Substantial Wage Increase To Retain And Attract Municipal Workers Supported By Three-Quarters Of Lower Mainland Residents

Vancouver, BC -- A series of questions regarding benefits for municipal workers in British Columbia was added to the BC Reid Express telephone omnibus in October of 2006. According to the survey, three-quarters (75%) of Lower Mainland residents support a substantial wage increase as one measure to ensure that municipalities can get the employees needed to provide quality service to residents. Prior to responding, municipal employee attraction and retention challenges, including vacant positions due to a lack of qualified or interested applicants, were outlined for participants.

The survey also showed that two-thirds (67%) of Lower Mainland residents feel their local government should restore and protect heath benefits for retired municipal workers - who, participants were told, pay more now for medicine and other health and dental services and receive only half of the promised support for basic medical coverage.

These results are based on 500 telephone interviews with Lower Mainland residents, 18 years of age and older from the BC Reid Express omnibus survey. Interviews were conducted between October 10 and October 15, 2006 with residents from throughout the Lower Mainland. The final data are statistically weighted to reflect the actual age and gender of the Lower Mainland population. With a provincial sample of 500, one can say with 95% certainty that the overall results are within 1774.4 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire population of the Lower Mainland been surveyed. The margin of error will be larger for sub-groupings of the survey population.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Rhys Gibb
Senior Research Manager
Ipsos Reid
604.257.3200
[email protected]

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