The 2023 Duncan Citizen Survey is underway, but it will be a bit different from past surveys.
Having staff from Discovery Research, which the City of Duncan has hired to help conduct the survey, call residences in the city randomly on the phone to gather data is not on the agenda this year.
The research will be conducted mainly through a mail-in survey, so Duncan residents will receive a booklet-style document in the mail, along with a postage-paid return envelope.
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The citizen survey will also be available on the city’s new bigconversations.duncan.ca platform, and hard copies will be available at the front counter at city hall.
Help can also be provided in person or over the phone.
The city began mailing the surveys on April 20, and the deadline for them to be filled out and returned is May 20.
Director of corporate services Paige MacWilliam said at the council meeting on April 17 that Discovery Research had advised the city that the consulting company no longer conducts phone campaigns.
“It just isn’t effective now as most people have moved to cell phones,” she said.
“It can be challenging to get enough respondents so this is the alternative.”
CAO Peter de Verteuil said the survey will be mailed to all households in the city.
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“It will be a form of self selection this year as opposed to the phone surveys where they phone random households until they get the appropriate number of households,” he said.
“The goal is to have about 400 households take part in the survey. Hopefully, we’ll get to 400 but it has been challenging in the past.”
The citizen satisfaction survey is intended to gauge resident satisfaction and priorities.
Participants are asked to assess their level of satisfaction with city services and spending priorities, as well as identify the issues affecting quality of life in Duncan.
The information is intended to help city council and staff evaluate what the city is doing well and where efforts need to be focused in the future.
The last citizen survey conducted in 2021 concluded that crime, safety and homelessness were the most important issues facing Duncan at the time.
robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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