COVID-19 pandemic puts dent in city satisfaction survey results

The COVID-19 pandemic has Calgarians feeling a little less satisfied with their quality of life in the city, according to thelatest municipal survey.

The City of Calgary's Fall 2020 Citizen Satisfaction Survey found that 77 per cent Calgarians agree that the city is a great place to make a life on par with last year but only 58 per cent believe Calgary is a great place to make a living, down from 63 per cent last fall.

"As many Calgarians are facing uncertainty, we are not surprised to see citizens rate their quality of life in Calgary as slightly lower than last year," the city said in a release.

The city said its latest snapshot surveys with a focus on COVID-19 suggested that 86 per cent of Calgarians are satisfied with the city's pandemic response and that support for the face coverings bylaw is also strong at 86 per cent.

The survey also found that the issue identified as needing the most attention from local leaders is "infrastructure, traffic and roads"at 28 per cent, followed by "crime, safety and policing" at 15 per cent, and taxes at 13 per cent.

About seven in 10 Calgarians agree that the city needs to address racism and discrimination, the survey found. That opinion was more prevalent among young adults (82%) than those aged 25 and older (68%).

The 2020 Citizen Satisfaction Survey, conducted by Ipsos in partnership with the city, had a sample size of 2,500 randomly selected people who completed the telephone survey between Aug. 17 and Sept. 6. The margin of error is +/- 2.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The COVID-19 Snapshot #6 Survey, conducted by Leger in partnership with the city, had a sample size of 500 randomly selected people who completed the telephone survey between Sept. 28 and Oct. 8. The margin of error is +/- 4.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The city says the surveys are used to gather citizens' views and perceptions about city programs and servicesand that tracking citizens' perceptions over time allows for benchmarking against the previous years' findings.