Calgarians’ satisfaction with city services declining ahead of budget talks: survey

Calgarians are growing further dissatisfied with city services, with more questioning the value they get for their tax dollars according to a new city survey.

According to the City of Calgary’s Fall Research Results, 63 per cent of Calgarians are satisfied with city services, which is a decline of six per cent since last fall’s survey.

However, just 42 per cent of Calgarians are satisfied with “how things are going” in the city, a drop of 12 per cent since 2023.

Positive perceptions from Calgarians about how the city is run are also down 14 per cent from last year, to just 43 per cent.

“I’m not surprised,” Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp told reporters Friday. “The public sentiment right now around the City of Calgary and council in general is very low.”

Thirty-five per cent of respondents felt infrastructure, traffic and roads topped the list of issues Calgarians found most important, followed by the economy at 18 per cent and homelessness and poverty at 17 per cent.

Water supply and water infrastructure registered at 13 per cent, with zoning and growth identified as a top priority amongst 13 per cent of respondents.

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“Obviously all of us were shocked by the water main break,” Debbie MacNaughton told Global News. “But I think it’s a growing city and we’ve got a lot to adjust to here.”

Public safety, transit and housing were also listed as top priorities, but saw declines in “issue prioritization” since the city’s spring survey.

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“Calgarians have shared with us what matters most to them about their city and their concerns,” Calgary’s chief administrative officer David Duckworth said in a statement. “We have heard this loud and clear. Our work continues to focus on these priorities as well as address concerns and feedback across all survey results.”

The bi-annual survey results will be presented to city council next week, and are meant to help inform budget deliberations in November.

Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek said she felt it’s important to “understand what’s on people’s minds” ahead of those budget talks.

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“If Calgarians are saying infrastructure investments are important and we know we have underfunded things like roads, that’s a serious conversation council needs to have,” Gondek said.

However, Calgarians remain divided when it comes to paying for those priorities through property taxes. Forty-six per cent of respondents noted they would be in favour of increasing property taxes, while 45 per cent preferred taxes to be cut or remain the same.

The upcoming budget adjustment will be the last before Calgarians go to the polls next October, and experts suggest it’s an important signal for city council.

Marc Henry, who heads ThinkHQ Public Affairs and served as chief of staff to former mayor Dave Bronconnier, said it will be “pretty tough” for council to turn around the growing dissatisfaction amongst Calgarians.

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“You’ve got to remember, that’s going to sort of be the last impression people have of your fiscal management and whether you’ve got your hands on the reigns at city hall,” Henry told Global News.

“You always try to make sure that last budget before the election is delivering on what you said it was going to be.”

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Sixty-six per cent of Calgarians believe their quality of life is “good,” a 10-point drop from last fall’s survey, while 70 per cent considered Calgary a great place to make a life, dropping five per cent from 2023.

Nearly six in 10 Calgarians are optimistic about the economy, an increase of 9 per cent from the city’s spring survey, but respondents who believe Calgary is on the right track to be a better city 10 years from now have declined to 61 per cent.

The survey showed the number of Calgarians reporting trust in the city is 41 per cent, five per cent lower than this time last year.

It’s an issue city officials noted is a cultural shift reflected in the local data.

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“There’s a lot of people in really tough times right now,” Gondek said. “When you’re in a tough time, your reaction is to say, ‘I need my government to do more.’”

The survey was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs over the phone from Aug. 8, 2024 to Sept. 3, 2024 with 2,500 Calgarians.  The survey has a margin of error of ± 2.0 percentage points,19 times out of 20.

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