Appendix
Attachment 2: Online Budget Consultation Report - Citizen Budget Results
April 14, 2020Pages 236–2548 sections
Comprehensive Ethelo report analyzing analytics and qualitative feedback from the Citizen Budget online engagement.
April 2, 2020Average session duration: 10 minutesTop issues: Transportation, Cost to property owner, Parks and Recreation50% of traffic from direct links
Citizen Budget Results
View Royal, British Columbia April 2, 2020
Ask about Ethelo’s other online engagements templates and receive a returning client discount!
Page 236–254
Online Budget Consultation Report
For the period March 13 to March 31, 2020
Summary
The View Royal Budget budgeting platform saw 170 visitors. There were 82 participants who participated in the survey. The average time on the platform was 10 minutes.
Visitors per day
Page Views per day
Web Traffic Sources
Note:
- Referral - people who were directed to the website through another website (ie viewroyal.ca)
- Direct - people who entered the website address (URL) directly into the address bar of an internet browser
- Social Media - people who found the website through associated social media accounts such as Facebook or Twitter
Page 236–254
Questions
Protective Services
Would you increase, decrease or maintain funding for Protective Services?
Transportation Services
Would you increase, decrease or maintain funding for Transportation Services?
Environmental Health Services
How satisfied are you with the level of service you receive from View Royal for garbage and household food waste collection?
Parks Services
Would you increase, decrease or maintain funding for Parks Services?
Recreation and Culture Services
Would you increase, decrease or maintain funding for Recreation and Culture Services?
Development Services
Would you increase, decrease or maintain funding for Development Services?
General Government Services
Would you increase, decrease or maintain funding for General Government Services?
Reserve Contributions and Debt
Would you increase, decrease or maintain funding for Reserve Contributions and Debt?
Page 236–254
Demographics and Outreach
What are the top three issues that should receive the greatest attention from View Royal Council? (select up to three choices below)
Thinking about all the services you receive from View Royal, how would you describe the value you receive for your tax dollars?
Age
How long have you lived in View Royal?
Housing Status
Household income
Page 236–254
Additional comments:
Protective Services
| Comments |
|---|
| as the first responder and an increasing population, this is a valuable component of our community |
| Demographics in View Royal are such that it is hard for younger residents to afford homes and hence most likely rent. These are short term residents. Residents that do own homes typically work more and have less time to volunteer. Responsibility for protecting homes and lives, and committing hundreds of hours of volunteer service with very little remuneration is a tough ask, and will be tougher in the future. Question is how long is a volunteer model sustainable? More paid staff will help bridge the gap as volunteerism declines and responsibility increases. |
| Would like to make sure there is sufficient funding for policing and firefighting staff and for the replacement of aging fire engines. With increased fires, floods, and windstorms we need to be adequately prepared. There are now EV options that would save on fuel and maintenance costs in the long run. |
| Funding will be needed to maintain or improve COVID 19 challenges. |
| Our Fire and Rescue teams provide a tremendous service to our community. A 3% raise seems like a worthwhile investment. |
| I think $23 extra is worth saving lives which lower response times provides... |
| Fire fighters make high wages and rarely fight fires |
| They do a great job and we appreciate what they do. I think adding funding to this area is always of benefit. |
| Will increase job recruitment and retainability |
| The town of view royal has been relying on volunteer firefighters for years and they have always stepped up. The burden of all the training and paperwork and daily function is left to too few paid staff and leaves a gap where there is limited volunteers to respond and sometimes none. Along with the auto aid agreements that council has signed this year does not take into account the lack of staffing compared to their departments that signed the agreement. |
| 24 hour protection! It is not acceptable to have certain times of the day not covered, or to only rely on volunteers. If the general public was truly aware of how response works, I am sure they would also want to increase services/protection. |
| Our town needs 24 hour protection. 9 minute standard response times via an unreliable volunteer base for a fire during the off hours is unacceptable... my family does not care what time of day it is (neither does the emergency). Our town deserves guaranteed and reliable emergency services 24/7. Much of our Town does not realize that there is no guaranteed protection during some hours of the day. If they were to know I'm sure they would vote to increase spending on protective services as well. |
Transportation Services
| Comments |
|---|
| I’m all for going to native plant species that are sought resistant and low maintenance. I am also asking that the road plowing NOT get pushed to block sidewalks. If we want more public transport and pedestrian quality, we need to stop funding car traffic increases. |
| we have spectacular boulevards and seasonal decor. could we be more mindful by planting drought resistant plants and perrenials (the boulevard between the highway and Eagle Creek appears to be a good example with grasses and black eyed susans, if I am correct in that)? I'm suggesting an increase for maintenance of infrastructure, and a decrease for the multiple plantings in the boulevards. I know they are beautiful, but what if there were bulbs and perrenials instead of pansies and geraniums and zinnias. |
| Transportation will become more vital as density increases. Whatever View Royal can do to address this is a good thing. |
| Public transportation is the only solution as western communities of Greater Victoria keep growing. It is already a nightmare to get in/out of View Royal at peak hours. It is just going to get worse. Long term solution could be to make use of EN rail tracks. Meanwhile, increased frequency of bus routes with smaller units could reduce the need to drive. |
| The new system to turn right onto OIH from Admirals has not been very functional with that stop light - only two cars can fit in the merge section. Also, a "Use the Zipper Method" teaching sign to merge effectively at the beginning of OIH in this section would help move traffic along. Pursuing better and more frequent bus routes around View Royal neighbourhoods on smaller shuttles to help ease traffic and support elderly and youth to get around easily. Continue to support safe bike lanes such as the Goose and the E & N Rail trail and incorporate some more to connect the two in different spots. The meridians on OIH are lovely and there is quite a bit of time that is needed to care for them...money from this area could be moved if needed |
| I would like to see more walkable and accessible paths and sidewalks to make it easy to connect residents to all areas of View Royal without having to drive their cars. Improved lighting for safety would also be important. |
| The Appendices to the proposed 2020-2024 Financial Plan lists all planned capital projects (Appendix 3) and each project is detailed in Appendix 5. The Appendices document can be downloaded from https://www.viewroyal.ca/EN/main/town/TownBudget.html. |
| I wish I had a better understanding of what improvement projects are planned. |
| spend smarter, not more. The medians on OIH are an example of spending WAY more than is prudent to achieve a desired result. The same, possibly better results could be achieved for far less money. An enormous amount is spent on the high maintenance landscaping in the medians. You can see crews working in this difficult environment frequently. Why not backfill the islands and plant some shade trees. Just regular mowing would be require (or not if you opted for snowberry and gary oak).The water cleansing function that takes place in the median can be done much more effectively downstream in Portage park. The maintenance would be cheaper and easier. The median would look nicer and require less maintenance. Its a win-win. |
| Fix potholes in roads |
| Too much paid to make the place look "pretty" for others just to drive thru |
| Need to promote bus transit |
| Too many street signs in view Royal. This is unnecessary and increases distraction while driving. |
| The town needs to start to look at what the town is responsible for and focus on those roads and leave roads that are under ministry control and add more sidewalks and lights in the old part of view royal. |
| It'd be absolutely amazing if there was a light rail into town. Also, roundabouts everywhere would be terrific instead of stop lights. Also, more of a comprehensive cycle network than just the galloping goose. |
| Our roads and boulevards are excellent, keep up the good work. |
Page 236–254
Environmental Health Services
| Comments |
|---|
| weekly pickup is excessive, we generate one small grocery bag of waste each week. Environmentally we have to produce less garbage and not serve things on a weekly basis. A rotating schedule is reasonable and does work, plus costs less |
| The multi stream collection system is the best way to recover clean material streams to be recycled back into new materials, single stream recycling results in higher contamination and less material recovered for recycling. |
| All glass from the residential program is recycled either into new glass, or into a sandblasting material. |
| I know others with compost collection every 2 weeks. If they happen to miss the designated week because of a busy schedule they have a month of smelly waste building up before the next opportunity comes around! Not healthy and can encourage animal interest. |
| We do not need weekly service, every other week is plenty for base service load given that almost all waste is now recyclable or compostable. Make service "pay as you throw" if you requiremore frequent or larger garbage containers |
| Garbage and compost only needed every 2 weeks. Residents should be encouraged to produce less waste. Compost should not be required to be bagged. Currently the contracted hauler requires compost to bagged, however, it is illegal for compost facilities in BC to accept compostable bags as they cannot be composted in provincial facilities, so bags must be separated from the compost anyway. This just creates additional waste. |
| Every week of garbage pick up is important for families - I have 4-5 people in a household - teens - and things just add up as they go about their world with their own wallet - ordering in skip the dishes and stuff which produces garbage (which I can't stand). Perhaps a system could be in place where a household could opt in for weekly pick up or every two weeks. On the flip side, I don't send my organic waste through the curbside pick up as I compost it myself and feed bread & other food scraps to our backyard chickens. |
| Every 2 weeks for garbage pick up is sufficient. |
| Would like to see the addition of soft plastics picked up at the curb |
| Would like to be able to recycle more items at the curb than what is currently listed. |
| A serious piece of our environmental health is missing from this survey: climate change. We need a budget for mitigating climate change, for reducing greenhouse gases both from the municipal corporation and from the public at large. A minimum would be a salaried position with this responsibility and an action budget equal to their salary. |
| All recycling should be in one bin. Glass goes to the landfill currently so either find a place to do glass recycling or don't bother asking residents to pretend we are recycling to ease our consciences. |
| I know that recycle is a CRD function but we need to be moving to a single bin, mixed recycle collection. All of the blue boxes are a bit silly and hard on the collectors. Glass should be thrown in garbage since that is likely where it ends up anyway. Why go through the motions of pretending to recycle it? |
| More frequent lawn and garden waste collection please - at least once in the spring too. |
| Every 2 weeks compost collection and 1 week garbage collection would be sufficient. More attention is needed for the Lawn & Garden Waste Disposal. In our backyard, we have huge maple trees which we don't have permission to cut down. Every fall we have 30 bags full of leaves and the municipality takes only 5 bags.Is it possible to remove the limit of 5 bags and take everything? |
| Every 2 weeks for garbage is sufficient. That is because our recycle program has been successful |
| Every two week garbage collection would only be possible if larger bins (or a second bin) were provided. |
| Every two weeks for garbage pickup. |
| it should be every two weeks and have our rates cut in half |
Page 236–254
Parks Services
| Comments |
|---|
| Volunteers are putting in a lot of remediation (invasive species control) in the parks, and this contribution doesn’t show in the budget. The town SR engineer degrades volunteers, yet the trails the he has built need work where volunteers trails are good. Protected areas need more care than pretty flowers in boulevards. |
| I am not in favour of planting trees on private property. We have enough trouble keeping the ivy at bay on the publicly planted trees. Residents are seeming to find it too hard to take care of the trees they have. Furthermore, it would be another task for the town to oversee tree care. |
| add bathrooms at any park with a playground or trail and parking at trailheads |
| Things are prefect as they are. Sometimes I think we do much more than other municipalities. That's what makes View Royal such a great place to live |
| Green spaces, tree planting and maintenance of E&N trail should be a priority. The trail shouldn't turn into a waste dump, as it's been happening for a while at the intersection with Hallowell Road, where garbage bags and old furniture are placed and then stay there for weeks. |
| Also, doggie baggies at many spots around VR is fantastic as it is a very dog oriented community...emptying the garbage cans around those 'drop the poop' in spots would be nice |
| Parks, nature,tree canopy and green spaces are so important and it sets VR apart from Colwood or Langford. Keep it up. |
| The new bike pump track is a huge hit - even though it doesn't target our family, I am so please to see so many people using it - people come from Victoria to use it and even Duncan - it is great. Hugely supportive of the community gardens in View Royal Park, Welland Orchard - these are huge resources for the community and I would like to see more food producing areas. When new plantings are being made, incorporating native plants and food bearing plants instead of just ornamentals. |
| Lower maintenance on beautifying roads; more on adding to parks ie trees |
| More important than planting trees is to have strong bylaws to protect the existing mature trees and forests. We need more bylaw enforcement officers and stiffer fines for cutting these precious carbon sequestering trees down. |
| Access to and from the E&N trail on Helmcken near the elementary school needs to be improved. |
| Adding of a small fully fenced-dog park. Focus on natural fulsome green spaces instead of a plain large patch of green grass with nothing. Love the Portage Park and would like to see more parks like this (of course it takes time). |
| I would much rather VR spent more money retaining tree canopy and mature trees than on planting young trees. Older tree canopy contributes a great deal to preventing worse climate change, saving a tonne of ghgs for every forty trees. New trees will contribute nearly nothing to reducing ghgs by 2030, the deadline for reducing ghgs by 45%. |
| More parks, more park services, and/or more park amenities. View Royal rocks, but can always be better if we all chip in a bit more. |
| My family would be in favour of washrooms being added to parks. |
| Consider carefully any park improvements that carry with them a need for ongoing funding for maintenance/mowing. Opt for natural. low/no maintenance parks. That said, I would rather spend landscaping money on parks where people can sit or walk and enjoy than on intricate and expensive roadsides and medians (see comment under transportation) that people rush by in cars while texting on their phones. Can acheive similar results (environmentally, visually) which much simpler landscaping on roadways. Save the intricate stuff for small areas in parks. |
| Wonderful to have so many parks in the area and access to our beautiful waterways. The kayak/small boat launch near Shoreline is an excellent addition! |
| The Parks Services team does a great job. The parks and green space in our area always look healthy and well cared for. There are a lot of kids and dogs in our neighbourhood, and I think we all appreciate having such usable outdoor space. |
| To many parks, pay and concentrate the ones that are multi use |
| To facilitate community engagement it makes more sense to increase work force of town and parks workers than contracting out to 3rd party companies |
| An increase would be nice to increase staff and also look at bringing some contracts back under the town control hopefully saving money. Snow removal, Helmcken and island hwy Lawns and flower beds, and even some parks and trails that are looked after by contractors. |
| The parks department does an amazing job. If they are asking for more funding, based on the reason, I would vote to increase the budget. People live here for a reason. It costs money to live in paradise. |
Recreation and Cultural Services
| Comments |
|---|
| I’d increase spending for the library, but decrease spending on town functions that seem to be not well attended and of little value other than making the mayor feel good. |
| I would like to see more recreation and culture right in View Royal - I don't want to drive more than I have to, and currently, View Royal seems to be a sandwiched neighbourhood and we rely on Esquimalt and Colwood/Langford. Support for a larger community gathering space, supporting small business to create unique venues/gathering spaces...and I do not value the casino as a community gathering space for shows! |
| While the hall at the View Royal Community Association isn't super large, it is available for rent for community groups, meetings, organizations, private parties... |
| I vote to increase library expenditures. What a remarkable community resource. |
| Wouldn't it be great if View Royal had a decent sized community hall for use or rent by its citizens! Could be used for Council meetings where large community attendance is expected. |
| Perhaps a small user fee to reduce tax burden? Might be a good idea for transportation too! Use automatic toll collection to charge each driver on OIH 50c! This municipal road carries almost all external traffic. They (and resident users) should help pay maintenance costs/ |
| There is plenty going on in surrounding communities/downtown Victoria that View Royal residents can travel to in a short period of time. |
| Our family uses Juan de Fuca recreation and the walking trails around it all the time. The whole Westshore will benefit by working together, especially considering how much View Royal residents rely on Colwood and Langford's commercial infrastructure. |
Page 236–254
Development Services
| Comments |
|---|
| It would appear that the current trend is retail/service on the ground and condo above, like Eagle Creek. I like the walkability of that. Incorporating more of that as developments continue, makes the condo impact easier to accept. |
| Limit condo building and instead allow for carriage/cottage homes to be built in our larger lots to increase housing that allows people green space and not a stack of boxes. Or supporting co-ops to be built. No other other 'strip malls' like Admirals Walk or the latest - Eagle Creek, but if support was given to create home based businesses - it would create a more walking user friendly community. If development application processes are slowed by reducing this category, that is fine by me -we don't need to be Langford. |
| Would like a dedicated staff member to oversee the creation of a climate action plan and to make sure the Town works quickly to reduce our GHG emissions. This should include plans to mitigate and adapt to our changing climate. |
| Invest any increase in planning climate action and implementation. |
| Smart planning and not just about adding as much homes as we can and reducing all the green space/nature. Be innovative - tiny homes etc. |
| Reduce bureaucracy where you can. Maybe eliminate a few rules instead of creating more every year and accept that we will not regulate everything. Sorry, don't mean to sounding Trumpish, (which I certainly am not) but I know how easy it is to create new bylaws which live forever to deal with transient or infrequent issues, which don't. I promise I will never suggest that we Make View Royal Great Again. |
General Government Services
| Comments |
|---|
| Town staff seem to have contempt for residence. They need to set improvement goals and attempt to achieve them, rather than be a financial burden. 40 people for 10,000 residence seems excessive |
| I find the admin staff very helpful and they evaluate quickly who would field my question. I am assuming the current budget allowed for the recent increase in admin staff, with the hiring of a person to interface on property variance issues (I think this is what (s)he was hired for.) I can't really speak to whether additional staff is needed, without having experienced a lack. |
| you don't always get what you pay for, but you never get what you don't pay for :-) |
| It appears that Town staff are extremely busy, especially the Finance dept. Extra staff will help with Town efficiency and ability to respond better to residents needs. |
| We need funding in place to implement climate actions as set out in the Strategic Plan and funding for community engagement to get the residents working together with the Town to achieve this. |
| you get what you pay for |
| Our family has enjoyed work the Town has put into its online services. Thank you. |
Reserve Contributions and Debt Services
| Comments |
|---|
| Casino revenue is the mayor’s fallback. He said the $1 million DCC waiver for Linona would be ok given the fund. He doesn’t see/plan that the “free money” can dry up. COVID shows how it can change in an instance. The budget needs to re-evaluate this impact and plan for no new casino funds. |
| Is that not what we are seeing as new developments go in? isn't the developer responsible for sidewalks, etc? Is that what you mean? |
| Wouldn't a decrease in casino revenue merely reduce the amount set aside for future capital projects? |
| <Must increase. Casino revenue is not a guarantee as we have seen with the COVID 19 shut down and loss of revenue for View Royal. |
| We need to have a contingency fund to address looming issues like Sea Level Rise that we need to mitigate against. To quickly bring down GHG emissions, we need grants/incentives for things like changing heating sources to heat pumps as well as other retrofits and for the installation of EV charging stations. Community Solar/Local Power is something we should consider as well so we are not totally dependent on BC Hydro when there is a brownout. |
| As climate change continues to occur there needs to be a financial plan to adequately deal with any hazards that we face which will reduce costs in the long run. |
| more and more "infrastructure must be developed so the homeowner is responsible for their own. Stop mortgaging our great grand kids |
| We support the option to be better able to replace any aging infrastructure. |
Top three issues- Other
| Comments |
|---|
| Getting rid of a self serving easy to anger non-listening mayor. |
| although children like bike & water parks, they are a luxury. I don't think it was intended that our VR park parking lot would be congested with people from outlying communities because their facilities are crowded. Take care of the traffic congestion and make view royal more attractive and affordable to young families. |
| Climate change |
| given the current crisis and pending economic downturn, all non-essential spending should be curtailed until a recovery is in sight. We already have a lot of good programs and parks so perform maintenance, but a few years of not improving won't hurt anyone. Unmanageble debt, or strain on taxpayers will! All VR seems to ever do is raise taxes. |
| Address climate change and take better care of our planet. COVID 19 is a cleansing by Mother Nature. Too much development that is stripping nature and it's wild occupants. |
| Addressing Climate Change should be our number one priority. Every budget item should be looked at through the lens of Climate Change and the impact it will have. If we don't get this right nothing else matters. We can make the tough choices now or suffer the astronomical consequences down the road if we don't act quickly enough. |
| Tackling Climate Change is the top issue. This covid-19 is linked to the destruction of our ecosystems as species become more and more crowded and confined and the crossover of zoonotic diseases occurs. We must start to heal our planet. Mother Nature has just sent us a very powerful message. |
| climate action |
| How is climate change adaptation and mitigation not listed here? Strong protection of our green space. |
| My first choice is reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the corporation and from the general citizenry. |
| Ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent to benefit residents of view royal and not to make sweetheart deals for developers to build new subdivisions in our natural spaces. |
| Aging infrastructure; road repairs |
| Over development |
| As I said earlier, we live in the best place on Earth. We deserve appropriate services and should be willing to pay for it to live here. |
| Updating aging infrastructure |
Page 236–254
Document Images
(1)
Extracted from: 2020 04 14 Special Council Agenda - Agenda - Pdf