Was it a success or not?

First round of participatory budgeting program impresses some councillors, but others don’t think it was such a success

Ten neighbourhood improvement projects, chosen by the citizens through a new participatory budgeting program, were approved by city councillors on Monday night.

The projects include pollinator gardens, improvements to parkettes around the city and new protected bike lanes along George St.

It’s all expected to cost $100,000. Through the new program, $20,000 was set aside in each of the five wards and people proposed – and voted on – projects.

In all, about 900 ballots were cast in an online vote. A dozen more paper ballots were cast at City Hall.

Coun. Henry Clarke said the project did what it was meant to do: Increase citizen engagement. “I’m thrilled,” he said. Coun. Don Vassiliadis was equally impressed: “I think it was a success,” he said.

Coun. Dave Haacke aslo said it was an idea whose time has come, while Coun. Gary Baldwin said it was “very, very positive.”

But Coun. Lesley Parnell pointed out that significant staff time was spent on the participatory budgeting program.

And Coun. Andrew Beamer said he didn’t think it was much of a success at all that 900 people out of the entire city voted. He also pointed out that neighbourhood brainstorming sessions were sparsely attended.

Beamer said he didn’t want to be “a negative nilly”, but he questioned whether it was $100,000 well-spent.

“I just thought it wasn’t as successful as we thought it was going to be,” he said. “Sorry.”

A final vote of approval for the projects is necessary, at a forthcoming council meeting, for the projects to begin.

A staff report on the overall effectiveness of the program is expected soon.

NOTE: See more city council coverage on Pages A1, A3 and A5.