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By Jordan Parker

Priority-Based Budgeting is council’s future

Dec 14, 2017 | 9:57 AM

The budgeting process for 2018 left the city with a tax hike of two per cent, with a $1 million withdrawal from reserves.

But another significant change happened in the process, as Priority-Based Budgeting was adopted for future sessions.

Mayor Bill Given says this will help mesh the wants and needs of council and residents.

“The goal is always to ensure the services the municipality delivers are truly aligned with the things the community needs or desires,” he said.

“In my time on council, that’s always been a goal. But I don’t think there’s ever been a systemic approach to the back end of that, which the public doesn’t see.”

Given says this form of financial organization has been used in 170 municipalities. He hopes this will allow a more calculated approach to funding in Grande Prairie.

“We are doing things in a subjective way (currently), and basing our determination on what is and isn’t important to the community … based on our personal sense of that,” he said.

“There hasn’t been an objective way to classify all the programs and services the city does.”

He says this now provides himself and council the opportunity to “dive deep” into the budgeting and financial realm, though he says this won’t come into effect for some time.

“The missing element was some way to quantify and score the services and departments of the city. We needed to say ‘how strongly connected to council and the community’s priorities is this service?’”

However, he sees the possibility for challenges when it comes to councillors and residents focusing in with a microscope on smaller issues.

“A potential challenge will be for council and the community to get into specific issues,” he said. “At the initial stage, council will need to work at a higher order.”

He said this will be a two-tier approach, as they try to balance books while helping the public.

“The thing that only council can do is describe what the community’s priorities are … We will attempt to identify broadly what outcomes we’re looking for.”
 

by Jordan Parker