Bylaw enforcement among top priorities for 300 respondents toBudget Survey

November 7, 2024 · 0 Comments

Town of Caledon’s first 2025 budget meeting to be held November 25

By ZACHARY ROMAN

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of Caledon’s 2025 budget process is getting closer to completion.

On November 1, the Town released results from its 2025 Budget Survey, which approximately 300 people participated in. While the survey provides only a minute sample size when compared to Caledon’s population, it does give some small insight as to what citizens are looking for in Caledon’s next budget year.

Residents who completed the survey highlighted the following four areas as their top areas of importance for 2025: fire and emergency services (204), roads operations (184), municipal law enforcement (158), and parks, recreation and community services (105).

Survey respondents were asked which Town services they would like to see increased or decreased investment in. Here are the top two requested increases and decreases:

175 survey respondents said Caledon should increase investment in roads operations, and 166 said Caledon should increase investment in bylaw enforcement.

144 survey respondents said Caledon should decrease investment in diversity and inclusion programming, and 83 said Caledon should decrease investment in environment and climate change programming.

Maintaining current investment levels was also an option for the aforementioned question, and libraries (199), and parks, recreation and community events (188) were the top two items in which residents wanted to see no change in investment levels.

Survey respondents were asked to rank the following four priorities, with a rank of one being the highest and four being the lowest: community vitality and livability, service excellence and accountability, enhanced transportation and mobility, and environmental leadership.

Community vitality and livability received the highest rank with an average score of 1.92.

The survey asked residents how they feel about the value they receive for their tax dollar. The top answer was fair (97), followed by poor (66), and good (56). 33 people chose an answer of very poor, and just 11 chose an answer of very good.

Town of Caledon staff are currently working on the Town’s 2025 Budget in preparation for Caledon Council’s November 25 Budget meeting. The meeting, according to the Town, will serve as a primer to identify needs and pressures Caledon will face next year.

In a statement, Caledon Mayor Annette Groves thanked all who participated in this year’s budget survey, which was live from August 26 to October 1.

“Your input is invaluable in ensuring that the decisions we make as a Council put the needs and desires of the people of Caledon first,” said Groves. “This feedback is critical as we head into budget discussions and make decisions to invest in our community.”

Caledon’s Chief Financial Officer Robert Cummings also offered thanks in a statement.

“The feedback we received gives us clear direction on where residents want to see their tax dollars invested, and it helps us prioritize spending while maintaining fiscal responsibility,” said Cummings.