Survey of View Royal residents to cost up to $40,000

Oak Bay rejects spending $30,000 for similar poll, pointing to election

View Royal council has agreed to spend up to $40,000 on a survey to gauge the priorities of its residents.

Mayor David Screech said councillors expressed concern about the cost, but ultimately decided that the survey would provide useful information for planning purposes.

“We’ve never gone to the public in a proper process like that before to get their input, so we felt that it was worth doing it,” he said.

A staff report said casino revenue could be used to pay for the online and telephone survey of 300 to 400 residents.

“I’m hoping it’ll happen early next year,” Screech said.

“Maybe February, because we’re doing it as part of our strategic planning process and we’re hoping to have the strategic plan done by spring.”

It’s expected that each survey will take about 15 minutes to complete.

Oak Bay council, meanwhile, decided against spending $30,000 on a similar survey to assess residents’ satisfaction and priorities.

Mayor Kevin Murdoch said council wants to improve community involvement, but was “lukewarm” on the idea of a survey. Some councillors felt citizens had a chance to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction at the ballot box in the October municipal election.

“It doesn’t mean that we don’t want to do other things, but not the survey, not that amount of money, not at this time,” Murdoch said.