The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the St. Albert community, with one in five households reporting job loss, according to the 2020 community satisfaction survey
Last month, the city expanded a survey contract for Y Station from $9,987 to up to $18,000 in order to include a resident wellbeing and community pulse check in addition to discussions around next year’s budget. Survey responses from 424 respondents were collected through phone interviews and web-based surveys, with a report coming to the Nov. 9 community living standing committee meeting.
According to the survey, 43 per cent of respondents, or 182 households, said they have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Twenty per cent of the respondents said they had experienced job loss. Eleven per cent said they had experienced reduced income and 34 per cent said they felt isolated from family and friends as a result of the pandemic.
“When we look at the overall percentage, some households are being impacted by more than one or two of these,” said Y Station vice-president Tracy With. She presented results from the 2020 community engagement survey at city council’s community living standing committee on Nov. 9.
Last year, the firm, formerly known as Yardstick, found 67 per cent of respondents said the quality of life is "very good" in St. Albert. However, overall satisfaction has since dropped amid the pandemic.
Fifty-six respondents said the quality of life is “very good” in St. Albert, representing about an 11-per-cent drop from last year. Meanwhile, about 10 per cent more residents rated the quality of life as “good” compared to the last survey.
“Overall these ratings are still quite high, but when we look at them in comparison to previous years, we did see a bit of a slide from the ‘very good’ to ‘good,” With said.
No tax increase, please
Three hundred sixty-nine respondents answered a question on what level of tax increase they would accept. Thirty-nine per cent said they weren’t willing to accept a tax increase in next year’s budget.
Another 21 per cent said they wouldn’t be willing to accept a tax increase of more than two to three per cent, according to the survey.
This survey was done before the 2021 budget was presented. Currently, the city’s 2021 budget features a 1.1-per-cent tax increase with modest service level reductions. If approved, this means the average homeowner would pay about $40 more in municipal taxes.
When asked if residents think they’re getting the most bang for their taxpayer dollar, 32 per cent of the 369 respondents said they get “good value” for city services, a decrease of five per cent from 2019. Meanwhile, those who thought they were getting “poor value” doubled from nine per cent to 18 per cent this year.
Of those who said they felt they were getting good value for their tax dollars, 29 per cent said they were satisfied with services provided, including snow removal and road maintenance.
More than half of respondents who were more critical said they were concerned about city spending, fiscal responsibility, and taxes being too high. Eight per cent of those who responded positively said they were concerned about how the city is spending taxpayer dollars.
"I think your residents have thrown out the challenge to you in terms of taxation," With told the standing committee on Nov. 9.
To give some context, With said criticism on city spending and tax increases has come up in other municipalities amid the pandemic.
"That's probably the one thing that came up over and over again – I've had to cut my budget, I've had to watch what I'm spending on, we need you to do the same. That's really the biggest theme that we saw trend across all of our data."
