What do Whitby residents want from their town?

Whitby residents want to see more invested in local job creation, more green spaces and the continued revitalization of the community’s downtowns, this year’s 2022 budget engagement showed.

From June 3 to July 30, the town engaged nearly 2,000 people in phase one of the budget process. For the second year in a row, feedback was collected through the town’s Connect Whitby and Citizen Budget Tool – a budget simulator that encouraged residents to share their budget priorities and create their own ideal budget, said a town statement.

This year, community engagement was moved earlier in the process than ever to provide residents with multiple opportunities to share their priorities and inform each budget milestone, including the budget target being presented to town council next week.

The results of the engagement were as follows:

  • Generally, residents find Whitby an enjoyable town to live in with 74 per cent of participants reporting overall quality of life in Whitby as “excellent” (18 per cent) or “good” (56 per cent); and
  • 45 per cent of participants were “comfortable with the Town’s current level of taxation and services”, representing the majority of the responses received.

Top budget priorities for participants included:

  • More local jobs;
  • Revitalization of the downtowns; and,
  • More green spaces.

Some 56 per cent of participants indicated that they had learned something new by participating in the engagement process.

Participants also used the comment sections of the Citizen Budget Tool to share their feedback and opinions. Top themes from the comments section included:

Requests for expansion of multi-use path and cycling infrastructure;

A desire to improve the waterfront area and greenspace;

Strong support for more jobs and sectors; and

A desire to continue to revitalize our downtowns.

The results of this engagement have helped to inform the recommended Budget Target being presented to Council next Monday, October 18, at 5:30 pm. Interested residents are encouraged to tune in to the meeting to learn more about the target and proposed investments online at whitby.ca/livestream.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Increase in residential break-and-enters in Durham

Five disputes with moving companies since September: police

Sightings and interactions with coyotes on the rise

Have your say on future Columbus development

GTA East in Ajax gets new business partner

Share with:


Leave a Reply