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Photo: Shaun Penner
citizen satisfaction

Crime and roads major concern in City, according to satisfaction survey results

Mar 31, 2020 | 3:27 PM

The City has received the results of their citizen satisfaction survey which was completed in January.

The results from both the phone and online survey were presented to the Council Committee Meeting of the Whole on Tuesday.

Mayor Bill Given says the results are usually only representative of a certain time, and he is more focused on the trends that come up in these surveys.

“It’s interesting to see that snow removal and ice control and roads are always highly important for people. It seems like we’re always in that challenge to find exactly right thing to do no matter how much or how little we spend on it.”

The other top concerns for participants were crime and homelessness, some Mayor Given says he was not surprised to see.

“It’s obviously a topic that council will place a significant amount of efforts upon, as we have over the past year as we’ve increased RCMP positions, and taken more assertive and proactive approaches, to finding more appropriate ways to engage our street-engaged population.”

He says that he is concerned to see the City trending downwards in certain areas he expected to be going up, but that he is confident in the City and Administrations abilities to address the problem areas.

The survey did show that overall, respondents recorded a good quality of life in Grande Prairie.

City of Grande Prairie

Compared to the past years though, 4 in 10, or 38 per cent, of residents who participated in the survey felt that their quality of life has worsened in the past three years. In 2017, only 23 per cent of residents responded that way. The top reason for a worsening of quality of life this year was an increase in crime.

City of Grande Prairie

Those who did say that their quality of life had improved had a variety of reasons.

City of Grande Prairie

In terms of how City services were rated, the fire department was rated the highest for citizen satisfaction, followed by parks, playgrounds, and trails, recreational facilities and arts and cultural facilities and programs.