Toronto residents to propose and vote on $750,000 in local community improvement projects as part of City’s participatory budgeting

Toronto City Hall

Toronto residents are invited to get involved in the City of Toronto’s Participatory Budgeting pilot project by attending events in three areas: Ward 33 Don Valley East, the Oakridge neighbourhood in Ward 35 and the Rustic neighbourhood in Ward 12. 

The City will be collecting ideas at public meetings and online until September 30. Meeting dates, times and locations for the three areas are available at http://www.toronto.ca/PBtoronto.

Each area has $250,000 of the City’s capital budget to spend on community improvements this year. Residents are encouraged to share and develop ideas for community improvement projects. Everyone 14 years of age or older who lives in the pilot areas is eligible to vote for the winning projects. The City has committed to build each project within 18 months of the vote.

For consideration as part of the Participatory Budgeting pilot, project ideas must be located on City-owned property, benefit the public and have a long-term impact on the community. 

In October, neighbours in each of the three designated areas will work together to shortlist projects for the final ballot. Voting will take place in December.

This is the last year of the three-year Participatory Budgeting pilot. To date, there have been 23 winning projects worth a total of $1.165 million, including park improvements, installation of bike lockers and neighbourhood beautification. 

The City will assess the opportunities, benefits and challenges of participatory budgeting as a practice, reporting to Council in 2018 on the results and the pilot’s evaluation.

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