Municipal Poll Results (Calgary)

Transcription

1 Municipal Poll Results (Calgary) The Manning Foundation surveyed over 4,000 Calgarians in the fall of 2012 to understand where they stand on various municipal issues. Three themes, forming the basis of subsequent research, stood out: 1. Affordability: Given a list of relevant issues, Calgarians have expressed strong concern about the city s cost of living. They prefer to hold the line on taxes rather than increasing taxes to improve city services. 2. Mobility: Calgarians are fairly divided as to whether to place more emphasis on roads and parking or transit. This suggests a need to accommodate both modes of transportation. 3. Public Safety: Crime and safety rated as the number one unprompted issue facing the city, and when prompted, Calgarians expressed particular concern about safety related to C-Train stations after dark. Methodology Sample Size n=4,200 eligible Calgary resident voters (Avg 300 per Ward) Method: Live telephone interviews and online interviews Fielded in October 2012 Margin of Error +1.6% nineteen times out of twenty

2 1. Affordability Given a list of issues and asked to rank the relative importance from 0 to 10, 53% rated the issue of The cost of living for average families in Calgary as an (Mean response score 7.34). This was the second highest importance rating of 11 issues tested. In a later series of questions, voters were asked to prioritize a number of issues as high, medium or low. On the statement: The city should make the development of housing that is affordable for working families their highest priority in new home development, 44% believe it should be a high priority, and a further 37% believe it should be a medium priority. This was the strongest measure within this battery of nine statements. Clearly housing attainability is a key element of middle-class affordability, but Calgarians hold conflicting views on how this is to be attained. When asked what is the appropriate mix between condos and single-family homes, voters were equally divided on this question 41% favoured each option.

3 When asked about the role of city planners, respondents expressed strong support for planning that controls growth by a margin of 58% to 32% when given the choice between these two options: The city should place a greater emphasis on city planning to control growth and keep a watch on homebuilders to keep them from doing whatever they want (58%). OR, City planning would be done more effectively if homebuilders and consumers could be given more say (32%). However, when asked whether the city should reduce the level of red tape and regulation that it places on businesses in Calgary, 72% gave this objective a high or medium priority. The public has several seemingly conflicting objectives evenly split with respect to condos vs. single-family homes and strongly in favour of planning to control growth yet opposed to the red tape and regulation that accompanies such planning. Resolving these conflicts should be the subject of ongoing discussion and debate. The amount of property tax was a middle-of-the-pack issue in the initial list of issues 5 th highest of 11 issues. Overall, 41% of voters rated the amount of property tax charged to property owners in Calgary as an 8-10 on a 0-10 scale, and the mean score was 6.6. On an issue tradeoff between holding the line on property taxes and increasing property taxes to improve or increase city services, 48% of Calgarians favour holding the line, compared to 39% who support a tax hike.

4 2. Mobility In the open-ended question section (where respondents are not given response options), Traffic rated just behind Crime as the most mentioned issue (11%). Furthermore, additional mentions were made on the issues of roads (6%) and transit (5%). Later, when asked to rate concerns related to local issues, traffic congestion on Calgary roads was the highest rated issue, surpassing crime as an issue. When Calgarians were asked to choose between increased roads and increased transit, the numbers slightly favoured public transit (44% to 35%). However, when asked to prioritize increasing funding for transit to expand service hours, only 32% rated it a high priority. Respondents where not asked what impact they thought future technological developments might have on the trade-offs between rapid transit and automobiles, but this should be the subject of future research. 3. Public Safety Crime and safety rated as the number one unprompted issue facing the city, with 19% citing crime as their greatest concern. Concerns about crime at C-Train stations after dark figures particularly prominently in the issue concerns, 50% rated this issue 8 or higher on a zero to ten scale. This made it the number three concern for Calgarians.

5 For more information about the poll: Dimitri Pantazopoulos Project Manager, Municipal Governance Project (250) For media requests: Morten Paulsen Paulsen Group External Relations (403)