While London, Ont., residents are satisfied with their city’s governance, the level at which Londoners are satisfied with city services is down a bit from last year, according to a new satisfaction survey.
The 2022 Resident Satisfaction Survey outlined that 77 per cent of Londoners are satisfied with their overall quality of life, down from 82 per cent in 2021.
“This survey is very useful,” commented London Mayor Josh Morgan. “Certainly, we know that cost pressures on families have gone up; inflation, ability to find affordable housing and places to live, these are all challenges that people are facing. So, it’s not a surprise to me that there’s some adjustments in the numbers year to year.”
Reflecting on the recent municipal election, Morgan highlighted “top-of-mind” issues raised by residents, “poverty being at the top of the list.”
“(Conversations) mainly driven by mentions of homelessness, which went from 27 per cent in 2021, to 44 per cent in 2022,” he said. “The survey doesn’t necessarily say these are things the municipal government is fully responsible for or even has the capacity to fully respond to. But it does let us know the types of issues that Londoners are thinking about, worried about and concerned about.”
The recorded five percentage-point drop from last year’s survey comes as an additional report, prepared by Watson and Associates Economists, forecasts a significant rise in incoming residents within the next 30 years, estimating a population jump to 650,000 by 2051.
Referencing the population report, Morgan said the pressure on housing affordability and availability is “not going anywhere.”
“It’s really important for us to recognize that we have to get housing affordability under control with other levels of government to ensure that Londoners can afford a good quality of life in our city,” he said.
“To do that, we have to support that in a cost-effective way for municipalities, and one of the ways to do that is through intensification, having new units built in the areas where we know we have existing services at capacity, where it’s not significant new outlays and infrastructure dollars to supply the water, fire protection, roads and sewers to those new houses and new communities.
Morgan brought up challenges posed by legislation, such as Bill 23, that will challenge the city’s ability to accommodate predicted population growth.
“We do have robust municipal processes that manage this,” he said. “I think that the growth numbers in the survey that we will use for the basis of our decision-making are probably on the low end of where the growth will be, or at least lower than where we probably end up landing.
“It’s important to look at what Londoners are thinking and what they want us to work on.”
The 2022 Resident Satisfaction Survey is set to go before the strategic priorities and policy committee on Monday at 4 p.m.
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