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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, May 9, 2013 | 8 www.oakville.ca 2013 Report Card to Citizens Residents give town top marks 87% A good place to call "home" The results are in! According to the town's 2013 Citizen Survey, an overwhelming 87 per cent of Oakville residents surveyed expressed overall satisfaction with government of the Town of Oakville. 88 per cent are satisfied with Town of Oakville services and 90 per cent are satisfied with the town's attributes. Earlier this year, Pollara Strategic Insights conducted a telephone survey on behalf of the Town of Oakville. A random sample of 800 residents were asked about their views on the community; what they valued most about Oakville; what they saw as the greatest challenge facing Oakville; how they rated a wide variety of town services; and what they had to say about future spending priorities. Findings are accurate to +/- 3.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20. Residents were asked to rate eight attributes of the Town of Oakville. Over nine in ten residents rate a sense of belonging and being safe (96%), quality of buildings and overall appearance (91%) and the effort the town makes to protect heritage (90%) as Oakville's top attributes. These are followed by very high ratings for the amount of information provided to residents (88%), the town's responsiveness to the needs of the community (86%), the effort the town makes to protect the environment (83%) and opportunities for public involvement in local government (74%). Sense of belonging and being safe 96% Quality of buildings/overall appearance 91% Protection of heritage 90% Information provided to residents 88% Responding to community needs 86% Protection of environment 83% Public involvement in government 74% Management of tax dollars 74% 7% Satisfaction with managing tax dollars went up 7 per cent to 74 per cent. Controlling growth 67% Natural environment 54% Governing/managing town 46% Ease of travelling 45% Recreation/culture programs 40% Community facilities 39% Controlling growth a key priority To assist with prioritization of policies and plans for the future, residents were asked to choose which priority they would like to see the town focus on most. Controlling growth in the town was most often selected as the key priority overall by residents, followed by Oakville's natural environment and then governing and managing the town. Town services highly valued Overall, eight of 11 service areas receive satisfaction levels of over 80 per cent. While satisfaction with parks and green spaces, recreation fields and facilities, and public library services were over 90 per cent. The three lowest-rated services are the provision of municipal parking (up five per cent), winter road and sidewalk maintenance, and transit (up seven per cent from 2011). Parks and green spaces 94% Recreation fields and facilities 90% Public library services 90% Harbours and waterfront areas 88% Recreation programs 85% Arts and cultural programs and venues 85% Town roads and sidewalks 82% Oakville's fire services 82% Municipal parking 71% Winter road and sidewalk maintenance 68% Transit 60% Committed to customer service excellence Residents were asked to rate recent contact with the Town of Oakville and a remarkable 84% expressed overall satisfaction. Between three-quarters and nine-in-ten agree that employees meet positive customer service attributes. Strongly Agree Somewhat Agree 2011 results Employees are respectful 91 95% Services are accessible 91 91% Employees are knowledgable 88 88% Timely services 86% Easily find correct staff 83% 83 77 This is the sixth citizen survey Oakville has conducted. Current and past survey results are available at www.oakville.ca. For more information please contact the Strategy, Policy & Communications department at 905-845-6601 ext. 3689 or email communications@oakville.ca.