Welland launches new, interactive ways for the community to engage for the 2026 budget

The City of Welland is inviting residents to take part in new, creative, and accessible engagement tools designed to make municipal budgeting easier to understand and more meaningful to participate in.

New this year is the Fund It budget allocation tool, an interactive and educational online feature that challenges residents to allocate a fictional $1 million across key City service areas, including roads, recreation, parks, emergency services, and more.

“We know that a municipal budget can be complicated, so we’re trying to simplify things in a way that allows the community to think about how they would prioritize spending,” said Marc MacDonald, chief communications and engagement officer. “The goal with this tool, along with the Bin There, Fund That initiative, is to give residents a simple, approachable way to engage and to share their priorities for the 2026 budget.”

Also available is the annual Budget Survey, a brief questionnaire that gathers resident input on priorities, trade-offs, and satisfaction with City services. Feedback from the survey helps staff understand what matters most to the community heading into the 2026 budget.

To complement these tools, the City is introducing Plot a Project, a map-based engagement platform where residents can drop digital pins across Welland to show what they’d like to see—and where—and view ideas others have suggested. The tool makes it easy to share location-specific feedback on amenities, improvements, and community projects.

While the money in the allocation tool isn’t real and the results won’t directly change the 2026 budget, the choices residents make—along with input from the survey and Plot a Project—will help City staff better understand community priorities and offer valuable insight into how the public views trade-offs within the budgeting process.

In addition to the online tools, residents can take part in Bin There, Fund That, an in-person engagement campaign in partnership with Open Arms Mission. Located at the Welland Community Centre, this initiative invites residents to “vote” with non-perishable food donations, placing them into bins labelled with various City service areas. The exercise offers a simple, symbolic way to explore budget priorities while directly supporting local families in need through food donations.

All initiatives are part of a broader effort by the City to demystify the municipal budget and make it more transparent, interactive, and resident-driven.

Welland City Council will receive a full engagement summary at the end of the campaign—including participation trends and a breakdown of public priorities—to help inform future budget discussions.

The budget process will officially begin when the Mayor issues the mayoral directive for the 2026 budget at the end of September.

Residents can explore the tools and learn more at: https://engagewelland.ca/budget-2026

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For media inquiries, please contact:
Marc MacDonald
Chief Communications & Engagement Officer
905-735-1700 x2337
marc.macdonald@welland.ca