May 2024 focus group

In May 2024, City staff held two budget focus groups to gather feedback about the City’s budget-related communications and tools. Several key themes emerged from the feedback:

Different levels of digital and financial literacy should continue to be considered when creating budget communications and tools.

• People want to understand, first and foremost, the impact of the proposed budget given their unique interests and identities as well as where changes were made in the proposed budget relative to the previous year’s budgets
• Ongoing education (at budget and at other times) about how what the City funds is important for building community awareness and engagement
• Ample notice of upcoming deadlines, events or opportunities to engage, specifically pre-consultation, are important ways the City can drive greater engagement with budget communications and tools (at least 2 weeks' notice)
• Questions about the most effective channels and tactics to reach community members

We’re committed to reviewing the input received and the key themes above and considering how we can evolve the City’s budget-related communications tools based on this feedback.

Find the summary of what we heard at the focus group in our documents section.