Canadian Citizen Satisfaction

How Does Your Municipality Measure Up Against Citizen Expectations?

Municipalities across the country are looking to better understand their citizens' satisfaction levels, attitudes, needs, and priorities. Understanding how citizens think and feel can help guide municipalities in the development of communications strategies, new programs and services, and budgeting plans, as well as serve as a benchmark for tracking how attitudes are changing over time.

To accommodate this need, Ipsos Reid is pleased to offer your municipality the opportunity to participate in our Citizen Satisfaction syndicated research study. This shared-cost vehicle is designed to explore key issues facing local municipalities, including:

Issue agenda;
Perceptions towards quality of life in their community;
Satisfaction with municipal services;
Perceived value for municipal taxes and preferred funding options; and,
Communication and information needs, including website visitation.

In addition to these core issues, this year's survey will also include three optional modules that target key areas of concern: Citizen Priorities & Expectations, Measuring Staff & Council Performance, and Infrastructure.

The Citizen Priorities & Expectations module explores citizens' perceptions of key priorities over the next year, interest in local vs. broad priorities, and awareness and alignment of citizen expectations to Council/Administration's priorities.

The Measuring Staff & Council Performance module examines citizens' ratings of Council and municipal staff.

The Infrastructure module explores citizen perceptions of their municipalities responsibilities as they relate to infrastructure assets, as well as which assets they feel are a priority.

How Does Your Municipality Compare to Others in Canada?

In addition to looking at your overall results, we believe that one of the best ways to understand how well your municipality is performing is to compare your results to those of other Canadian municipalities.

Ipsos Reid's unparalleled experience in municipal research has enabled us to develop a normative database for key questions such as top-of-mind concerns, quality of life, satisfaction with municipal services, value for taxes, communication, and perceptions of staff and Council, among others. As part of the final deliverables for participating in this syndicated study, Ipsos Reid will compare your municipality's results to our municipal norms, thereby providing valuable context, added insight, greater depth of analysis, and benchmarks against which to evaluate your performance.

How Does the Survey Work?

We will conduct a telephone survey of 300 citizens aged 18 years or older in each municipality that decides to participate in the research. This will provide overall results that are accurate to within ±5.7% (19 times out of 20) and will also allow for analysis by key demographic subgroups such as age, gender, etc.

To keep the costs low, the same core questions (outlined above) will be asked in all municipalities. However, there is also an opportunity to add custom questions or increase the number of interviews for an additional charge. Your municipality's individual results will not be shared with other municipalities, although will be incorporated into the overall normative score for comparative purposes.

What Will I Get?

Detailed Tables with cross tabulations of the major demographics such as age, gender, length of residency, own vs. rent, family with children under 18, and primary taxpayer.
PowerPoint slides of your results and an in-person presentation of the findings to an audience of your choice (travel will be billed extra).
Access to Ipsos Reid's municipal norms, where appropriate.

Subscription Options and Pricing

Core Subscription
$6,900*

Citizen Priorities & Expectations Module
(Only available with core subscription): $1,500*

Measuring Staff & Council Performance Module
(Only available with core subscription): $1,500*

Custom Questions
Close-ended questions: $900* each
Open-ended questions: $1,400* each
Increasing the sample size costs $22* per additional interview

* plus applicable tax

Schedule (2012)

This research will be completed in May 2012. Municipalities need to confirm their participation no later than April 25, with custom questions submitted by April 30. The survey will be conducted from May 7 to May 17, and results will be available late June.