More Red Deerians say quality of life is “very good”

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Top reasons given for calling quality of life “very good” include a well managed municipality, employment opportunities and economic development. People who said life is “very good” or “good” landed at 93 per cent, the same as last year.

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Where satisfaction is noticeably down is in peoples’ happiness with the performance of city council.

In 2015, satisfaction was at 89 per cent, as high as it’s ever been. By 2018, it had dropped to 79 per cent, and is now at 77 per cent.

Councillor Ken Johnston says while he respects the public’s view, it’s predictable when you hold public office that there will be days not many agree with what you’re doing.

“People are frustrated. The recession’s gone on a long time, crime continues to be uppermost in peoples’ minds,” he acknowledges.

“In the swirl of events in our country right now, particularly in Alberta – the economic crisis, the opioid crisis, homelessness, poverty, seniors and so on – many times those factors are caused by either provincial or federal initiatives that find themselves at council’s doorstep. It’s an extremely difficult calling, one I’m very privileged and happy to have, but yes, it’s difficult.”

Councillor Vesna Higham first served on council from 2001-2004 before taking a hiatus before being re-elected in 2017. She says the degree of difficulty being a councillor has increased steadily.

“The size and complexity of the organization has increased dramatically in terms of citizens wanting to connect with council. There wasn’t even (personal City) email. If someone wanted to get a hold of me, they’d call,” she says. “I get two to three emails a day from citizens about one issue or another and there’s a much heightened expectation from our citizens, which I completely support, that council needs to be responsive to citizen needs.”

Pat Klein, a Red Deer resident since 1962, strolled past Red Deer City Hall Monday evening wearing a shirt that read ‘I (heart) RD.’

Asked his opinion on quality of life here, he had nothing but good things to share.

“I find Red Deer a young town, it’s aggressive and the people are very friendly. It’s a town that moves all the time, it’s busy all the time, and you don’t have the big layoffs here like you do elsewhere,” he says.

“It doesn’t take much to frustrate people. We’ve got it pretty good here compared to the bigger cities, economy-wise, the structure of the town and the streets, and you don’t hear the pothole issue here. I think council does a heck of a job, and we’ve always had really good councils and mayors here. Right now, I think we have a really good city council, and we have an awesome mayor.”

The highest priority areas for Red Deerians remain crime, social issues, transportation, municipal government services, and healthcare. Crime was mentioned as the top priority by 39 per cent of respondents, up from 35 per cent in 2018.

On the flip side, results show satisfaction with Red Deer RCMP detachment is down to 79 per cent from 82 per cent.

For the future, City staff say there will be consideration to increasing the number of survey respondents to 400, though that would mean a budget increase.

The full report is available at RedDeer.ca.