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Volunteers sought to advise Victoria on how to spend $60,000

Victoria has $60,000 up for grabs and is looking for 12 volunteers to gather community consensus on how best to spend it. The opportunity comes as Victoria dips its toes into a process known as participatory budgeting.
Victoria city hall generic photo
The statue of Sir John A. MacDonald outside Victoria City Hall

Victoria has $60,000 up for grabs and is looking for 12 volunteers to gather community consensus on how best to spend it.

The opportunity comes as Victoria dips its toes into a process known as participatory budgeting.

“It’s not that 12 volunteers will be deciding on how to spend $60,000. It’s 12 volunteers will be coming up with a process to engage the community to allocate the funding,” Mayor Lisa Helps said.

She said the city is attempting a local take on what’s been done in such cities as New York, Guelph, Ont., Porto Alegre, Brazil, and Boston, where a portion of the city budget is given to residents to decide how it would be best spent.

The first step is to educate the public about the challenges elected officials face in allocating tax dollars to “many different, worthy projects or services,” Helps said.

“It can lead to a deeper understanding about the role of elected officials … particularly young people who then grow up to be taxpayers and then are more invested in their community because they understand more about how the municipal process works.”

The first step is to pick the committee.

“A group of people are selected to design a process. The process might be that every neighbourhood puts forward one project. Or the process might be it’s going to focus on youth and only youth put forward a project. Who knows?” Helps said.

“That process is determined by that citizens’ committee and is run by that citizens’ committee.”

The decision on how the funds are to be spent is slated for the fall. The city will start to implement the selected project within 12 months.

Any project or investment will be allowed so long as it benefits residents across the city and does not cancel or delay projects already planned or underway.

Staff say an important principle of participatory budgeting is to reach all demographics and neighbourhoods.

bcleverley@timescolonist.com