The City of Airdrie is once again asking residents to complete a survey about planned budget expenditures and how they feel about the way the City spends money.
Lucy Wiwcharuk, director of Corporate Services, said this is the second year the budget survey has been completed.
“It’s a lot of open-ended questions just trying to get a feel from the community about how they’re feeling about certain issues or initiatives that we’re doing. We’re encouraging as many (residents) as possible to provide feedback to us,” she said.
Approximately 500 surveys were completed last year, according to Megan Stewart, City of Airdrie communications advisor. She said the survey has been open for a couple of weeks and 50 responses have already been received.
According to Wiwcharuk, staff will take the results of the survey and report to City council at the start of the budget process in October.
Some of the initiatives included in the survey are the City’s policy of a fiscally sustainable framework and things like the construction of a new library.
“We’re also following up on some of the feedback we received in the previous survey,” she said. “We just have a few questions about some of the thoughts coming out of last year’s survey.”
One of those thoughts is the building of a new pool on Airdrie’s west side.
The survey is available online at airdrie.ca or paper copies can be picked up at City facilities such as City Hall and Genesis Place Recreation Centre, according to Stewart.
The survey will be available until September and was developed in-house. Stewart said the cost was minimal and funded through operating funds.
Wiwcharuk said it’s important to get feedback from residents because, “We want to make sure our information is getting out there that the City is in good financial health, that we do spend public money in a wide way while trying to be as efficient and effective as possible.
“We’re hoping the educational pieces helps (residents) to provide input into the next budget cycle. If there are some services that we’re not doing too well as a City, or there are other services they think we should have, it’s another avenue for them to provide their input into the process.”
