Vancouverites satisfied with sanitation, but not with efforts to combat homelessness: Poll

With less than four months to go before Vancouver’s civic election, a new poll shows that the city is doing a good job of delivering basic services like sanitation but not so well at combating homelessness.

The new poll from Insights West released Thursday asked residents to rate the city’s performance on 12 core issues.

The city got the highest ratings for promoting tourism to Vancouver (79% approve); providing good sanitation services (75%) and protecting the environment (70%).

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However, only 33 per cent of people thought the city was doing a good job of engaging with everyday citizens.

The city also got low marks for dealing with homelessness and poverty (31% approve) and making City Hall “work in a transparent and unbiased fashion” (25%).

The most important issues for Vancouverites were Housing (39%), followed by transportation (16%), poverty (12%) and economic development (9%).

Voters seem split on Mayor Gregor Robertson. 46 per cent of would-be voters approve of his performance, while 40 per cent disapprove. The groups that are satisfied the most with Robertson’s performance are women (52%) and residents aged 18-to-34 (55%). Robertson is seen positively by 46 per cent of Vancouverites.

NPA mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe is seen positively by 24 per cent of Vancouverites, and negatively by 9 per cent. Name recognition is an issue for LaPointe, with 41 per cent saying they don’t know who he is.

34 per cent of Vancouverites say they are “very likely” or “moderately likely” to vote for Robertson in the November election, while 35% say they are “not too likely” or “not likely at all” to support him. One-in-five residents (20%) say they are likely to vote for LaPointe, while 23% are unlikely to do so.

However, those voting intentions are split, with younger residents preferring Vision Vancouver, and older residents favouring the NPA.

Residents aged 18-to-34 are definitely more likely to support Robertson (34%) than LaPointe (8%). However, most residents aged 55 and over (59%) say they are unlikely to vote for Robertson this year, and 38% of them would “probably” cast a ballot for LaPointe.

On city council, a third of Vancouverites (34%) say they are likely to give at least one of their votes to candidates from Vision Vancouver. The Non-Partisan Association (NPA) is next at 30 per cent, followed by the Green Party of Vancouver with 29 per cent, and COPE with 18 per cent.

Less than one-in-ten Vancouverites are currently considering voting for council candidates representing the Cedar Party (8%) and One City (7%).

Insights West surveyed 443 Vancouver residents aged 18+ online. Results have a margin of error of +/- 4.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.