City to seek citizen-satisfaction survey input on the Internet

Thunder Bay is taking its citizen satisfaction survey online for the first time.

Northwood Coun. Shelby Ching said the goal was to reach out to a larger group of respondents, adding the city will still gather the bulk of its information via the more traditional phone survey, including people with both landlines and cell phones to collect the all-important data.

Ch’ng said hitting the Internet is a great way to gather even more data on the direction the public wants the city to take on a variety of topics.

“Absolutely,” said Ch’ng, an extensive user of social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, which she used to seek input during the recently completed municipal budget process.

“We have a newer demographic coming up through the ranks and they are online. How do we reach those people? I believe this is a good way and a good start to capture that information.”

The phone calls will still determine the official survey results, she added.

“We’re still calling the 500-plus people on both cell phones and landlines. This is an additional piece of information that we’re gathering and it’s going to be kept separate from the original survey,” Ch’ng said.

The online poll, conducted by Ipsos Reid, asks a variety of questions. Among the first is polling residents on the city’s most important issues.

The survey also asks about quality of life and satisfaction levels with a variety of city-supplied services and facilities, including the Canada Games Complex, Thunder Bay Community Auditorium, parks and arenas.

Questions also touch on taxation levels, crime, homelessness and online voting.

“It’s important that we keep a lot of the questions the same so we can compare it to previous years. But there are certain things that will come up. Last year we had the event centre question. This year I believe it’s (about) more bike lanes and the quality of life questions.

Asked if the event centre question was once again on the survey, Ch’ng said the city already has its answer, despite discussions by Mayor Keith Hobbs of a back-up plan, with the federal government not expected to come to the table with as much money as originally thought.

Nonetheless, Ch’ng sees plenty of value in the survey.

“I believe it’s important to engage the public so we know how we’re doing. Quality of life is important to a lot of citizens. How do we move that quality of life to a higher level and how do we gather than information from citizens.”

The online survey closes on March 18.