Laval undertakes voting measures for its first consultative budget
From now to Sept. 30, residents of Laval are being invited to take part online or at municipal library branches in choosing which out of 21 projects should be selected for support by the city in its next annual budget.
According to the city, each vote will have a direct impact on the choice of projects, for which a budget of $600,000 has been set aside.
During an initial stage of this consultative process, the city received 322 suggestions from residents. More than 125 residents took part in virtual workshops to develop the ideas for the projects.
“The participative budget is an initiative in participative democracy that allows you to influence the realization of projects thought up by and for the community,” says Laval city councillor Alexandre Warnet, an associate member of the executive-committee with responsibility for citizen participation dossiers.
Voting for projects
He urges all Laval residents to take advantage of the voting period. “As the person responsible for dossiers relating to citizen participation, I can only rejoice at the success of this first attempt at a participative budget, while encouraging young and old to vote for their favourite projects. This way there will be a little bit of you in each of the projects.”
Residents are invited to vote for up to seven projects, based on what they consider would be the best projects in terms of their benefits for the community. Anyone who lives in Laval or who owns a business on Laval territory is eligible to vote, regardless of age or Canadian citizenship status.
Vote online or in person
Voting can be done online at the City of Laval’s website, or in person by filling out and handing in a paper voting ballot at any of the branches of the Laval municipal library. The chosen projects will be those selected through the greatest number of votes by residents. An announcement will be made this fall. The city will then undertake the implementation of the chosen projects over a period of two years.
