Social issues top of mind for Lethbridge residents in new report

A new phone survey to showcase what Lethbridge’s most pressing issues are was presented at a Governance Standing Policy Committee Meeting on Thursday. The results will be presented to Lethbridge City Council at a later date. A total of 400 residents aged 18 and older participated in the study. The main feedback items include top-of-mind issues, satisfaction, importance and usage of City Services, communication, customer service, financial planning/taxation and overall quality of life. Catherine Knaus, the Director of Public Affairs for Ipsos, says the biggest concern was social issues which received nearly 31 per cent. Many people were concerned about homelessness, affordable housing, Indigenous issues, and problems facing youth and our seniors. Those in our city are also concerned about transportation along with drugs and crime. Knaus, says it’s quite common to see such a small sample size.

“For example, if we were going to do a Canada wide study, it’s not unusual to do a sample of 1,000. Even though I think the population of Canada now is close to 37 million. That’s a very standard sample size for our national survey and it gives you a margin of error plus or minus 3.1 per cent. If we were going to do a national study in the U.S. for example, which has a much larger population- if we did a survey of 1,000 there we’d still have a same margin of error. Because your margin of error isn’t based on your size of your population unless you’re dealing with very small sample sizes.”

A total of 90 per cent of those polled rated their quality of life in Lethbridge as good or very good. The number of people who were satisfied with the city’s quality of services and programs came in at 82 per cent.

“This survey is a very important tool for City Council,” says Councillor Belinda Crowson, Chair of the Governance Standing Policy Committee. “As we head into the Operating Budget deliberations this fall, we need to understand how our community feels about the programs and services we provide so we can make good funding decisions. It also helps us evaluate our strengths and areas for improvement.”

You can access the full report by visiting https://www.lethbridge.ca/City-Government/Documents/2022%20Community%20Survey%20Results.pdf