Saint John will be turning to the public for input as it prepares a 10-year financial plan.
The public engagement will look at things like service levels, tax rates and prioritization of funds.
City staff say it’ll also be a chance to educate the public on the realities of balancing revenues and expenses.
Mayor Don Darling says he’s looking forward to the process as the city works to axe its structural deficit and control its debt.
“When the city of Saint John, facing all of these challenges and all of these headwinds, is now putting best practices in place just like the city of Toronto, the city of Calgary, cities much bigger than us, that’s pretty exciting for me from that perspective,” says Darling.
Stephanie Rackley-Roach told the city’s finance committee they would use citizen surveys, in-person events and an online budget simulator to get input.
Cities like Calgary already use a budget simulator, and it would cost Saint John between $500 and $5,000 to develop their own.
“Anything that we can do to get into dialogue with our citizens to say, ‘Here’s where we are, here’s the options we have, if you move this lever here’s the impact, if you take money out of a bucket and put it in somewhere else you’re going to impact service,’” says Darling.
Coun. David Merrithew, who chairs the city’s finance committee, says he’s glad to see different ideas being brought to the table.
“I’d like to put every citizen in a councillor or a manager’s seat for a day or an hour and say, ‘Here’s the problem, how would you solve it?’” he says.
The public engagement process is expected to take place a bit later this year.
