Davidson responds to "Not Satisfied With City Services"
December 13, 2011 at 9:14 PM
According to a recent nation-wide poll, Winnipeg are not "very satisfied" with their city services.
The nation-wide survey, conducted by Toronto-based Forum Research, asked citizens to rate their level of satisfaction with their municipal services. Only 11% of Winnipeg said they were “very satisfied” overall with what they were getting from their city, which was the worst showing in the country. In addition, Winnipeg finished last or second-last in nine of 15 categories when it came to citizens being very satisfied with services ranging from garbage pick-up and policing to community centres and road maintenance.
"I'm not surprised by the findings when it comes to services such as garbage pick-up, road maintenance and recreation infrastructure," said Local 500 President Mike Davidson. "The City has an estimated $3.8 billion dollar infrastructure deficit and unless the city is able to access a more equitable share of tax revenues from the governments, these results will not get any better."
Davidson recalled that back in the 1960s, the federal government funded a huge portion of the municipal infrastructure and still needs that commitment today. He said that while all three levels of government must work together to devote more resources to our communities, the Federal Government must be an active and continuing partner in our infrastructure renewal.
"Without an equitable, sustainable source of revenue, our ability to make any significant progress towards bridging the infrastructure gap will continue to have serious implications on the quality of life in our communities," he said. "In short, the Federal Government needs to step up to the plate and ensure we have a national infrastructure strategy that will allow municipal and provincial governments to sustain our important, essential infrastructure now and into the future."
Click here to watch the news report on Global Winnipeg
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