Survey found drop in Saskatoon residents’ rating of city services

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The City of Saskatoon’s annual survey asking residents to rate their satisfaction with its services did not deliver good news in 2024.

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A report to this week’s meeting of city council’s governance and priorities committee says respondents’ opinions in the latest survey were less positive than in 2023.

The number of people who agreed with statements like ‘staff are easy to reach when needed,’ or ‘the city provides consistent and reliable information,’ or ‘the city makes customer service a priority’ or ‘the city is an open and transparent government’ declined by nine to 15 percentage points.

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“Those declines concern me,” Coun. Bev Dubois said, noting all facets of customer service and accessibility had decreased compared to 2023.

Carla Blumers, the city’s director of communications and public engagement, said she couldn’t give an exact reason for the drop in ratings.

The numbers increased in 2023, but are now more in line with survey responses in 2018, before COVID-19, she said.

The numbers are shared with administrative staff and will play a part in molding the city’s future business plan, Blumers told the committee.

City manager Jeff Jorgenson said council’s role is to combine the date with what they hear from residents and create a strategic plan over the next four years.

“This year, we see this as a very important input to that process. There’s a tremendous amount of good information,” Jorgenson said.

The survey results are affected by factors like COVID-19, homelessness and the perception of crime, he told the committee.

Dubois said she’s uncomfortable blaming the city’s problems on issues that exist across the country.

“When I’m looking at the public engagement and the customer service, those are fundamental building blocks of a business, and the city is a business,” she said.

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Jorgenson said the next survey results should be presented to council before its next round of budget deliberations in latter part of this year.

“Mr. Jorgenson, with this survey, will the administration be looking to improve public engagement and customer service without any separate motions from the city?” Dubois asked.

Jorgenson said the administration will look into it, and each division will consider its role.

“At any time, council can weigh in as well, but I think the standard or the typical process for that is the strategic planning and business planning and budget process,” he added.

Blumers said the city has been collecting feedback about how people would like to get their information, which can be used more immediately to ensure the city is communicating in the most effective ways.

Coun. Randy Donauer said the changes in the survey results are significant but not drastic.

“I’m hoping some of these blips were a one-year blip, and I’m hoping some of the analysis about what’s happening across the country is accurate, but I’ll be watching for that next year,” he said.

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The committee voted in favour of a motion by Coun. Senos Timon asking city staff for a report on the possibility of having future survey results broken down in a way that would ensure community diversity is represented, as well as each ward.

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