An overwhelming majority of Calgarians consider their quality of life in the city is “good”, according to a new citizen satisfaction survey released by the City of Calgary Tuesday, but the impression that quality of life has “worsened” in the city continues to increase.
While 83 per cent of Calgarians say quality of life is “good” — an increase from the previous survey in the spring — 40 per cent of survey respondents said quality of life has “worsened,” continuing a trend going back to the fall 2018 survey.
Just less than half — 44 per cent — said quality of life had stayed the same and 16 per cent said quality of life had “improved” in the city. Only five per cent of the 2,502 surveyed said quality of life in Calgary was “poor.”
More than one in three Calgarians surveyed said infrastructure, traffic and roads were a top issue for the city in this fall 2019 survey, with transit coming in as the next most important issue, followed by crime, safety and policing.
The issue of city taxes, which was previously the second-most important issue recorded in the spring’s citizen satisfaction survey, dropped to the fourth-most important issue.
Survey respondents said they want to see more investment in areas of affordable housing and social services, Calgary Transit, Calgary Police Services, road maintenance and repair – in that order.
The city also tracks how Calgarians feel about the value of their property taxes. That metric saw an improvement over the spring’s survey, up to 54 per cent from 48 per cent.
Just over half of survey respondents said they received “good quality of services” from the city and just under half said the city had “appropriate spending” on services.
When asked how the city should balance taxation with service levels, half of those surveyed said the city should cut services — down four per cent from the spring — and 44 per cent said the city should increase taxes.
Nearly all — 94 per cent — of those surveyed are interested in knowing how their tax dollars are spent and just over half said they have access to “just the right amount of information” from the city.
While 70 per cent of those surveyed said they are satisfied with how city council and administration are running the city, only half have a favourable impression of the city — down from 68 per cent in fall of last year.
The survey was conducted by Ipsos in participation with the City of Calgary. It had a sample size of 2,502 people, randomly selected to complete the telephone survey between Aug. 19, 2019, and Sep. 16, 2019. Both cell phones (40 per cent) and landlines (60 per cent) were called for the survey. The margin of error for the total sample is +/- 2.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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