Show Calgary The Money
Calgarians Overwhelmingly Support (87%) Mayor Bronconnier's Proposal For Province To Provide Municipalities With 20 Perecent Of Future Surpluses
One-in-Five (19%) Are Familiar With The Mayor's State Of The City Address
Mayor's Approval Rating Remains High (78%) - Council's Is Lower (71%) But On The Rise
Calgary, AB - A new Ipsos-Reid poll released today shows that Calgarians are overwhelmingly (87%) supportive of Mayor Dave Bronconnier's proposal to ask the province to provide Alberta's municipalities with 20 percent of future surpluses. The proposal was unveiled as part of the Mayor's State of the City address on January 13th, 2004. In all, 19 percent of Calgarians say they read, saw or heard something about the speech and among those who are familiar with it, most (83%) say the Mayor is on the "right track" in terms of identifying priorities for the City. In the wake of the speech the Mayor's approval rating stayed essentially unchanged at 78 percent (76% in December 2003) while City Council's approval rating edged up slightly to 71 percent (66% in December 2003).
These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted between January 22 and January 27, 2004. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 400 adult Calgarians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 4.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Calgary population been polled. The margin of error will be larger for sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Calgary population according to the 2001 Census.
Calgarians Overwhelming Support (87%) Mayor Bronconnier's Proposal for Province to Provide Municipalities With One-Fifth of Future Surpluses
In this year's State of the City address Mayor Bronconnier outlined his proposal for increased funding for municipalities. As part of his proposal, he calls for the provincial government to allocate 20 percent of it's future surpluses to Alberta's municipalities. If implemented, it would yield an extra 1.2 Billion dollars in revenue for The City of Calgary over the next seven years. An overwhelming majority (83%) supports his proposal with almost half (48%) saying they "strongly support" it and another four-in-ten (39%) saying they "somewhat support" it. Only 11 percent oppose the proposal. This opposition is roughly equally divided between those who "strongly oppose" (5%) and those who "somewhat oppose" (6%).
One-in-five (19%) Calgarians say they have read, seen or heard something about the Mayor's State of the City address. Although the base size is small, four-in-five (83%) of those who are aware of the address say he is on the "right track" when it comes to identifying priorities for The City of Calgary. Three-in-ten (29%) say he is "strongly" on the right track while half (54%) say he is "somewhat" on the right track. This compares with 14 percent who say he is on the "wrong track" (5% "somewhat", 9% "strongly").
After more than two years in office, Mayor Bronconnier's approval rating is still very high. His overall approval has increased a slight two points (within the margin of error) from 76 percent in December 2003 to 78 percent today. More than a quarter (27%) of city residents say they "strongly approve" of his performance while half (51%) say they "somewhat approve". In contrast, 15 percent disapprove of his performance including 10 percent who "somewhat disapprove" and five percent who "strongly disapprove".
In addition, Mayor Bronconnier's approval continues to outpace that of City Council as a whole (71%). But, Council's approval is on the rise, increasing five points since December 2003 and nine points since March 2003. However, City Council's approval ratings is much less intense, with only 11 percent of residents saying they "strongly approve" of Council's performance (another 60% "somewhat approve") compared to 27 percent for the Mayor. When it comes to disapproval, a total of 23 percent of residents say they disapprove of Council's performance with 16 percent who "somewhat disapprove" and seven percent who "strongly disapprove".
These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted between January 22 and January 27, 2004. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 400 adult Calgarians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 4.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Calgary population been polled. The margin of error will be larger for sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Calgary population according to the 2001 Census.
Calgarians Overwhelming Support (87%) Mayor Bronconnier's Proposal for Province to Provide Municipalities With One-Fifth of Future Surpluses
In this year's State of the City address Mayor Bronconnier outlined his proposal for increased funding for municipalities. As part of his proposal, he calls for the provincial government to allocate 20 percent of it's future surpluses to Alberta's municipalities. If implemented, it would yield an extra 1.2 Billion dollars in revenue for The City of Calgary over the next seven years. An overwhelming majority (83%) supports his proposal with almost half (48%) saying they "strongly support" it and another four-in-ten (39%) saying they "somewhat support" it. Only 11 percent oppose the proposal. This opposition is roughly equally divided between those who "strongly oppose" (5%) and those who "somewhat oppose" (6%).
- Support for the proposal is consist across all demographic groups.
One-in-five (19%) Calgarians say they have read, seen or heard something about the Mayor's State of the City address. Although the base size is small, four-in-five (83%) of those who are aware of the address say he is on the "right track" when it comes to identifying priorities for The City of Calgary. Three-in-ten (29%) say he is "strongly" on the right track while half (54%) say he is "somewhat" on the right track. This compares with 14 percent who say he is on the "wrong track" (5% "somewhat", 9% "strongly").
- Support for the proposal is consist across all demographic groups.
After more than two years in office, Mayor Bronconnier's approval rating is still very high. His overall approval has increased a slight two points (within the margin of error) from 76 percent in December 2003 to 78 percent today. More than a quarter (27%) of city residents say they "strongly approve" of his performance while half (51%) say they "somewhat approve". In contrast, 15 percent disapprove of his performance including 10 percent who "somewhat disapprove" and five percent who "strongly disapprove".
In addition, Mayor Bronconnier's approval continues to outpace that of City Council as a whole (71%). But, Council's approval is on the rise, increasing five points since December 2003 and nine points since March 2003. However, City Council's approval ratings is much less intense, with only 11 percent of residents saying they "strongly approve" of Council's performance (another 60% "somewhat approve") compared to 27 percent for the Mayor. When it comes to disapproval, a total of 23 percent of residents say they disapprove of Council's performance with 16 percent who "somewhat disapprove" and seven percent who "strongly disapprove".
- Approval of the Mayor and Council is consist across all demographic groups.
For more information on this news release, please contact:
Jamie Duncan
Vice President
Ipsos Reid Public Affairs
+1.403.294.7385
[email protected]
