Perennial low turnout to public meetings on the municipal budget isn’t phasing the head of Chatham-Kent’s budget committee. 
63 people attended five different meetings across the municipality last week.
Budget Chair and Councillor Derek Robertson says the numbers are disappointing, but not unexpected.
“The attendance is really heavily driven based upon the significance of the impacts that are found within the draft budget from year to year,” Robertson says. “In a year when we have no expected cuts to services, it’s likely reasonable that the results that we saw over the past week was evidence.”
However, even with a good public response to the online budget tool, launched in November, Robertson says he firmly believes public meetings are the best way to gather input.
“The opportunity to be bold and brazen and face-to-face with the public is always a necessity of this process,” he says. “Inevitable over time through other innovative strategies there will be other opportunities to enhance and connect with the public.”
Deliberations begin Wednesday night at the Civic Centre in Chatham with a proposed tax hike of 1.96% on the table.
Anyone interested in making a presentation to Council is asked to sign up at the door.
