COUNCIL REPORT - Citizen Budget Online Engagement Results

TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL COUNCIL REPORT

TO: Council
DATE: April 8, 2021
FROM: D. Christenson, Director of Finance
MEETING DATE: April 13, 2021

Citizen Budget Online Engagement Results

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated April 8, 2021 from the Director of Finance titled “Citizen Budget Online Engagement Results” be received for information.

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS:

I concur with the recommendation.

PURPOSE OF REPORT:

To provide Council with the results of the Citizen Budget online engagement open to the public from March 15 to March 31, 2021.

BACKGROUND:

In December 2019 Council approved the deployment of the Citizen Budget online engagement tool which provided the opportunity for View Royal users and other stakeholders to both be informed about the content of the five-year financial plan and to provide the benefit of their views on it and related services.

Citizen Budget launched on March 15, 2021 and was open for input until March 31, 2021. View Royal residents learned about this opportunity through various social media messaging, View Royal’s website and RSS feed. Additionally, the Goldstream Gazette published an article on March 29, 2021 highlighting the budget engagement tool (attached).

DISCUSSION:

The attached Citizen Budget report provides a summary of the activity experienced with the online tool, the results showing the level of support for funding of the various services. Also included is a listing of the comments and feedback from the participants. A total of 802 visitors viewed the site, with 73 participants (82 last year) spending an average of 10 minutes interacting and providing responses. While these numbers may not seem significant, they compare very favorably when considered in the context of the low attendance at budget open houses hosted in previous years. Most people accessed the tool through a link on View Royal’s website.

In general, the results indicate general support for funding at levels like that proposed by the financial plan. Issues that are top of mind for participants include cost to property owner (taxes and other fees), fire protection and emergency planning, parks, playgrounds and other recreation facilities, and crime. Eighty-seven percent of participants indicated that View Royal provides very good or fairly good value for their tax dollars.

Participants had the opportunity to provide comments in the context of each service, and these are worth reading to provide further insights.

While participation in this online engagement tool is helpful, we should note that the methodology used does not indicate statistically significant results. In other words, while the feedback and insights gained through this tool may provide a flavor of the thinking of some View Royal stakeholders and could indicate trends and areas for further investigation, the survey should not be interpreted as indicative of the opinions of all View Royal citizens. This is because respondents are self-selected, rather than randomly chosen and underwent no vetting as to whether or not they actually live in or receive services from View Royal.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated April 8, 2021 from the Director of Finance titled “Citizen Budget Online Engagement Results” be received for information.

SUBMITTED BY:

D. Christenson, Director of Finance

REVIEWED BY:

K. Anema, Chief Administrative Officer

Attachments:

1. “View Royal pushes residents to participate in budget with online tool”, Goldstream Gazette, March 29, 2021, Stiebel, Rick
2. “View Royal 2021 Citizen Budget”, Ethelo, April 8, 2021