2023 Community Survey

The City of Burlington is pleased to announce the results of its recent 2023 Community Survey. This study measures resident satisfaction with City services and explores residents’ thoughts on City priorities across all six wards. The results help guide future actions, priorities, and decisions on City services.

The Community Survey provides the City with statistically representative baseline data. The City benchmarks progress against previous years of survey data. The data collection was conducted by a consultant.

Key 2023 Community Survey highlights include:

• 92 per cent of respondents were “Somewhat satisfied” to “Very satisfied” with the services provided by the City of Burlington
• Quality of life was rated highly with 79 per cent of respondents ranking Burlington “Very good” or “Excellent”
• 81 per cent of respondents were at least “Somewhat satisfied” with their most recent interaction with the City
• 80 per cent of residents at least “Somewhat agreed” that they would like to provide input to the City for the purpose of influencing decision-making about city projects and services
• The City of Burlington outperformed both the Ontario and national averages for both quality of life and overall satisfaction with services
• Services that were identified as strengths through community feedback are Fire Services, parks, sports fields and trails, recreation facilities and festivals and events
• Survey respondents would like to see road safety and traffic, cost of housing, over-development, public transportation and pedestrian infrastructure and infrastructure improvements prioritized.

Resident opinions on property taxes, transit options and City related information and communications were included such as:

• 39 per cent of respondents would be in favour of at least a small tax increase to maintain service levels and 18 per cent reported a preference for increasing taxes to improve services (57 per cent total)
• Residents who have not used the transit system most commonly had not used it either because they own a car (36 per cent) or because they felt it was generally not convenient (27 per cent)
• 81 per cent of respondents were “Somewhat satisfied” to “Very satisfied” with the overall quality of City information and communications.

Improvement opportunities and context

There is an opportunity to continuously improve on resident well-being and satisfaction with City services. City service satisfaction results were analyzed using a derived importance methodology. This means those results were prioritized using performance, room for improvement and derived importance for each service. Council services, transit service, bylaw enforcement, roadway and sidewalk maintenance and parking management are the top five areas for primary opportunities for the City to consider based on the feedback heard. There are also opportunities in the areas of community engagement and communications.

The consultant shared several studies have cited a decline in public sentiment and satisfaction scores towards various aspects of governance and public services, globally and in Canada. Although there was a softening of some results from previous City of Burlington Community Surveys, the City of Burlington outperformed both the Ontario and national averages for both quality of life and overall satisfaction with services.

How the City is using the data

Resident input from this survey helps City Council and City staff prioritize where resources and time should be spent. The survey results are one input for review of the City’s four-year work plan, Burlington’s Plan From Vision to Focus 2022-2026 and the City’s Strategic Plan. In the workplan, results from the community survey on community satisfaction of people feeling involved and informed about city business and receiving great service are included. The City uses these results to help measure how well the City is doing. The results help the City prioritize issues and focus on improvement opportunities.

How residents can continue to be engaged

The City of Burlington relies on residents to make sure community interests are represented. Speaking at a Committee or Council meeting is a great way to keep the City informed and accountable to your needs. Residents can register to speak at a meeting and have the option to delegate in-person in Council Chambers or remotely. Those wishing to speak at an upcoming meeting must register before the meeting at burlington.ca/delegate. Residents can also stay up-to-date on City of Burlington news and subscribe to newsfeeds, calendars, and webpages at burlington.ca/subscribe and look out for the City Talk publication that is sent to resident homes with City updates. The public can also visit and register for updates at Get Involved Burlington and have their say on City of Burlington projects at getinvolvedburlington.ca.

On Feb. 5, there will be a report on the 2023 Community Survey results going to the Committee of the Whole.

Read the full report and appendices

• Community Survey Results
• Appendix A Deloitte Final Report
• Appendix B Deloitte Presentation
• Appendix C Survey results from Get Involved

Both the statistically valid telephone methodology for the Community Survey and the online version have been completed. Results will be shared in February 2024. Check this page for the date of the report. Thank you to everyone that participated.

The online survey is open starting September 25th. In addition, there will be 750 telephone surveys completed; 125 households in each ward. A combination of land and cell phone numbers will be contacted by random selection. The caller ID for the survey will show the text as BurlON Survey and one of the phone numbers: 905-297-4697 or 905-296-2089 or 905-296-6778. The survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.