In today’s Urban Compass column in Metro Winnipeg, I look at the results of a recent poll done by Forum Research Inc. on satisfaction levels with municipal services in Canada’s 30 largest cities.
To be blunt, Winnipeg gets smoked in nearly every major category of service. While I concentrated on the “very satisfied” numbers in the column, even if you looked at the combination of “very satisfied” and “somewhat satisfied,” Winnipeg still trails the national average by a considerable margin for most services.
Ironically, the only category where we rank better than most other cities is in satisfaction with property taxes and municipal fees, though that’s still only at 12% for “very satisfied” and 31% for “somewhat satisfied.” I’m guessing our 13-year property tax freeze is to thank for the slightly higher than average rating, but it doesn’t take a huge jump in logic to figure that if you hold taxes low, and don’t re-invest in services, that those services are going to suffer. Not that I’m begging for a massive tax increase, but there’s a breaking point here somewhere.
It’s also not much of a stretch to link the results of this poll with those of another recent survey done by Forum Research. Back in September it asked residents of Canada’s 15 biggest cities what they thought of their mayors. Mayor Katz tied for the third-worst ranking in Canada. As Forum Research President Lorne Bozinoff mentioned to Postmedia, it appears mayoralty rankings did correlate with resident satisfaction with civic services.
This has to be seen as particularly embarrassing for Katz, because he was initially elected on the premise that he could run the city better than previous mayors because of his business expertise. After all, he wasn’t the vision guy, the transit guy, the green guy or the crimefighting guy. He was the guy who could figure out how to do things better and smarter. “I like Sam, I like results,” right?
After seven-and-a-half years, it seems we’re still waiting for the results when it comes to basic city services.
Katz should have been knocked out during the last election but nobody ran against him except a sack of russet potatoes with earrings.
The ironic aspect of this current situation is that, having run on promise he would do things better, Sam Katz has actually made things worse. And, as you point out, after 7 1/2 years under his stewardship is there really anyway for we ratepayers to answer “Are you better served now by the City than 7 1/2 years ago?” in the affirmative. It’s impossible for any objective person to look at our streets, our transit service, etc., and say we are better off since Sam came to power. Simple fact is, under simple Sam, our level of services have declined and our city is more disrepair now than in 2004.
Sam doesn’t care about a legacy. What makes you think he cares what anyone thinks.