Canada West Foundation survey: Urbanites
satisfied with their city's quality of life
June 4, 2007
CALGARY - June 4, 2007 - A Canada West Foundation public opinion survey, released today, shows that most residents of Toronto and the six largest western Canadian cities are satisfied with the quality of life in their cities.
Eight in 10 say that their city has a good or very good quality of life, and those who think that their city's quality of life will deteriorate in the years ahead are in the minority.
Saskatoon is the only city in which a majority of respondents rates the current quality of life as "very good." Calgary respondents, however, are the most likely to state that quality of life has deteriorated in the past five years and the most likely to anticipate that quality of life will deteriorate in the next five years.
Across all seven cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg), over eight in 10 residents feel their city is welcoming to people of different cultures and backgrounds, and over eight in 10 feel immigration is good for their city.
"The survey demonstrates that Toronto does not have the Canadian market cornered on cosmopolitanism," stated Robert Roach, Director of Research. "Residents of western cities are also very supportive of a variety of cultures and backgrounds. This is good news for the cities as they work to attract and retain the footloose talent and capital Canada needs to stay competitive in the global marketplace."
The majority in each city feels that their local government is doing a good job in managing population growth, and rapidly-growing Calgary is the only city in which a majority of residents say that there are too many people living in the city.
To download the survey, click here.
Looking West 2007: The Looking West 2007 Survey is part of the Canada West Foundation's Western Cities Project. Core funding for the Western Cities Project has been provided by the Cities of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg. The survey was administered by Probe Research between January 2 and February 3, 2007 from their Winnipeg call centre. A total of 3,500 urban residents were interviewed, with 500 from each of the following urban centres: Greater Vancouver Region; Calgary; Edmonton; Regina; Saskatoon; Winnipeg; and Greater Toronto Area. One can say with 95 percent certainty that the results are within +/- 1.66 percentage points of what they would have been if the entire adult population of these cities had been interviewed; for individual cities, results are within +/-4.38 percentage points. Looking West 2007 Survey topics include urban policy priorities; public safety; street level social problems; transportation; quality of life; environment and urban green spaces; urban growth and diversity; and assessing municipal, provincial and federal governments. The survey results were released in five segments between March and June 2007. A summary report will be released in the fall of 2007.
