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We’re still happy here

Tackling transportation and road issues should be the City of Red Deer’s top priority over the next 12 months, according to an Ipsos Reid poll released this week.Tackling transportation and road issues should be the City of Red Deer’s top priority over the next 12 months, according to an Ipsos Reid poll released this week.

Tackling transportation and road issues should be the City of Red Deer’s top priority over the next 12 months, according to an Ipsos Reid poll released this week.

A telephone survey of 300 residents between May 24 and June 3 shows the leading concern for residents has to do with community transportation.

Transportation was designated as “most important” by 25 per cent of those surveyed.

Next in line was municipal government services at 13 per cent, followed by crime and social issues, each at eight per cent.

The priorities changed when respondents were prompted with five issues — police and crime prevention (34 per cent), snow removal (25 per cent) and economic development (17 per cent).

Creating opportunities for other forms of transportation, including bike lanes, was valued at 13 per cent by respondents followed by environmental programs at nine per cent.

When asked if the City of Red Deer was doing a good or poor job of managing infrastructure, 65 per cent said the city was doing a very good job when it came to recreational facilities, while 48 per cent said the same for sewage treatment facilities.

Water treatment facilities came in at 47 per cent, local public transit at 34 per cent, and nine per cent for roads.

The survey explored numerous areas, including residents’ feelings about their quality of life in Red Deer. Ninety-seven per cent of Red Deer residents feel good or very good about their quality of life.

In 2010, 99 per cent said they were happy, while in 2009, 95 per cent responded the same.

A total of 61 per cent of residents felt the quality of life in Red Deer has stayed the same in the past three years.

Individuals were also asked why they thought that their quality of life has improved — 15 per cent of them credited good amenities and services; while good parks/green space/recreational facilities came in at 10 per cent, and another 10 per cent credited employment/job opportunities.

And the reasons why it’s worsened? Fifteen per cent blamed the high cost of living, another 15 per cent said the economy and nine per cent said roads/streets.

When it comes to value for every tax dollar, 89 per cent of residents feel they received very good value or fairly good value. This is similar to 2010 results.

This year, 36 per cent of respondents favoured maintaining or reducing taxes by cutting services, compared with 39 per cent in 2010. And 51 per cent favoured increasing taxes to maintain or expand services — the same percentage in 2010.

When asked how they felt about services, 33 per cent said they were “very satisfied” with overall level and quality of services, 59 per cent were “very satisfied” with recreational and cultural facilities, 45 per cent were “very satisfied” with police services. As well, there was 30 per cent of people who were very satisfied with land use and community planning, 22 per cent for maintenance, cleaning and upgrading of streets and sidewalks, and 24 per cent for traffic management.

Sixty-seven per cent of those surveyed said they had used the City of Red Deer website in the past year.

The survey will be presented to city council on Monday.

Overall results are accurate to within plus or minus 5.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The data will help the city create benchmarks for issues management, quality of life and service delivery in areas like police service, traffic management and communication. A benchmark is a standard against which the city can compare progress in the coming years. It then helps the city determine if citizen satisfaction has increased or decreased, and whether city programs and initiatives are effective.

ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com