Medicine Hat offers a good quality of life, residents recommend it as a place to live: survey

The survey, which will be repeated every two years, is meant to provide a baseline measure of community sentiment around a variety of topics, like quality of life, municipal government and services, and taxation. Overall, the results from the 2022 survey were positive.

“I’m pleased because we are in a challenging time,” said Coun. Robert Dumanowski of the results presented at Monday’s council meeting. “Although there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic… there is a lot of concern out there, and for our community to identify with an overall quality of life favourable of 95 per cent is extraordinary.”

Dumanowki added he “would have never thought a community could hit that.”

While respondents believe the quality of life in Medicine Hat is good, about one-third say it has worsened over the past three years. The main factors being COVID-19 and the cost of living.

According to the survey, issues at the top of respondents’ minds are municipal government services, and social and economic issues.

The survey also shows the government’s communication with residents could be improved when it comes to decision-making. Only 69 per cent agreed that the city uses input from citizen in the decision-making process, and 76 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with the communication between the city and its citizens.

The majority of respondents (78 per cent) say they receive good value for their taxes. However, the survey shows they are split when it comes to increasing taxes or cutting services. Forty-five per cent said they would support a tax increase to expand services, while 42 per cent said they would support cutting services to maintain or reduce tax rates.

The presentation from Monday’s council meeting can be found on the City of Medicine Hat’s website.

by Meghan Cobb

Medicine Hat offers a good quality of life, residents recommend it as a place to live: survey

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