Ipsos Public Affairs Citizen Survey – completed for Town of Oliver

The approach undertaken was a telephone survey of adult (18+) Oliver residents, which included a test of cellphone sample. The overall results based on a sample size of 100 will be accurate to within +/-9.8%, 19 times out of 20. The final sample will be weighted according to Census data to ensure the demographics of the sample match those of the actual population distribution in Oliver in terms of gender/age.

Despite Ipsos’ best efforts to engage younger residents, they outline in the report that the final number of 18 to 34 year olds in the sample was too small to apply a statistical weight to this age group.

As such, age weighting was applied to those under 65 years and 65+ years.

The survey focused on the Quality of Life, Community Safety, Town Services, Financial Planning and Communication and Customer Service. The key takeaways from this survey are outlined in the executive summary, it indicates the Quality of life is good and improving, residents are satisfied with services, they feel they are receiving good value for taxes and are satisfied with the Town’s customer service, with staff’s courteousness standing out as a service highlight.

Citizens demonstrate a clear preference for tax increases over service reductions and prioritize renewing existing infrastructure over building new infrastructure. There is strong support for a bylaw banning single-use plastics and citizens indicate their preference for communicating is email, mail and newspapers.

What would you guess was the biggest concern of the population?

Crime dominates the public issue agenda. When asked to identify the most important local issues facing the community on an open ended basis, 43% of citizens mention a crime-related issue. All other issues are a distant second in priority. Of these, the leading second tier issue is social, mentioned by 19% of citizens.
– Specific crime-related mentions include “crime” (29%), “policing/law enforcement” (12%), “break-ins/theft” (6%), and “other crime mentions” (3%).
– Social issues include “drugs (abuse/addiction)” (8%), “housing/affordable housing” (6%), “youth services/facilities/programs” (4%), “poverty/homelessness”
(3%), and “other social mentions” (1%).

• While crime is the most frequently mentioned top-of-mind community issue, overall perceptions of community safety are strong. In total, 94% of citizens describe the Town of Oliver as a safe community.
• However, perceptions of community safety have deteriorated over the past three years. While 55% of citizens say community safety has ‘stayed the same’ over the past three years, 42% say this has ‘worsened’. Only 1% say community safety has ‘improved’, resulting a net momentum score of -41 points.
– The single respondent saying community safety has ‘improved’ explains “they keep making it better” but does not identify any specific safety improvements.
– Among those saying community safety has ‘worsened’, the most frequently mentioned open-ended explanation is “increase in crime” (45%). Other common responses are “break-ins/theft” (25%), “drugs” (24%), and “not enough policing/law enforcement” (13%).