$500,000 to transform ideas into neighbourhood projects

MONTRÉAL, March 15, 2023 /CNW/ - Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (CDN-NDG) today is launching its first participatory budget. This is a chance for borough residents to share their ideas and work together to come up with projects that will be submitted to a popular vote in the fall of 2023. The borough will implement the projects that receive the most votes from residents.

«Rassembler pour faire un tout». 500 000 $ pour vos idées dans le quartier. Visuel du 1er budget participatif de CDN-NDG. (CNW Group/Ville de Montréal - Arrondissement de Côte-des-Neiges - Notre-Dame-de-Grâce)

For the first edition of this initiative, "Quality of life of families" will serve as the guiding theme for the selection of projects. Because the notion of family can take several forms, it has been defined as a solidarity-based membership group with kinship or filiation ties, or ties based on proximity, friendship and community.

"The participatory budget is a concrete way of mobilizing CDN-NDG residents to shape a living environment in their image. Our administration is extremely proud to have established this exercise, which aims to allow residents to co-create projects as a community with the goal of improving the quality of life of families in our borough. For us, the community's contribution is essential to the creation of inclusive neighbourhoods that meet the needs of all residents," said Gracia Kasoki Katahwa, mayor of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.

A sum of $500,000, taken from the borough surplus, will be allocated to the participatory budget. These funds and the projects selected will be distributed proportionally, based on the population of the two districts, with $300 000 allocated to Côte-des-Neiges and $200,000 allocated to Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. The winning projects will be chosen by borough residents. The number of winning projects will depend on the sums allocated to each project.

Ideas transformed into projects

In addition to the online participation component, six in-person workshops will allow residents to pair their ideas with those of others, perhaps even transforming them into neighbourhood projects. The objective of the participatory budget is to listen to residents' ideas and give them an opportunity to exert a real impact on the completion of concrete projects.

To reflect the slogan "Bringing it all together", our wish is to have residents of all neighbourhoods coalesce around this democratic exercise and to gather the maximum number of ideas for projects that meet the population's collective needs.

We hope the inaugural edition of this initiative is a success so that the two subsequent editions planned in 2024 and 2025 draw even more participants and ideas.

Information

• 1^st CDN-NDG participatory budget
• From March to November 2023
• Budget of $500,000
• Project page to get informed and participate: realisonsmtl.ca/bpcdnndg2023
• Initial collection of ideas: March 15 to May 7
• In-person workshops: April 1 and 2, May 6 and 7 (locations to be announced)

SOURCE Ville de Montréal - Arrondissement de Côte-des-Neiges - Notre-Dame-de-Grâce

Jean-François Daunais, communications officer, 438-354-2859