
A Kamloops councillor says while results need to be taken in context, the city’s Citizen Satisfaction Survey shows the municipality, while doing a good job with things like recreation and sport, “can do better” in other areas.
The survey, which is completed every two years, was conducted by Forum Research Inc. between Oct. 21 and Nov. 12. Results show that 75 per cent of residents surveyed are positive about their overall quality of life, but this number has seen a decline since 2019.
Survey results show residents are concerned about homelessness, crime, the cost of living and housing affordability. The survey suggested the city can focus on public engagement and improving infrastructure like sidewalks and roads to potentially increase resident satisfaction.
“We have to do as good a job as we can do with the money that we've got, stick handling in our own lanes, and look at the long term goal,” Coun. Stephen Karpuk told Castanet Kamloops.
“This is not, ‘Can we fix it before the next survey,’ it’s ‘What are we going to do to make this community better in generations to come?’”
Karpuk noted satisfaction levels varied across demographics, but survey data indicated there are more people saying Kamloops isn’t a great place to live — called detractors in the report — than those who are promoting the community.
“So yes, we can do better,” he said.
The telephone survey included responses from 400 people. Everyone in Kamloops had an equal chance of being called, regardless of whether they used a landline or cell phone.
An online companion survey was also conducted through the City of Kamloops website for anyone who wanted to provide feedback. The web survey received about 1,500 responses, which were noted separately in the report.
The report said web survey respondents were “much less enthusiastic about the quality of life in Kamloops” than those randomly selected for the phone survey. Only two in five online respondents said their quality of life was good.
“You have to take it as being obviously a very biased sample size and group,” Karpuk noted.
Unhappy with homelessness, affordability
Top concerns related to residents’ quality of life included impacts of homelessness and poverty, crime, housing affordability and addiction — all areas under provincial government jurisdiction.
“It gives us more opportunity to be the advocates,” Karpuk said, adding all members of council will continue to advocate for progress on safety and security and housing needs.
The survey data showed satisfaction with the city’s communication and public engagement declined to 56 per cent from 71 per cent in 2022 and 83 per cent in 2019.
Karpuk said this is an area of continued focus for council, especially as it rethinks how to handle the public inquiries portion of regular meeting agendas.
“We're here to listen — but we're also here hoping to have a good, civil discourse, not just have someone yell at us and say, ‘No, your staff are stupid,’ or something else that's inappropriate," he said.
Where to cut
The report shows 92 per cent of surveyed residents are satisfied with sports and recreation programs, and 90 per cent are satisfied with green space availability.
“A vast majority think that our aesthetics and appearance is pretty good," Karpuk said.
"Our weather, not that we can change it, but how we plan around our weather emergencies and our management of our extreme weather events, people are pretty satisfied with that, and overall arts and culture. I thought those were really good signs.”
Two-thirds of surveyed residents feel they receive good value for their tax dollars, which the report noted was comparable to other Canadian municipalities.
The survey showed an increase in the number of residents who would prefer to cut services to maintain or reduce the tax rate, from 32 per cent in 2022 to 42 per cent in 2024 — but 44 per cent said they would support a tax increase to maintain services.
Karpuk said he’s heard some say they want council to look at cutting services to save tax dollars, but they then have trouble coming up with specifics.
“I think that's one of the missing pieces of this survey is, what, if we had to cut, would you cut? What service would we draw back?” he said.
Karpuk said council is taking a hard look at this year’s budget to see what can be done to reduce taxes, noting people have also indicated a preference for paying user fees for services rather than relying on general taxation.
“There's lots of different things that we've got to look at. It's not just cutting taxes and cutting services. Maybe we need to update what the cost is,” he said.
The draft Citizen Satisfaction Survey report can be viewed here. Results will be discussed by council at a future committee of the whole meeting.