City invites public engagement on priorities for 2025 budget
Once again, the City of Barrie is inviting the public to participate in the 2025 Budget Survey. This year, the City has created two separate surveys, asking the public to prioritize the City Services budget, and the Service Partners budgets. Feedback received through the surveys by Monday, October 21 will be shared with City Council during the 2025 Business Plan and Budget Deliberations
As in previous years, we do see issues with the survey, and don't believe it follows international best practices in public engagement, or expectations regarding public participation in decision-making processes on civic matters. From how we've seen Council respond to results in the past, we are not convinced it keeps the implied promise of acknowledging concerns and feedback. Nevertheless, we encourage everyone to participate and have their say, especially in the comment boxes, where more nuance can occur.
Choices on prioritizing services are limited to increasing or decreasing each service's budget by 5%, or keeping it the same. Some of the categories are excessively broad, and each survey asks about only a select group of services.
The City Services survey asks about:
Barrie Fire and Emergency Service (~$424 per year, per home)
the very broad umbrella of "Roads, Fleet, Stormwater and Technical Operations" (~$305 per home)
Transit (~$233 per home)
another broad umbrella of "Recreation and Culture Services" (~$156 per home),
Waste Management and Environmental Sustainability (~$160 per home)
Parks and Forestry Operations (~$115)
Development Services (~$13)
Information Technology (~$145)
Economic and Creative Development (~$33)
The City Partners survey asks about:
Barrie Police Service (~$956 per year, per home)
Barrie Public Library (~$137 per home)
County of Simcoe (~$432)
this category gives no option to increase or decrease, as the City's share is under contract, so it's curious why it would even be included in this survey
For more information, visit https://www.buildingbarrie.ca/budget
The City Services Budget Survey can be reached directly at https://www.buildingbarrie.ca/budget/surveys/cityservices1
The Service Partners Survey can be reached directly at https://www.buildingbarrie.ca/budget/surveys/servicepartners1
Timing
October 21 - Survey closes
November 20 - City Services Budget Presentation given to the Finance and Responsible Governance Committee
December 4 - City Services Budget deliberated at General Committee
December 11 - City Operating and Capital Budget approved at City Council
January 8 - Service Partner Budgets provided to Council
January 15 - Service Partner Budget Presentations to Council
January 22 - Service Partner Budgets deliberated at General Committee
February 12 - Service Partner Budgets adopted by Council
Comments