Calgarians are growing more optimistic about the city’s future and their own quality of life, according to the city’s latest citizen satisfaction survey.
The City of Calgary conducts two annual surveys, in the fall and spring, with the latest spring results released Thursday showing positive results compared to just six months ago.
According to the survey, nearly three quarters, or 74 per cent, of Calgarians rate their overall quality of life as good, which is an eight-per cent increase over fall’s survey.
Around seven in 10 Calgarians also feel that Calgary is a great place to make a life, with 66 per cent believing the city is a great place to make a living.
Optimism about Calgary’s future has also increased seven per cent since the fall, with 68 per cent of respondents saying the city is on the right track to be a better place in 10 years.
Three-quarters, or 75 per cent, of Calgarians also view the city as safe, according to the survey.
“The results are showing clear, across-the-board, upward trend in confidence in our city,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek told reporters.
Overall, 61 per cent of respondents felt satisfied with level and quality of services and programs provided by the City of Calgary, but less than half, or 46 per cent, of Calgarians feel they get good value for their property taxes.
“I think that is something that is forever going to be a challenge for us especially with an organization of this size,” Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott told reporters.
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“It’s something we need to double down on so that people know exactly what we’re spending and they see it in their own personal lives.”
Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean felt satisfied with the results, but feels cutting taxes is the only way to improve how Calgarians feel about the value for that money.
“We’ve got to keep taxes low, that’s the key thing,” he said.
According to the survey, infrastructure, traffic and roads remained the most frequently mentioned issue, followed by homelessness and public safety, with transit and growth and planning rounding out the top five issues for Calgarians.
One of the biggest jumps since the fall was around trust in the City of Calgary, which reached a five-year high at 52 per cent, which is up from 41 per cent in the fall survey.
Gondek said she believes that figure is a direct result of the ongoing work from the City of Calgary and council following last year’s water main break, and rising affordability issues.
“It tells me that Calgarians believed that we had a plan,” Gondek said. “Taking action when it matters, and being visible, honest, and decisive, and delivering real results on the priorities that matter the most to Calgarians.”
However, Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp said she doesn’t believe it was entirely a result from the ongoing work at the city, pointing to the low survey numbers from last year.
“In the fall, we were pretty close to rock bottom on some of those numbers so you can only go up from there,” she said. “There are some fantastic numbers in there around safety and trust and confidence, but we can always do better.”
Seventy per cent of Calgarians said they felt satisfied with how city administration is running the city, but those numbers narrow when focused solely on city council.
The survey showed 52 per cent of Calgarians are satisfied with city council’s performance, up six per cent from the fall, while dissatisfaction with council fell six per cent to 48 per cent.
In response, the mayor said improving those figures comes down to communication.
“Could I have been doing more in the first three years that I was mayor? Absolutely, I could have been,” Gondek said. “It’s important to be honest, and to make sure that you’re delivering that message that we are leading the city towards stability.”
According to pollster Janet Brown, the numbers in the survey appear quite favourable for the City of Calgary, but notes the context of when the survey was conducted.
The report itself shows the survey was in the field when U.S president Donald Trump announced intentions to introduce tariffs on Canadian goods, as well as when Mark Carney was sworn in as Prime Minister.
“Calgarians have a lot of reasons to be cranky, but right now their anger is focused at the federal government and they’re worried about U.S.-Canada relations,” Brown said.
“Maybe in an environment like this, it’s a good thing for the city because Calgarians are directing their ire elsewhere.”
Ipsos Public Affairs interviewed 2,500 Calgarians over the phone from Feb. 27, 2025 to March 24, 2025, and the survey has a margin of error of ± 2.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Calgarians’ quality of life rebounding, survey says, but faith in council, taxes waning
