Survey shows souring on city government

Hatters aren’t happy with how the city is operating, according to the results from this spring’s municipal survey of residents. In some categories, satisfaction levels are in the single digits after city officials unexpectedly released the report on Friday.

The results of the IPOS survey conducted in the spring were bumped off the agenda of the last council meeting.

“That overview will come at the next meeting in order to give it enough time to adequately cover the material and to allow questions,” stated Coun. Alison Van Dyke at the Sept. 16 council meeting.

But that is unlikely to occur as securing a date for IPOS officials to present the information has proven challenging, according to a statement by Colleen Graham, communications director with the city.

The survey of 400 Hatters by phone and 450 online combined revealed residents are profoundly disappointed in the municipal government.

Only 8 per cent of online respondents reported being satisfied with the city government with that figure rising to 49 per cent of telephone respondents.

Those results were mirrored when it came to whether the city practises open and accessible government, with 9 per cent of online respondent agreeing along with 49 of those contacted by phone.

The survey was conducted over most of May, six weeks after council levelled sanctions against the mayor but prior to a judicial review decision reversing nearly all of them.

While questions about city leadership were sub-par and falling by double digits compared to the previous survey in 2022, satisfaction with municipal services scored well.

Everything from garbage collection to recreation facilities along with parks and traffic management all scored above 85 per cent in satisfaction.

Nearly all city services results across the board were either above, at or near average for municipalities for both the online and phone respondents.