The City of Grande Prairie has launched the first phase of public consultation on the 2020 City Budget.

Grande Prairie residents are invited to respond to a 10-15 minute online survey that asks residents to identify the services provided by the City they most value.

In addition to the survey, residents are invited to an online idea space where residents may respond to the question “What single change would have the greatest impact to make our City better?”

Residents may participate in the survey and idea space on the City’s engagement website, prior to October 4, 2019. The feedback from the survey and idea space will be gathered and reported to City Council ahead of budget deliberations on November 13 to 15, 2019.

The City will also host an in-person consultation session on October 8, 2019. More details on the in-person session are scheduled to be released in the coming weeks.

Background

In 2018, City Council embarked on a ‘budget reset’ year and approved a 4.1% reduction in taxes for the 2019 City Budget. On July 2, 2019, City Council directed City administration to prepare the draft 2020 budget with a tax increase that does not exceed, plus or minus, 1% of the best estimation of inflation.

Currently, City staff are preparing a draft budget to be presented to City Council, who will meet to deliberate the proposed budget on November 13 to 15, 2019.

The City of Grande Prairie has pursued multiple initiatives to maximize tax dollars by working on internal organizational efficiencies. In the last three years, the City has developed Key Performance Indicators to track each department’s services, implemented a Priority Based Budgeting cycle to assist the budgeting process, and began LEAN training for staff to learn how to find process efficiencies at all levels of the organization.