Only 60% of Halifax residents satisfied with municipal services: survey

Haligonians' satisfaction with municipal services has dropped significantly, with more people raising issues with housing, traffic and transit in a new survey.

On Tuesday, regional council received the results of the latest resident survey that was gathered through the fall of 2024.

Only 60 per cent of residents were satisfied or very satisfied with municipal services, a drop-off from 82 per cent in the last survey from 2021. 

Eighty per cent rated their quality of life as very good or good, down from 88 per cent in 2021 and 96 per cent in 2018. The results said 69 per cent of residents said the quality of life has worsened over the past three years. 

"They are trending negatively. I will say that overall, the results of the survey are not as favourable as in past years," Michael Pappas, director of corporate planning and performance, said during the meeting.

Pappas said cost of living, traffic congestion, population growth, housing availability and affordability were cited as factors that drove people's perceptions about quality of life.

Only 43 per cent of people said they got very good or good value for the property taxes they paid, down from 72 per cent.

Looking at specific services, only 19 per cent of people were satisfied with Halifax's efforts to address homelessness, while traffic management and balancing how street space is assigned to different modes of travel was also quite low at 30 per cent.

The other lowest levels of satisfaction were with community planning and land-use planning (37 per cent), food security (37 per cent) and street maintenance (38 per cent). For transit, only 39 per cent of people were satisfied with conventional transit buses while ferries were the highest rated mobility-related service at 78 per cent.

"As a snapshot of what's happening, I do find them incredibly useful," Coun. Patty Cuttell said about the surveys.

But she said the downward trend likely isn't a surprise to most councillors because they heard similar issues on the doorstep during the recent municipal election campaign.

"I think we heard dissatisfaction from residents around these things, particularly transit," Cuttell said.

Haligonians were most satisfied with the municipal fire service at 94 per cent, followed closely by libraries at 93 per cent. Garbage, recycling and organics collection also ranked high at 89 per cent.

Chief financial officer Jerry Blackwood said the results can help guide councillor questions through the upcoming budget season.

"'How is this capital investment going to improve that service level? How is this investment in staffing going to improve your service level, right?" Blackwood said.

About 25,000 invitations were randomly mailed to residents across Halifax, and 2,029 surveys were completed. That response rate of  8.5 per cent was on par with previous years — 9.3 per cent in 2021 and 9.5 per cent in 2018.

The survey is considered accurate within 2.2 percentage points, and the responses were weighted to Halifax's general population data to correct for differences in age, gender and municipal area.

But councillors Virginia Hinch and John Young, who are both Black, raised concerns with the small number of responses from people of colour. 

90% of respondents were white

About 90 per cent of the respondents were Caucasian. Only one per cent were Middle Eastern, two per cent Black, three per cent Indigenous and six per cent Asian (including South Asian). Those percentages fall below the proportion of the population they make up in the 2021 census for Halifax.

"It's quite sad to see that it's such a low number," Hinch said.

She added that it's disheartening because when she speaks with Black residents, she often hears people say they feel they're discounted and "don't matter."

Pappas said they have tried different strategies to attempt to address this gap, including sending out more survey invites this year in districts with higher numbers of diverse residents. The city's diversity and inclusion staff have told him certain communities don't want to engage through a survey and need more targeted approaches like in-person meetings.

The survey might always have this limitation, Pappas said, so it's up to HRM to reach people from all communities in various ways.

The results will be one of multiple pieces of feedback and data that city staff and councillors use to build Halifax's next strategic priorities plan for 2026-2030. Strategic plans guide where municipal investments should be focused.