Servus Place surges in support

St. Albert residents expressed greater satisfaction with Servus Credit Union Place and gave a thumbs-up to the city's new blue bag recycling program.

That's according to a survey conducted by Banister Research & Consulting from Edmonton in mid-April this year. A total of 800 St. Albert residents were interviewed by phone from April 12 to 19, and were asked about everything from the city's commitment to the environment to what one thing people would like to see the city deal with.

“This survey provides solid qualitative and quantitative data for the city,” said city corporate communications director Mike Kluttig. “This provides important and crucial data for city planning throughout the year.”

Linda Banister, president of Banister Research & Consulting, said there was a three per cent margin of error, with a 95 per cent confidence level in the survey. The report her company provided discussed a male and female quota used to ensure an equal proportion of interviewees.

One of the main points Banister made was the increase in satisfaction with Servus Place. In a comparison with a satisfaction survey completed in 2009, satisfaction with the public multiplex rose 11 per cent to a total of 66 per cent of residents this year.

“This is an area where there was quite a significant change,” said Banister.

However, some residents said they were unhappy with how much city tax revenue was going to the recreation centre, while others said membership and user fees were too expensive.

In a new addition to the survey, the city's blue bag curbside recycling program was questioned for the first time and received an 83 per cent approval rating from residents. Banister said the rating was high for a first-time program, putting the program into the key strengths category of the survey.

In a list of services that could be improved upon, Banister pointed out the city's Family and Community Support Services as one of the areas in need. Coun. Roger Lemieux took exception to the mention, asking at Tuesday night's council meeting just how much dissatisfaction there was with the service.

“I think we have excellent social services, but I don't know how we got so low,” he said, to which Banister senior associate Tracy With responded to by saying the lack of knowledge about the system could be the reason for the lower satisfaction rating.

“It's actually that 34 per cent are neutral and those who are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied is three per cent,” added city manager Bill Holtby.

“You just made my point, Mr. Holtby. It shouldn't be in the improvement section,” replied Lemieux.

Mayor Nolan Crouse also pointed out the issue of sewer services in the survey, pointing to the comments made by the seven per cent of respondents that were dissatisfied with the service. One particular reason cited a draining problem with the sewers, while other residents said that sewers in older parts of the city were in need of replacement.

“Is there a sewer drainage fix plan for the city? I mean, flushing and having that go away is fundamentally important,” Crouse said to administration.

“We do have that residential replacement service and we also have the plan that if someone's sewer gets plugged and it's on the city side … we take care of it,” responded Neil Jamieson, general manager of planning and engineering. “There is a backlog of services and it is a high demand service.”

Coun. Carol Watamaniuk said she was pleased to see the ratings the city received for much of its work, but believed that the city should continue to work on making St. Albert even better.

“I think we still have areas that we still need to push towards excellence,” she added.

The full version of the survey is available on the city's website, at www.stalbert.ca.