City services are no bargain

Winnipeggers have a reputation for driving a hard bargain, but when it comes to the services we get from the city, a new poll suggests we may be getting a raw deal.

During the last two weeks of November, Forum Research Inc. asked residents of Canada’s 30 largest cities for their opinion on various municipal services. While only 25 per cent of Canadians reported having a high level of satisfaction with city services, the feedback in Winnipeg was even worse. At just 11 per cent, we had the lowest grade in the country.

The results don’t get any better when looking at individual services, as Winnipeg had bottom-of-the-barrel rankings for most major categories, including fire services, libraries, garbage and recycling, public health and social services.

Not surprisingly, the biggest complaints came for road maintenance and repair, as only five per cent of Winnipeggers said they’re very happy compared to 16 per cent of all Canadians. Despite this damning assessment, city council is poised to pass a new capital budget this month that actually reduces the amount of money it will spend on road repairs.

And rather than pursuing a “fix it first” approach to infrastructure renewal, council is charging ahead with plans to build new overpasses and widen existing roadways. How it hopes to maintain these new facilities in the future remains a mystery.

The same could be said for our recreation infrastructure. While all three levels of government have committed funds to building new recreational projects throughout the city, only 16 per cent of residents said they’re very satisfied with the current condition of our community centres, and just 23 per cent are happy with parks services. This compares poorly to the national averages of 34 per cent and 39 per cent respectively.

And despite a police budget that’s gone up by $49 million in the past five years, only 25 per cent of Winnipeggers feel very good about our police services, compared to 39 per cent of all Canadians. Of course, setting a new record for murders doesn’t help with public opinion on this issue.

With such low satisfaction levels for such a broad range of services, it’s little wonder that only 12 per cent of Winnipeggers said they were very satisfied with what they pay in property tax and municipal fees. Every Winnipegger understands the concept of value for money, and we’re just not getting that from city hall these days.