KINGSTON — City councillors approved a plan to have city staff look into ways to make the municipal budgeting process more open to the public.

Councillors voted to have staff come up with ways to better inform residents and improve how they, in turn, can contribute to the budget process.

“Open budgets are more transparent, more accountable and lead to better decisions,” Portsmouth District Coun. Bridget Doherty, who put forward the motion, said.

“When we open our budgets, we will create more understanding, and that matters.”

Among the ways the process could be made more open are public meetings, social media postings and more interactive formats, the motion stated.

Doherty’s motion referred to the participatory budgeting process used by city councils in Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton and Guelph.

It was the motion’s mention of participatory budgeting that drew the attention of Andrew McCann of Open Kingston, an organization that promotes transparency in municipal government.

McCann told council he welcomes the recognition of participatory budgeting but said it is a lot more involved than informing the public and canvassing its opinion on policy decisions.

“Participatory budgeting is a form of open democracy but something quite different,” McCann said.

Participatory budgeting, at its best, is a grassroots movement where citizens propose projects, which are then voted on, and the winning projects receiving public funding.

“It’s exciting, it’s something that engages community members, especially youth,” McCann said. “It’s a way to r-ignite passion in democracy.”

McCann said that while Canada lags behind many parts of the world in using participatory budgeting, a Toronto city councillor, Don Valley North Coun. Shelley Carroll, has conducted six such projects with a budget of $500,000.

The potential of educating more people about the decisions that go into budget appealed to a lot of councillors.

“The more we engage the public with that, the better educated public we have, then it enriches the governance process,” King’s Town District Coun. Rob Hutchison, who seconded the motion, said.

“By opening it up and making it transparent, by making decisions about money transparent, by engaging the public as participatory budgeting would do, it’s all moving us toward enriching our democracy,” Sydenham District Coun. Peter Stroud added. “Democracy thrives on engagement, it thrives on people being involved in the decisions that affect them.”

Several councillors referred to the strategic priority of fostering open government adopted by city council during its 2014 to 2018 term.

Mayor Bryan Paterson cautioned councillors against approving plans to work on strategic priorities from previous councils.

Lanie Hurdle, the city’s chief administrative officer, said city staff were already researching open government strategies and Doherty’s motion would not create more workload for the staff.