Want to try your hand at designing the City of Coquitlam’s budget for next year?
COQUITLAM, B.C., Sept. 1, 2020 – Want to try your hand at designing the City of Coquitlam’s budget for next year?
Until Sept. 30, members of the public can design a mock City budget using the interactive online Citizen Budget tool at www.coquitlam.ca/budget. Coquitlam has used the tool since 2014 to give the community a chance to provide meaningful input as staff and Council begin to prepare next year’s budget.
Using the Citizen Budget Tool
The user-friendly Citizen Budget process takes about eight minutes to complete on any computer or mobile device.
Users start with a mock property bill and then add or cut back City services – such as garbage collection, recreation, roads or fire services – to see the impact on the bottom line and achieve a balanced budget. This year’s version will also offer information on the impact of COVID-19 on the City’s budget.
Once their budget is balanced, users are encouraged to share their results on social media to encourage others to try out the tool.
Highlighting Community Priorities
The Citizen Budget tool has become a valuable public engagement tool for Coquitlam, helping to ensure each budget reflects the community’s current wants and needs.
The City can see what services citizens value the most, based on what they prioritized in their mock budgets. It’s also an educational process for users, who get a taste of the challenging decisions that must be made for each year’s balanced budget.
Insights from the mock budgets will be considered by staff and Council as they develop the 2021 budget, to be deliberated by Council later in the fall.
Budget information and a link to the Citizen Budget tool can be found at www.coquitlam.ca/budget.
Media contact:
Gorana Cabral
Manager Financial Planning
City of Coquitlam
604-927-3038
Email