City Council was presented with the results of Airdrie's 2012 Citizen Satisfaction Survey on Monday, March 5. The City conducted a telephone survey of 400 randomly selected residents, 18 years of age or older, to gather their thoughts on the quality of life in Airdrie, the City’s performance generally, and to get input regarding citizens’ top concerns and priorities.

Dorian Kachur, Business Strategy Team Leader with the City, says the 2012 survey brought in some promising results.

Residents rate the overall quality of life in Airdrie as high, according to the survey, with nearly all those who responded giving a 'good' rating (42%) or 'very good' (53%) for a total of 95%. The top concern facing Airdrie today is education, school closures and the lack of space in schools (18%), followed by infrastructure, traffic, roads, train tracks and construction (17%).

Some of the key highlights of the survey are:

High satisfaction marks of either good or very good for:

* Airdrie Fire (95% - an 8% increase from 2010 ratings)

* Garbage collection services (89% - 8% jump from 2010)

* City parks (83% - comparable to 2010)

* RCMP (82% - comparable to 2010)

There was some decreased satisfaction with:

* Genesis Place Recreation and Wellness Centre (82% - a 6% drop from 2010 result)

* Airdrie Public Library (73% - 7% decrease from 2010)

* Airdrie transit (26% - similar to 2010)

Two-thirds of respondents (66%) said they received 'good' (49%) or 'very good' (16%) value for their tax dollars. The majority of those who answered the survey said they agreed 'strongly' (64%) or 'somewhat' (31%) that Airdrie is a safe place to live overall.

The survey includes key questions on high-level satisfaction indicators, which are then incorporated into a Citizen Satisfaction Index. Airdrie's current index is 3.76 out of a possible score of 5. This index serves as a key performance measure for the City, rating both perceived quality and importance of various City services. There are also questions on perceptions of public safety (Airdrie enjoys one of the highest in Alberta), on satisfaction with staff interaction and on preferred communication methods.

The survey was conducted by Banister Research & Consulting Inc. from Edmonton. Vice-President Tracy With served as the project lead. The survey was ran from January 11 to 17, 2012, and the sample size is statistically sound, providing a margin of error no greater than 4.8% at the 95% confidence level. Typically, the survey is conducted annually. In this instance, the last survey was done in 2010.

Council unanimously accepted the Citizen Satisfaction Survey as information. Full survey results are found on the City's website.