s already a lot of elements included such as the volunteer thank you event and the welcome to international students event.
Coun. Trudy Klassen put a motion on the floor calling for residents to be given the option to include some demographic information like age with their surveys. The motion passed unanimously.-
