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What’s Next for Participatory Budgeting?

Innovations from around the world!

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Host

Moderator

Speakers

What’s Next for Participatory Budgeting?

Shahana Hanif, New York City Council Member District 39

Josh Lerner, Executive Director, People Powered

Greta Ríos, President of Ollin, Mexico City
Émilie Thuillier, Montréal City Councilor & Borough Mayor of Ahuntsic-Cartierville
David Reilly, Communities and Networks Manager at The Poverty Alliance in Scotland

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Josh Lerner | @joshalerner�Executive Director��@PeoplePowrd�peoplepowered.org

Our mission is to expand people’s power to make government decisions, by supporting organizations and governments that are building participatory democracy around the world.

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Members: A Global Community

@PeoplePowrd peoplepowered.org

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Greta Ríos

President of Ollin, A.C.

Organizing for Community Control of PB in Mexico City

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Citywide PB:�Enchula tu colonia (beautify your neighborhood)

Mexico City is a State, not only a city.
Participatory budgeting since 2011
One of the biggest PB �processes in the world: �$80 million USD in 2022,�>3% of budget
Highly institutionalized
Highly politicized

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Participation and process

Participation rates are between 3 and 10 %
Everyone (regardless of their fiscal situation) is allowed to register as many projects as they want
This includes children :) (although they may not vote)
4 main categories: public works, improving public spaces, urban infrastructure, sports, �cultural and entertainment activities
Complicated, long and subjective �process

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Organizing for community �control

Training to help people propose ideas
Accountability tool: �www.presupuestoparticipativo.org
Legal defense of people’s �right to participate

Contact: greta@ollinac.org

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Émilie Thuillier

Montréal City Councilor & Borough Mayor of Ahuntsic-Cartierville

PB for Social and Ecological Transition in Montréal

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Montréal's Participatory Budget

Global Participatory Budgeting Panel

April 4th 2022

Présentation by : Mrs. Émilie Thuillier, member of Montréal Executive Committee, Responsible for Infrastructure, Buildings and Asset Maintenance – The Montréal Electric Services Commission and mayor of the Ahuntsic-Cartierville Borough

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The context in Montréal

Action that is complementary to local participatory budgets

The most significant process in Canada

A first experiment

A process that is adapted to the COVID context

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Key elements of this process

The territory covered

Ville de Montréal
Excluding related �municipalities

The available budget

The chosen theme

Envelope of $10 M
Capital works budget
Intended for the city to carry out sustainable development and equipment projects

* The ecological and social transition

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Collection of ideas

Nov. 17, 2020 - Jan. 8 2021

Projects submitted �for voting: �35

Citizen’s vote and unveiling of the winning projects

Vote: from June 11, to July 11, 2021

Univeiling: September 1, 2021

Winning projects: 7

Development of project based on the ideas

February - March 2021

Feasibility and cost analysis
April-May 2021

Preliminary selection and sorting
January 2021

Ideas received:

620

Receivable ideas retained:

300

Developed projects:

63

How ideas came together

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7 winning projects
620 ideas collected
4 500 contributors
50 information activities in neighbourhoods during voting
+20 000 voters

Presentation of winning projects – 1st edition

Urban agriculture

and food

Greening and

biodiversity

Inclusive living

environments

1 project:

- Our 4-season greenhouse: producing year-round

in Saint-Michel

2 projects:

- Mini-Forests in Montreal

- Ecological corridor of the greater Sud-Ouest area

4 projects:

- Water in your flask!

- Safe and inclusive festive furniture

- Jardin Éthel

- Quai34

Some statistics concerning mobilization

Collection of ideas:

Mobilization of the civil society

Information session held on November 17^th, 2020
More than 150 people representing organizations from various fields
Tool kit shared with mobilized organizations

Ideation workshops held online

Number of workshops: 4
Number of participants: 122 (Notable presence of women and of people from diverse backgrounds)

Collection online and by phone

Number of ideas collected: 620
Number of people who have contributed their ideas: 4,500 (self-declared)

Development of projects based on the ideas collected

4 mixed working committees for every ecological and social transition challenge addresses.

20 civil society representatives, selected following a public call for candidates launched from December 10^th, 2020 to January 8, 2021.
22 city professionals and managers from 9 boroughs and 7 central departments, as well as from complementary fields such as: urban development, mobility ecological transition, social and community development, economic development, public works, waste management, etc.

Vote:

50 information activities organized in neighbourhoods
2250 people in attendance during these information activities
20 017 Montrealers participated in the voting process
1.3 % of the population aged 12 years and older voted

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A citizen-oriented process

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2

3

4

High quality municipal assets implemented on city land or in city buildings

Contribute to the social and ecological transition

Planning set to begin within

2 years

Capital works expenditures

5

Transparency

and feedback

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From project to program

Integrated in the municipal budget cycle
Complementary to local borough participatory budgets
Taking into account knowledge acquired during the 1^st edition

$10 M*

$30 M*

2021-2022

2023

2024

$45 M*

$60 M* / year

over 7 years

2025 - 2031

*Amounts in Canadian dollars

Challenges and knowledge acquired

STRENGTHS

An opportunity to explain the ecological and social transition to the population
An opportunity to get the population to become solution-oriented: sharing knowledge, aspirations with respect to the transition
Consistent and appealing amount
Having received ideas from both individuals and members of the civil society, which yielded projects based on personal hopes and wishes, as well as those emanating from local concerted efforts
Diversity of development committees enabling the convergence of various fields, pooling of expertise, in keeping with the city’s limited capabilities

CHALLENGES

Municipal powers: difficulty of having to explain to citizens the limited powers held by the city, versus those of other public or private entities

For instance, the social component: homelessness and housing are shared powers under municipal, provincial and federal jurisdictions
For instance, urban planning and development: roads, highways, shorelines and railroads, etc.

Achieving an inclusive ecological transition (integrating the social component, without isolating it completely). Ideas to achieve this:

State equity and inclusion as a key (beacon) value
Add inclusion criteria to idea scoring and to project development framework, etc.

Territorial scale of the process: ideation challenge for citizens (due to its distance from their local living environments) + internal coordination challenge (More than 300 stakeholders involved)
Time invested: condensed cycle, with intensive work by our teams, at every stage

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David Reilly �Communities and Networks Manager at The Poverty Alliance in Scotland

National Support for PB in Scotland

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Photos/graphics/text

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Photos/graphics/text

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Photos/graphics/text

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Thank you

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Questions!