Okotoks council on Monday got a look at where residents would like to see their tax dollars go.
Results of a budget survey conducted earlier this year were presented during the Town’s council meeting on July 15. The 2025 Budget Engagement had 925 responses, which the Town said was a significant increase from the last budget survey done in 2022.
During the survey, residents could choose what services provided by the Town should be considered for an increase or decrease in service levels.
Top areas to consider a decrease were environment services, selected by 33 per cent of respondents, and art and culture, including programs, library and events, selected by 32 per cent.
The top reason given in both cases was that the money could be better spent elsewhere.
During the meeting, Mayor Tanya Thorn asked how much money is spent on those areas in total, but the information was not immediately available.
In the increase services column, snow and ice removal was the number one choice, with 36 per cent saying an increase is something to consider. The second choice for an increase was economic development, although the survey had no option for decreasing it.
The top reason given for an increase was to expand and grow local businesses.
Transit appeared on the top-five list for both a decrease and an increase in service levels, with 18 per cent saying it could be decreased compared to 25 per cent who said it could be increased.
CAO Elaine Vincent said that snow clearing will be the number one area of improvement for any municipality, anytime the question is asked.
Vincent said that, when consultants helped on an earlier survey, they told her that, in response to survey results, municipalities “invest millions of dollars and they get the same result on the survey because you just cannot control Mother Nature."
Overall, according to the survey report, 69 per cent of respondents said they receive fair, good or very good value for their taxes.
Across all services that were included in the survey, “services should remain the same” was the most common preference, the Town said.
Based on the survey results, the recommendation to council is to maintain service levels, but administration said it will look for ways to increase efficiency or divert existing resources to priority areas, with no financial impact to taxpayers, ahead of 2025 budget deliberations this fall.
“Is there something that’s job 40 on our list that we could perhaps stop doing that allows us to deploy resources to job one?” Vincent asked.
