Lloydminster City Council has received the results of the Dollars and Sense Budget Engagement survey.
The survey was filled out 550 times, in spite of over 1,545 visits to the website.
City councillor Linnea Goodhand says she’s frustrated by the low turnout.
“You build these surveys, you extend an invitation for people to take them, and you’d like everyone to do it,” Goodhand said, “so that the results can drive some of the decisions that we have to make here at council. And when we get participation that suggests that 2-3% of households are engaged enough to respond to the survey, it makes the results of the survey less useful. And it means that all the effort than went into distributing the survey has gone for naught, and that’s troublesome. We want to know how they want us to spend their money, and we can’t do that unless they tell [us] what their priorities are.”
Those who filled out the survey recommended a 2.3% increase to taxes, to fund a 3% increase to infrastructure and policing, and a 2% increase to parks and recreation facilities.
Goodhand says she is unlikely to do anything meaningful with the results.
“My personal answer [to making decisions based on the survey results] is ‘not likely at all’,” Goodhand said. “Because I don’t think the number of respondents allows me as a city official to take that information and do anything meaningful with it. The budget process is a process, and it will come up perhaps as we move forward, and it will be discussed, but personally, I don’t take much from those specifics.”
The new city budget will be rolled out in November.