Citizen Budget Results

Think City surveyed 1,648 citizens through its web site or on the street between March 8-31.

The message we heard from the public was clear – the vast majority said they want no cuts to city services. In fact, many citizens want the city to boost funding for libraries, cultural services, community centres, parks, civic grants and other city services.

Moreover, survey participants want the city to also focus on improving public transit, making housing more affordable for low- and middle-income residents, and reducing poverty and homelessness.

Below are the highlights of citizen priorities from the survey. For more details on the Citizen Budget, please download the summary by clicking here.

Service Priorities (ranked in order of importance)

  1. Civic grants
  2. Libraries
  3. Parks and recreation
  4. Community and cultural services
  5. Utilities
  6. Capital program
  7. Fire and rescue
  8. Police
  9. Other public safety
  10. Engineering
  11. Planning and development
  12. Legislative and support services

Community Safety and Policing Priorities

  • Street level patrols were the priority for policing services.
  • There was strong support for more crime prevention (62% in favour).
  • A modest increase in police officers (48 patrol officers) had majority support.
  • There was strong opposition (65% opposed) to the city funding the private Downtown Ambassadors.

Property Tax Redistribution Priorities

There was strong opposition (78%) to the proposed shift in taxes to increase residential taxes. In all, 44% wanted no change and 34% wanted a redistribution to reduce residential taxes.

Taxation Level Priorities

The favoured level of tax increase was just over 3.0% to cover inflation and some modest service increases. In addition, there was support for an average additional 1.5% increase for new and expanded services.

Policy Priorities (ranked in order of importance)

  1. Public transit
  2. Affordable housing (low and middle-income)
  3. Homelessness and poverty reduction
  4. Public involvement in planning and policy
  5. Climate change
  6. Public libraries
  7. Childcare and daycare
  8. Four pillars drug strategy
  9. Parks and recreation
  10. Community visioning planning process
  11. Policing
  12. Eco-Density
  13. Project Civil City
  14. 2010 Olympics civic funding