Just 38 per cent of respondents believe Calgary is moving in the right direction
Buffeted by concerns over affordability and the economy, Calgarians’ confidence in their quality of life is at its lowest point in nearly a decade of polling, according to the latest city survey.
In a telephone poll of 2,500 people conducted from Aug. 8 to Sept. 3, a total of 66 per cent of Calgarians rated the quality of life as good, down 10 points from a year ago while 70 per cent considered the city a great place to make a life compared to 75 per cent in the fall of 2023.
In 2015 and again in 2018 that quality of life measurement stood at 86 per cent.
Among respondents, 64 per cent said the quality of life in Calgary has worsened, up by five points from a year ago.
Just 38 per cent of respondents believe Calgary is moving in the right direction in ensuring a better future, a number consistent with 2023 but considerably lower than 65 per cent in 2018.
“Calgarians have shared with us what matters most to them about their city and their concerns,” said the city’s chief administrative officer David Duckworth.
“Through the recent fall survey, Calgarians identified infrastructure, economy, housing, safety and transit as their top civic priorities. We have heard this loud and clear. Our work continues to focus on these priorities as well as address concerns and feedback across all survey results.”
As in previous surveys, the top priority among concerns was infrastructure which includes roads, though it was down to 22 per cent as a first mention from 26 per cent a year ago.
But dissatisfaction with water services had quadrupled since the spring to 16 per cent, presumably the result of a summer of water use restrictions due to a feeder main break and repairs.
The economy was the second-most important issue in the survey, cited by 13 per cent of Calgarians, up significantly from seven per cent a year ago.
But while homelessness and poverty ranked third among priorities, its ranking fell from 23 per cent in the fall of 2023 to 11 per cent now.
The rate and impacts of poverty and homelessness remain serious and their fall as a priority issue is its own concern, said Meaghon Reid, executive director of social advocacy group Vibrants Community Calgary.
“It makes me wonder if we’re normalizing it, if we’re starting to get used to it,” said Reid.
Even so, rising worries over the economy seem to reflect the wider impact of the lingering affordability squeeze even as some metrics, such as the rate of inflation and housing costs, are easing, she said.
“It’s the fatigue of many years of the affordability crisis and income supports and wages haven’t kept up with the cost of living,” said Reid.
“People aren’t yet feeling relief but it should get better.”
But the grim view held by many about the city’s coming prospects, she said, shows “people care about Calgary’s future but don’t see future relief in affordability and we have to maybe have a conversation about that.”
A massive influx of people into the city that has annually exceeded 60,000 or 70,000 a year is contributing to a sense of economic instability and housing affordability, said Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot.
“We can’t entirely control the (housing) market but we do what we can to encourage new development, which should result in more housing which should result in a lower cost of housing,” he said.
The city survey comes on the heels of a poll done by the Calgary Foundation that also shows lingering economic stressors and severe poverty among significant swaths of the city’s population.
In that survey, just 35 per cent of the 1,000 people polled said they’re optimistic about the local economy, down from 50 per cent in 2023. The questionnaire from last May and June also found 43 per cent of the population is stressed by financial issues, compared with 33 per cent in 2021.
Accordingly, 54 per cent of those employed full time told the survey they can’t find suitable lodging, up 14 per cent from 2023, and that 78 per cent had to make spending trade-offs to stay housed, an increase of six per cent.
Some areas of public perception in the city’s fall survey are trending in a positive direction, such as crime, safety and policing with nine per cent citing it as the most important issue — down from 16 per cent in the fall of 2023.
And Calgarians seem to have marginally more trust in the city — 41 per cent compared to 38 per cent last spring.
The margin of error in the city’s fall poll is plus or minus two per cent, 19 times out of 20.