Friday evening I was phoned by a national public opinion research firm who invited me to take part in a survey. When I inquired who his client was, I was informed the District of Oak Bay.
When I asked how he obtained my phone number, he explained the procedure. The district provided a list of phone numbers from which the research firm selected their sample after randomization.
It was a 15-minute, comprehensive questionnaire seeking my satisfaction level with many attributes of the municipal administration and services.
I am happy to participate in such surveys if they are professionally designed, the questions are not skewed, the results are fairly tabulated and will be helpful to the governance of my community.
However the district staff have recently engaged consultants to hold infill implementation meetings, without first determining if the community is in favour, which turned out not to be the case.
Now there is an opinion survey. The one question that wasn’t asked was “Do you accept that the hastily arranged infill meetings and an opinion survey constitute the public consultation and engagement which have been long promised but not delivered?”
Graham Ross
Oak Bay