Summerside, Canada

The City of Summerside needed help with increasing participation in their City budget surveying process. When addressing community engagement, the City employed offline, paper-based methods, which were time-consuming and costly to deploy. Getting residents to share their thoughts and feedback surrounding the City’s financial plans had proved challenging.

The City needed an innovative way to approach public consultation, where residents would not only want to participate, but also enjoy the process of engaging with City officials. We transformed cultural landmarks into conversational points of interest, with the ability to share information and respond to questions.

Project Goals

• Increase engagement in the citizen consultation process, particularly on finance and community services issues
• Gather input from residents on the City’s financial plans and tax budget
• Encourage participation from a wider demographic

• Received the highest-ever citizen engagement rate in a City budget process (18% of the City’s population)
• Increased participation from Summerside’s 15-30 year old demographic
• Key insights gathered – 40% of respondents felt that they had strong trust that their taxes were being allocated correctly