Le français viendra sous peu.
It’s budget season, baby! And you know what that means - everyone and their dog has something to say about some kind of budget - the federal budget, the city budget, holiday shopping budgets… are you sick of the word “affordability” yet?
Hopefully not because this is a critical time to get involved with the budget process - here is a quick overview of how you can get involved with Ottawa’s Budget for 2026:
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Attend a Councillor-led public consultation
- Nov 25 from 6:30-8:30pm for Wards 10, 16, 17, 18 - in person
- Nov 25 from 6:00-8:00pm for all city residents who identify within BIPOC communities - in person and via zoom link
- Submit a question via Engage Ottawa
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Attend a Standing Committee Meeting
- Transit Committee - Nov 24 at 9:30am
- Public Works and Infrastructure Committee - Nov 27 at 9:30am
- Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee - Dec 1 at 10:00am
- Finance and Corporate Services Committee - Dec 2 at 9:30am
- Planning and Housing Committee - Dec 3 at 9:30am
- Environment and Climate Change Committee - Dec 8 at 10:00am
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Consider delegating at a Committee Meeting - you can review our delegations guide or watch our delegations training video for tips - otherwise, you can attend a meeting to show solidarity around matters of ecological importance
- Ecology Ottawa staff will be delegating at the Transit and Environment and Climate Change Committee meetings - come out and show your support!
If you are unsure of where to start, you can review the draft budget documents for 2026, or the city’s draft budget magazine (it is a very readable 72 pages - full of infographics and photos, promise!). The city also has an “understanding your City budget” webpage with lots of useful information to help get you started.
Ecology Ottawa’s main areas of focus for the 2026 budget include:
- The Climate Resiliency Strategy
- The CCMP Capital Fund
- Acceleration of waste reduction
- The tree strategy for improving the urban tree canopy
We would love to see more engagement around these issues, particularly at Committee meetings.
And, if you’re not signed up already, you can also sign up with Ecology Ottawa to receive more updates!
We hope to see you at one of the upcoming Committee meetings - until then, happy budgeting!
