A survey done by Vibrant Communities Calgary ahead of the Oct. 20 election is painting a different picture of what Calgarians want from their municipal government—and top of the list is not, as other surveys have suggested, more policing.
Your Voice, Our Future engaged 1,017 Calgarians, with 905 responses being used for the survey results, using multiple-choice, open-ended questions that asked about the social issues most important to them.
Of the respondents, 78.2 per cent said housing issues were important to them, followed by education at 69 per cent, and employment at 68.8 per cent.
While justice was noted as a priority for respondents at 51.6 per cent, health, transportation, and food security were above that category for the priorities of participants.
“I think Calgarians really were telling us, I think, loud and clear, that housing, access to education, the high cost of food and some barriers to employment are really top of mind for people. The stress of trying to make ends meet was a real undercurrent,” said Jaclyn Silbernagel, Director of Community Engagement at Vibrant Communities Calgary (VCC).
She said that it’s been interesting over the past several weeks that other non-profit organizations have come out with platforms for the election that mirror the VCC findings.
“The chamber’s platform came out a few weeks ago, and it was interesting to see a lot of alignment with VCC’s platform and priorities. Housing was also reflected in their platform document, and, continuing that implementation of things like the Home is Here strategy, I think is important. I’m really pleased to see a lot of support for a low-income transit pass across the board,” said Silbernagel.
“I think that social disorders and that safety question is definitely still present. We put out the No Place to Go report in May of last year, and that spoke to some of those challenges that I think we’re still looking to address.”
Broad spectrum of Calgarians surveyed
Silbernagel said that the survey was able to connect with people from across the spectrum in Calgary, although the ratio of respondents tended towards women, and between the ages of 25 and 44.
She said the survey results came from groups that have been otherwise underrepresented in other election surveys, something that VCC considered for its report on the findings.
“That question of are women more drawn to the social issues in our community? Are they more integrated into the care systems that are related to kind of that social side of our communities?” said Silbernagel.
“It was also interesting to see where people would choose to fill out a survey, and they’d be together as a partnership. It often ended up being the woman that filled out the survey.”
Silbernagel said the challenge in the results for the upcoming election was that many of the priorities for Calgarians are also not municipal order of government responsibilities.
“I think that is where things become a challenge of what order of government is responsible for. What I think it is showing in relation to conversations in our communities is that I don’t think people feel like they can wait for another order of government to act,” she said.
“There’s really important conversations that are happening at all levels, regardless of that granular version of, ‘this is my responsibility, and this is yours.’ Municipally, people are on the ground, they’re closest to the people in their communities, and I hope overall candidates really see this opportunity to reinforce the vital role that local government really plays in building a vibrant and prosperous Calgary.”
The full Your Voice, Our Future is available at enoughforall.ca/resources/your-voice-our-future.
