Residents generally agree that Calgary is a great place to make a life according to a new survey released by the city of Calgary Wednesday.
Called the Citizen Satisfaction Survey, it was conducted by the city to look at what Calgarians think about city programs and services.
The city contracted Ipsos polling firm to conduct the random telephone survey.
“Findings from these surveys provide a performance-based report for council, administration and the public,” a city press release said Wednesday. “Tracking citizens’ perceptions over time allows for benchmarking against previous years’ findings and against established municipal norms from other Canadian municipalities.”
Survey highlights:
- 86 per cent of those surveyed rated their quality of life in the city as “good”
- The city “is a great place to make a life,” at 83 per cent of respondents
- 84 per cent of respondents agreed the city is “on the right track to being a better city”
- 77 per cent of respondents said they are happy with the “level and quality” of the city’s services and programs
- There was a 95 per cent satisfaction rating when it comes to quality of drinking water, parks, playgrounds and other open spaces
- 91 per cent of those surveyed were satisfied with residential blue cart recycling and 88 per cent were satisfied with social services
- 82 per cent of those surveyed felt safe walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark
The city said the survey also noted a “decreased satisfaction was seen in areas like road maintenance, snow removal, and spring street cleaning which is not surprising given Calgary’s long winter in 2017-2018.”
Traffic and roads remain a concern for citizens
The city said the survey also revealed three areas “as needing the most attention from local leaders”:
- Infrastructure, traffic and roads at 40 per cent (which was unchanged from 2017)
- Transit services at 16 per cent
- Crime, safety and policing at 14 per cent
LISTEN: Jamie Duncan, Ipsos VP, joins Danielle Smith to discuss the details of the Calgary citizen satisfaction survey
Other items the city noted in the survey included:
- Snow removal was seen as being important to the respondents, along with general road maintenance, the transit system, traffic management
- A majority of the respondents said the investments should be made in more affordable housing, social services and the police
- Calgarians remain very interested in how their property tax dollars are spent.
- 78 per cent of the respondents were satisfied with the city’s customer service and delivery
The city noted in the news release that Calgarians are generally satisfied with the way the city is being run but noted that “fewer believe that city council and city administration work collaboratively to make the best possible decisions for the future of Calgary, which could point to an area of improvement.”
The survey was conducted by Ispos for the city of Calgary. The survey’s sample size was 2,500 randomly selected people.
The survey sample consisted of both cellphones (40 per cent) and landlines (60 per cent). The margin of error for the total sample is +/- 2.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The complete report can be found on the city’s website.
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