GUELPH – An overwhelming majority of residents, 96 per cent, rate the quality of life in the County of Wellington as either “very good” or “good” according to a citizen satisfaction survey conducted for the county by Ipsos Canada.
The survey, compiled through a combination of telephone interviews and online polling between April 25 and May 31, revealed a substantial proportion, 42%, rate the local quality of life as “very good” while 54% described it as “good.”
Martin Hrobsky, senior vice-president of public affairs for the market research company presented the results of the survey to Wellington County council at the June 29 meeting.
“The county commissioned Ipsos to conduct this survey to collect opinions, perceptions, and experiences from local residents in terms of top issues in the community, inform toward the terms of the importance and levels of satisfaction that they have with various services provided by the county, also for understanding citizens perspective on growth and development and, finally, preferred communication methods,” Hrobsky told council.
Interestingly, Hrobsky noted, the majority of residents, 62%, say their quality of life remained unchanged in the past three years.
“Which is remarkable, despite the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on both health and financial stability,” an executive summary of the survey states, while noting a quarter of local residents, 26%, say they have experienced “a decline in their quality of life.”
The survey indicates 12% of county residents feel their quality of life has improved over the same period, while 26% indicate it has “worsened.”
Respondents from the Township of Mapleton (19%) and Town of Minto (18%) were mostly likely to say their quality of life had improved, while residents of Puslinch and Wellington North, both at 8%, were least likely to feel that way.
The poll also revealed residents feel the county is a safe place to live, as 97% consider the area “very” (53%) or “somewhat” (44%) safe.
Those age 55 and up are less enthusiastic about the level of safety, the survey shows, and less likely to rate the county ‘very safe’ (46% vs 66% among 18-34 and 55% among 35-54).
At total of 96% of residents either strongly (67%) or somewhat (30%) agree the county is “a great place to raise a family,” while 94% indicate they are “proud” to live here.
Eighty-eight per cent of residents either strongly (40%) or somewhat (44%) agree Wellington County is “a great place for seniors and retirees to live.”
Asked to prioritize the most important issues facing the county, road maintenance, 23%, and housing, 21%, were cited as the primary concerns by respondents.
“‘Growth and development’, although mentioned by fewer individuals (14%), is frequently associated with these top concerns and is also connected to environmental issues such as water and waste management, as well as the protection of farmlands,” the summary notes.
Concerns about road maintenance are equally important among all residents, while housing (40%) and economy/jobs (29%) are significant concerns households with an income below $40K. On the other hand, taxation/government spending (20%) stands out for households with an income of $120K or more. Growth/ development was cited more often by older residents (55+ years, 18%) and affluent households ($120K+, 17%).
“Those residents who have more recently moved to the county (under five years) primarily mention crime and public safety concerns (19%),” the summary notes.
The survey shows 88% of residents are either very (18%) or somewhat (70%) satisfied with the quality of services provided by the County of Wellington.
“This satisfaction extends across most demographic groups” the survey states.
However, the survey also indicates 13% of residents are either not very (10%) or not at all (3%) satisfied with county services.
Residents of Centre Wellington seem most satisfied with county services, with 91% either very or somewhat satisfied, while only 79% of Erin residents indicated some level of satisfaction.
More than half of Wellington residents admit to not being knowledgeable about municipal tax spending, with 54% indicating they are not very (40%), or not-at-all knowledgeable on the topic.
Specifically, the survey shows women, individuals under the age of 34, renters, and those residing in households earning less than $120,000 annually, are more inclined to acknowledge a lack of understanding regarding how the municipality allocates the tax funds they collect.
Regardless of their level of understanding, the survey indicates most county residents show little enthusiasm for a reduction in services to reduce taxes, with only 16% prioritizing tax reduction even if it leads to service cuts.
Raise taxes?
To address municipal budget requirements, over half of the residents, 56%, would prefer the county raise taxes, although a significant proportion, 40%, would opt for cuts in the level of service.
Among those in favour of a tax increase, the majority, 35%, would accept it primarily to prevent the loss of services, while a smaller proportion, 22%, would consider a tax increase to expand services. Conversely, about one-quarter, 24%, would consider service cuts to maintain current tax levels.
However, if faced with a choice between increasing property taxes or user fees, most residents, 78%, would opt for a fee increase.
While only 30% of residents indicated they were either somewhat (25%) or very (5%) familiar with Wellington County council, about three quarters of those surveyed, 76%, either somewhat or strongly approve of the council’s performance, while 22% either somewhat (20%) or strongly (2%) disapprove.
The survey indicates most residents, 90%, are optimistic about the county’s future.
Two-thirds of the population agree that the county does a good job managing the level of development and growth of the area. Ipsos notes Wellington County performs better on this question than many other Canadian municipalities (65% vs 53%) using the company’s comparative data system.
While a majority of residents, 58%, believe that the County of Wellington communicates effectively with its citizens, Ipsos says the survey results indicate “room for improvement in this specific area.”
Email, at 48%,was listed as the preferred method of communication for nearly half of residents, regardless of demographics, while a substantial proportion, 38%, express a preference for regular mail, which is consistent across all demographic groups.
Social media at 19%, newspapers, 18%, and newsletters/pamphlets, 16%, represent the next highest on the list.
“I must say that I was kind of shocked when I saw that email and regular mail are at the top of the list when it comes to sending out information. I thought social media would have been a lot higher than it currently is. So that’s going to be changing my perspective of how to get information out,” observed councillor Gregg Davidson.
Several councillors questioned whether respondents were clear on which services were provided by the county and which were local tier responsibilities.
“I was surprised to see how much roads were a concern, road maintenance, when county roads in general are fairly well maintained. Were you able to piece out of those conversations clarifying which roads they were concerned about, so that we knew whether they were talking about town roads or whether they were talking about county roads?” asked councillor Dianne Ballantye.
“We can take a look at the detail of the comments that people provided to that question to see if they mentioned specific examples. And we can provide that information as feedback,” Hrobsky replied .
Ballantyne also asked about the age breakdown of survey respondents.
“The reason I asked is because I’m surprised at how low child care came up, in that’s the calls and the emails that I get most of the concerns about … lack of childcare,” she explained.
“The survey was conducted among residents 18 years of age and older and it is representative of all age groups within the county, according to the census,” said Hrobsky.
“We can look at the proportion of residents who mentioned childcare and see which age groups those primarily come,” he added.
Warden Andy Lennox pointed out the survey identifies there are areas that “maybe we can improve on.
“We’re going to want to get things right. So what we’re really talking about here is using this as a tool to help us fine tune what we’re doing,” the warden added.
In a description of the survey methodology, Ipsos says it conducted a mix of cell phone (209) and landline (191) telephone interviews, plus three interviews through a 1-800 number offered.
For the online stream, the invitation was sent by mail to a randomized number of households using Canada Post address databases. The letter contained a link for users to type into their internet browsers, and a QR code was also offered. Each individual also received a unique passcode in order to participate in the survey. Ipsos mailed 5,000 letters to residents and received 515 completed online surveys.
Ipsos states the overall margin of error for a survey of this size is plus or minus 3.2%, 19 times out of 20.
