2024 Budget Survey - What We Heard - Municipal service importance

Survey participants were asked how much they value various municipal service groups using a scale of very important, important, moderately important, slightly important and not important. Results showed that across all categories respondents find municipal services to be important, with the following categories receiving the highest number of Very important responses.

Enabling affordable housing
Social services
Sewers, water, stormwater management
Fire prevention, police, paramedics
Environment protection, support for green projects

How important do you think the following services/programs are to the community?	Very important	Important	Moderately important	Slightly important	Not important
Sewers, water, stormwater management	214	144	41	12	1
Fire prevention, police, paramedics	194	121	59	27	7
Arts, culture, and heritage (e.g. libraries, museums, art galleries, heritage preservation and associated programs)	183	104	80	27	19
Garbage and landﬁll	130	188	78	10	3
Recycling	164	164	53	19	9
Household organic waste collection (the new Green Bin program starts fall 2023)	147	120	85	34	27
Providing access to recreation facilities and delivering recreational programming (e.g. arenas, sport ﬁelds, and swimming lessons)	59	167	113	46	26
Providing and maintaining parks and green spaces	180	147	65	15	5
Enabling aﬀordable housing	276	79	32	11	12
Permits, inspections, and enforcement (including building permits for renovations, business licences, etc.)	52	124	149	56	29
Social services (e.g. client program and supports, costs to deliver ﬁnancial assistance, homelessness services, and children's services)	245	106	36	16	9
Planning for and managing residential, commercial and industrial development	73	143	130	41	23
Providing active transportation infrastructure for walking and cycling (e.g. trails, sidewalks and cycling lanes)	166	110	87	33	17
Providing transportation infrastructure for transit and vehicles (e.g. roads and bridges)	132	146	88	32	14
Environmental protection, support for green projects (e.g. grants, waste reduction programs, low-impact development, energy eﬃciency)	199	103	60	34	17
Managing tax dollars	183	105	76	37	7
Promoting economic development (i.e. public, business and non-governmental sector partners working collectively to better conditions for economic growth and employment generation)	72	155	113	54	16
Providing information, customer service, and public engagement (e.g. responding to phone calls and emails in a timely manner, holding public consultation meetings, sharing information on website)	91	150	113	43	14