Mark Thursday, September 10th on the calendar as a reminder to attend a virtual town hall meeting hosted by North Bay City Council.
The two -hour meeting which starts at 6:00 p.m. is an opportunity for residents and businesses to let council know the issues that are of particular interest or concern to them, including input into the 2021 budget.
“Residents and businesses are encouraged to make use of the meeting as a forum to share their thoughts and suggestions about next year’s budget as we prepare for deliberations to begin,” Mayor Al McDonald said.
Anyone wishing to participate must register with the City Clerk at [email protected]
A brief outline of the presentation must be provided to the Clerk by noon on Wednesday, September 9th.
Each presenter will be limited to three minutes in their address to council.
Written suggestions are also being accepted by the Clerk’s office for members of the public who are unable to participate.
Those submissions will be forwarded to Council.
People can watch the meeting electronically through Zoom, and live on the City’s website at www.cityofnorthbay.ca and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/thecityofnorthbay
Meantime the dates for the 2021 budget process has been presented to council but are subject to change.
The Capital Budget will be tabled October 27th and referred to Special Committee Meetings November 2nd and 3rd.
It is expected that the Capital budget will remain on committee until after Council has had the Special Committee Meetings for Operating November 12th and 16th.
“Council receives the 2021 operating budget November 10th with committee meetings starting November 12th,” said Deputy Mayor Tanya Vrebosch.
“We’ll be going into specifics line-by-line with regard to where we were affected by COVID and what the projections are for next year.”
There are two combined Operating/Capital Special Committee Meetings scheduled for November 17th and 18th at which time it is expected that both budgets will be moved off Committee and sent to the December 8th Council meeting for approval.
Again, there will be no in-person budget open house events as in previous years due to COVID restrictions.
Public input for these meetings can be sent by email to [email protected] until November 6th.
People can watch all committee meetings live throughout the budget process on the city’s YouTube channel.
The City’s annual budget process includes the completion and approval of the General operating budget; the 10-year Capital Budget for General Capital and Water and Wastewater Capital; Water and Wastewater Operating Budget, Water and Wastewater Rates; user fees and the municipal portion of the Service partner budgets.
