From May 25 to July 3, Bowen Islanders had a chance to communicate their priorities and levels of satisfaction to the Bowen Island Municipality in the form of a householders survey. Now, the results are in and they may give council guidance on decisions regarding the 2013 budget as well as the five-year financial plan.
At the council meeting on September 10, Michael Cornelissen, chair of the Bowen Island Municipality's Finance Review Task Force, presented the numbers. He started with a slide that captured the comments received as part of the survey. "This shows the responses we received from the public that included 633 different comments," he said, "The size of the font relates to the number of times the word or phrase was mentioned." Cornelissen said that the feedback covered a broad range of comments, suggestions, observations and questions.
Cornelissen explained that the survey was conducted both online and through a manual hard copy and was administered by the Finance Review Task Force with no cost to the taxpayer other than the software. "The ultimate aim was to ensure that the public's priorities are identified and they can inform the five-year financial plan, a core service review and the 2013 budget," he said, adding that the results of the survey are posted on the website of the Bowen Island Municipality (http://www.bimbc.ca/files/embedded2010/120910%20HouseholderSurvey.pdf).
Bowen Islanders were invited to complete one survey per household. The total of 732 responses represent 1,444 adults and 404 children. The 633 responses from full-time residents make up 47 per cent of the 1,345 private dwellings reported in the 2011 census profile from Statistics Canada. Cornelissen said, "[The responses] may be considered statistically meaningful but are imperfect due to the element of self-selection in survey completion as opposed to a more statistically reliable random sample."
The first survey question asked residents to rate Bowen Island as a place to live. The task force summarizes the findings like this: "Bowen rates best as a place to raise children, then for quality of life. It rates less attractively as a place to retire and poorly as a place to work, likely due to the lack of work opportunities rather than environment or surroundings." Cornelissen added that the rating should be taken into consideration by the recently constituted economic development advisory committee.
When islanders were asked to convey the level or importance for parks, cultural and recreation services, 80 per cent of respondents rated trails, beaches, waterfronts and parks as important, followed by the library at 71 per cent and arts and cultural programs at 52 per cent. "Trails are overwhelmingly regarded as important," Cornelissen said. "The tennis courts at BICS show the opposite. Only 8.9 per cent rate them as important for understandable reasons as not that many people play tennis there." In the graph depicting islanders' satisfaction with the services, the library takes the lead, followed by trails, parks, fitness, health and wellness, and arts and cultural services. Cornelissen noted that the level of satisfaction for youth programs of 15 per cent stands in sharp contrast to the 47 per cent of islanders who attribute a high importance to the programs. "This is something that staff needs to look into," he said.
"One grouping relates to planning and development," Cornelissen continued. "The satisfaction with planning and development are all below 25 per cent." He also noted that the majority of islanders placed a large emphasis on the importance of protecting the environment, on community character as well as land use planning.
For municipal infrastructure and services, the Bowen Island Recycling Depot had the highest ratings both in importance and satisfaction. The self-funded, volunteer-run organization received a 90 per cent vote of satisfaction. The ease of travel for pedestrians came out at the other end of the spectrum. The 9 per cent satisfaction rating stands in shape contrast to the 70 per cent marks that show that many islanders consider it to be a priority.
After islanders had their say about what matters to them, they were asked questions about the financial implications. First, they could weigh in on user fees and taxes. "The clear message we get is that 47 per cent want to maintain services with unchanged or reduced taxes and user fees and that 31 per cent wish to improve services but only with increased user fees," Cornelissen said, adding that only 18 per cent are prepared to pay higher taxes for improved services.
When it came to major services, most respondents expressed their with to maintain them. "Those wishing to discontinue and reduce bylaw enforcement, planning cost, community grants and property tax exemptions outweigh those wishing to increase them by factors ranging from two to four times," Cornelissen said. "An equally clear sentiment is expressed for increasing services related to parks, beaches, trails and fields as opposed to reducing those. There is an interesting message there from our taxpayers."
On the question about taxes paid to other entities and taxing authorities, most survey respondents made it clear that while they value taxes paid to the police and schools. they regarded taxes collected on behalf of TransLink and the Islands Trust as having little or no value. When taxpayers were asked how they would spend an additional $100 in taxes for capital projects, most chose a multi-purpose community centre. Ferry marshalling ranked second highest, followed by environmental protection and enhancement. A new municipal hall came out at the bottom of the list.
When islanders got to vote on how they would like to learn about municipal issues, most chose the BIM website as their favourite source for information. Second most popular was the Undercurrent, third were email communications. Town hall meetings only attracted 30 per cent preference and community associations and other website had less than 20 per cent preference.
Corneliessen said that the survey provides valuable information. "I see this as a wish list," he said. "It presents a profile what people think and feel and give [council] a chance to emphasize and reach out and explain [its] decisions."
Councillor Alison Morse thanked the members of the Finance Review Task Force for the work and valuable input. "Thank you," she said. "This has been called a number noodler's nirvana."
