COQUITLAM, BC, Sept. 22, 2021 – The results of Coquitlam’s annual Citizen Satisfaction Survey are in and demonstrate that residents remain very highly satisfied with civic services.
The statistically-valid survey of 500 respondents, conducted by Ipsos earlier this year, showed that Coquitlam residents rank their quality of life, value for taxation, City services and customer service very high.
The City has collected citizen views each year on municipal services, priority issues and quality of life through Ipsos since 2003, using the insights to make decisions about planning, budgeting and community priorities. The only exception was in 2020 as, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no Citizen Satisfaction Survey was done.
Key Findings
Ipsos presented key findings on this year’s survey including:
- COVID-19 Impacts - While the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted many aspects of residents’ every day lives, including mental health (59 per cent), personal relationships (50 per cent) and physical health (44 per cent), survey results reflect that the pandemic has not changed the overall positive perceptions of the community or the City.
- Stability and Consistency- Key survey measures have stayed stable and strong compared to previous years. This includes:
- more than 97 per cent rating Coquitlam’s overall quality of life as good
- 96 per cent saying they are satisfied with the overall level and quality of City services
- 89 per cent saying they receive good value for their municipal taxes
- Satisfaction with Services - Satisfaction with individual City services has stayed consistently high with many of them showing a satisfaction rate above 90 per cent. Similarly, the City’s overall customer service increased to 91 per cent, reflecting Coquitlam’s deliberate commitment to safely maintaining services and quality customer service throughout the pandemic.
- High Quality of Life - Quality of life in Coquitlam continues to have a positive momentum with 35 per cent saying their quality of life has improved over the past five years with reasons including improved recreational facilities and parks, and improved transportation and roads.
- Shifting Priorities - The public issue agenda appears to be shifting with social issues (e.g. affordable housing, affordable child care, homelessness, seniors issues, racism) being the most important top-of-mind community issue (23 per cent) after being the number two issue in 2019.
- Taxes over Service Cuts - Citizens continue to prefer tax increases (54 per cent) over service cuts (33 per cent), though this preference is softening compared to previous years.
Opportunities to Have Your Say
Nearly 30 per cent of the telephone survey respondents say that they have participated in a municipal consultation over the last two years. While they indicated it’s important to have the opportunity to share their input on issues that affect them, residents are only moderately interested in participating in differing forms of public consultation ranging from feedback on the City’s website (70 per cent), surveys (68 per cent) and public open houses (63 per cent).
Opportunities to engage on Coquitlam’s plans, priorities and projects are available at letstalkcoquitlam.ca as well as through Viewpoint, Coquitlam’s online survey community. For information, visit www.coquitlam.ca/viewpoint.
About the Citizen Satisfaction Survey
The Ipsos-led statistically-valid 2021 Citizen Satisfaction Survey questioned 500 randomly selected Coquitlam residents aged 18 years or older between May 25 and June 11. The data was then weighted to ensure a representative distribution between ages, genders and neighbourhoods that reflects the actual population of the community according to 2016 Census data.
For more information or to read the complete survey results, visit www.coquitlam.ca/citizensurvey.
Media contact:
Graham Stuart
Manager, Corporate Planning
604-927-3918
gstuart@coquitlam.ca