Increasing taxes to maintain current service levels was not a popular option for those participating in an online survey drafted by the Town of Turner Valley last month.
One hundred and thirty eight residents filled out the Town’s online public participation survey, offering input on Town spending and service levels to assist administration and council in preparing the 2021 operating budget.
Todd Sharpe, Turner Valley chief administrative officer, said the survey is both a pulse check to gauge how residents have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (58 per cent stated they were) and a way to gather public opinion regarding service levels and municipal spending.
“What we’re seeing is some common responses we would typically get surveying the public,” said Sharpe. “Council is playing very close attention to the results of the survey to help guide decision making. We believe we have gotten information from the survey that will help council in their budget deliberations.”
The survey reveals that 37 per cent of participants agree the Town provides the right level of services, 36 per cent feel too few services are offered and 27 per cent say too many.
It also shows that 78 per cent of those surveyed didn’t support increasing municipal taxes to maintain current service levels and 51 per cent support service level decreases as opposed to municipal tax increases.
When asked their opinion on the Town assuming new debt to fund large critical capital projects impacting the operating budget by increasing expenses to service the loan, 48 per cent were not in support, 33 per cent supported the idea and 19 per cent were neutral.
When it came to rating services in order of importance, roads and sidewalks, including paving and snow removal, and protective services, including fire and bylaw, were at the top of the list. Recycling and special community events were among the lowest rated services.
Sharpe said that while “soft services” like parks and open spaces attract people to a community, it’s difficult to compare them to vital services like utilities, water, roads and garbage collection.
“Even if you’re very interested in parks and rec and culture and support services, when they’re weighed against roads, snow removal and protective services they typically don’t hold a candle,” he said.
Sharpe said the Town is facing some tough decisions after working the past three years to run operations as efficiently as possible and absorbing a nine per cent inflation rate without increasing the municipal tax rate.
“We’ve done a great job of finding efficiencies, creating partnerships and finding less expensive ways to deliver the services we deliver, but those efforts aren’t sustainable,” he said. “We’re coming out of three years of that and now we’re in a pandemic. We’re trying to get a sense for what the tolerance level of our residents is around increasing taxes for an increase in service level or no increase in service level.”
Sharpe said he would have preferred a higher participation rate in the survey and is unsure what to attribute the low numbers.
“It could be that the residents are generally pleased with what they’re seeing and hearing from the Town,” he said. “On the flip side, the residents could be so tied up with the pandemic and everything that’s going on with it that they’re doing other things.”
In the second phase of the public participation plan, the Town of Turner Valley will host virtual town hall meetings Nov. 3 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and Nov. 4 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“We’re preparing a short presentation - an overview of what the budget is looking like and we will answer submitted questions,” said Sharpe. “There will be an opportunity on the call for residents to ask more probing questions to the responses we provide or to make comments. We want to give residents a chance to ask questions and get the right information to residents as we enter into the rest of the budget deliberations.”
Sharpe said the same information will be presented both evenings.
For more details about the survey or to register for the town hall meetings visit https://turnervalley.ca/
