Establishing the municipal budget is one of the key jobs performed every year by council and the administration and it’s about to begin.
Chatham-Kent councillors will get their first hard look at the numbers tomorrow night when it is tabled.
With the pandemic open meetings are not possible but CAO Don Shropshire says they will do their best to keep everyone in the loop.
“There’s a couple of things we’re going to try this year, given the restrictions on public meetings,” Shropshire says. “We’ll be tabling the budget, and that will be carried live by YourTV, there will be a comprehensive overview of the budget.”
Rather than the traditional community input sessions held in communities around Chatham-Kent, the municipality is holding three Facebook live sessions next week to provide opportunity for questions and feedback.
“We’re also going to be relying on not only our members of council but also the administration team to continue to provide answers to people’s questions that they have regarding the budget process,” Shropshire explains. “We’re trying to find as many different ways we can to ensure that people have a solid understanding of what’s happening with our budget and giving people an opportunity for input.”
The virtual public consultations will be held January 19th at noon, January 20th at 4pm, and January 21st at 6pm.
Council will begin deliberating the fiscal blueprint on January 27th.
