URBAN QUEBECERS POSITIVE ABOUT LIFE IN THE CITY
DESPITE SIGNIFICANT DOUBTS ABOUT LOCAL GOVERNMENT:  TRUDEAU FOUNDATION POLL

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Transportation, Economic Issues  and Safety Listed as Top Concerns

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Research Precedes Trudeau Conference on Cities, Nov. 19-21

Montreal, QC — November 17, 2009 — Urban Quebecers are notably positive about their quality of life in the city, but many also feel a fundamental overhaul of their local government and other public institutions is needed to effectively meet the challenges facing their community, according to a new poll of Canadians living in cities of 100,000 people or more. The poll was commissioned by the Trudeau Foundation in collaboration with the Global Cities Program and the Cities Centre at the University of Toronto in advance of the sixth Trudeau Conference on Public Policy entitled “Canadian Cities and the Public Sphere: Rethinking the Urban Commons,” occurring in Ottawa November 19-21, 2009. 

Keynote speeches and panel discussions will address many of the topics covered by the poll:

Quality of Life in the City

• A clear majority of Quebec urbanites rate life in their city as excellent (19%) or very good (37%).  An additional third (34%) describe life in the city as good, while only one in ten say it is only fair (8%) or poor (2%).
• Satisfaction decreases in Montreal, with just 12% describing life in the city as excellent.

Optimism

• 82% of urban Quebecers are optimistic that their city will be a good place for the next generation, including 40% who are very optimistic; this optimism drops among those in Montreal with 35% saying they are very optimistic, a trend consistent in among residents of other larger cities in Canada.
• In Quebec, urbanites are somewhat (10%) or very pessimistic (3%) about life in their city for the next generation.  This view climbs in Montreal (17%) but is less evident among Francophone Canadians (12%) than Anglophone Canadians (15%), or those that speak other languages (16%).

Fit to Lead?
Do urban Quebecers have confidence in the capability of their local government and public institutions to address the major challenges facing their city?

• 56% of urban Quebecers express such confidence (vs. 50% in the rest of Canada), though this declines to just 44% among residents of Montreal.
• Three in ten (29%) urban Quebecers say a “major overhaul” is needed, in contrast to 40% of city dwellers in Canada’s other provinces.

“As one of the most urbanized countries in the world, the importance of understanding the opinions and outlook of Canadian city-dwellers is paramount to creating a roadmap for the nation’s success and vitality,” said Dr. Pierre-Gerlier Forest, President of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. “The sixth annual Trudeau Conference on Public Policy will host leading Canadian and international experts on cities, and bring forward new ideas in rethinking the urban commons.” 

Other poll highlights:

Most Pressing Challenges
On the most pressing challenge facing their city:

• One quarter (25%) of urban Quebecers identify transportation challenges (e.g. state of public transit, congestion, poor roads);
• Just 13% in Quebec cities feel economic challenges (e.g. lack of jobs, no economic growth) are most pressing, a stark contrast to the 29% of city dwellers in other Canadian provinces, led by Atlantic Canada (38%) and Ontario (37%).
• Just 9% in urban Quebec list crime and violence as the most pressing issues, versus 17% in the rest of Canada, led by those in Manitoba cities (43%).

Vulnerability to Threats
Few urban Quebecers feel they or their family are at risk of threats typically associated with living in the city:

• Crime: just one in twenty (5%) feel highly at risk, the lowest number of any province in Canada, versus 12% in the rest of Canada led by 22% in Manitoba cities.
• Health: 5% of urban Quebecers feel highly at risk versus 7% in other provinces, led by Ontario (10%). 
• Local environmental and weather events: Quebec leads the other provinces with one in ten (9%) feeling highly at risk, including 14% in Montreal. 7% of urbanites in the rest of Canada feel highly at risk.
• Terrorism: 2% of Quebec urbanites feel highly at risk (3% in Montreal) and 14% at medium risk.

Ethnic Diversity
On the pros and cons of ethnic diversity in Quebec cities:

• A majority (56%) of urban Quebecers identify ways in which ethnic diversity has been positive for their city, most notably mentioning its contribution to culture and the arts (31%), that it makes the city more dynamic and interesting (12%), connects the city to other countries and the world (12%) and contributes to economic development (12%).
• Fewer than three in ten (28%) Quebecers identify ways in which the presence of different ethnic communities has had a negative affect on their city, most commonly lack of assimilation by newcomers (13%), social tensions between communities (7%) and increased crime (6%).  Over one third (37%) of urbanites in the rest of Canada feel there are negative affects of ethnic diversity.

Against this backdrop, the sixth annual Trudeau Conference on Public Policy will bring some of the brightest minds together to tackle the subject from unique, fresh and actionable angles. Media are invited to attend the conference and more information can be found at www.trudeaufoundation.ca

About the research
The results are based on a telephone poll by Environics Research conducted with a representative sample of 1,300 adult Canadians in cities of 100,000 or more from October 15-24, 2009.  A sample of this size will produce a sampling error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.  Regional breakouts are available.