Lack of engagement leading to disproportionate regional budget: Councillor
Posted Dec 11, 2024 02:45:52 PM.
Last Updated Dec 11, 2024 02:45:58 PM.
While Waterloo Regional Council holds its final debate on the 2025 budget, one councillor is calling on the City of Cambridge to get its citizens better engaged in the process.
Councillor Doug Craig penned an open letter to Cambridge council and Mayor Jan Liggett. In it, he highlights a lack of Cambridge-focused delegations at budget meetings over the last several years, which has led to budgets that heavily favour Kitchener and Waterloo.
Craig says it’s a problem that is also affecting the townships. He says in the letter that at a recent budget meeting there were 34 delegates but only two were from Cambridge and one was from Woolwich.
He told The Mike Farwell Show those numbers should raise eyebrows.
“That’s worrisome from the point of view that a budget is an important document in terms of what kind of community we are and what we believe in as a community.”
Craig presented a pair of suggestions he believes will help better include Cambridge residents in future budget talks.
“What I’m asking them to do is to request at next years budget meeting, there be a budget meeting in Cambridge so the budget can be exposed more to the citizens of the City of Cambridge.”
He notes that regional council and the city have a good working relationship but he would like to strengthen it.
His second suggestion is a survey for Cambridge residents to try to find out why they are not responding to opportunities to engage with regional government. Craig pointed to a lack of applications from Cambridge artists for grants through the Waterloo Region Community Fund.
Final budget talks were underway throughout the day on Wednesday at council chambers.
Councillors were looking for ways to bring down a proposed property tax increase through changes to some 22 programs. It includes potential cuts to downtown waste collection, transit services, a hike in the cost of a monthly GRT pass and security at the region’s encampments and shelters.
The proposed $252 million police budget is sure to be a hot topic.
A final vote will come at a special meeting scheduled for 7 p.m., Wednesday.
