The next city council’s priorities should be crime, social disorder and community safety, followed closely by economic development and proactively seeking out new investment and people to the city, according to a new survey.
The Red Deer & District Chamber of Commerce survey targeted area business owners, managers and employees to find out their thoughts and priorities for the upcoming municipal election.
Survey results showed:
• 49 per cent thought the city provides “intermediate value” for tax dollars spent, with just 16 per cent thinking there is “good value.”
• 71 per cent said they would support the city spending more for economic development even if it meant an increase to taxes, and 53 per cent would support more spending on police.
• 77 per cent said they would support the utilization of tax incentives to attract businesses to Red Deer.
“These results clearly verify what we have been hearing from our membership for many years. There is serious work to be done within Red Deer City Hall to ensure people feel comfortable and safe in our community and we need to work harder to attract new people and businesses to our city,” said chamber CEO Rick More.
“We hope the new council takes these results to heart and places a strong focus on sustainably resolving these issues and we look forward to working with them to achieve these goals.”