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| SASCI Manager David Green T. Lucas photos |
The Southwest Alberta Sustainable Community Initiative (SASCI) and the Municipal District of Pincher Creek No. 9 hosted a public presentation to explain the results of the recently conducted Community Values Assessment (CVA). The event was held at the Heritage Inn on the evening of Thursday, March 29. Approximately 25 people were in attendance, including the entire MD of Pincher Creek No. 9 Council.
The MD engaged SASCI to assist them in the CVA, and SASCI in turn engaged Calgary based company The Praxis Group to assist in conducting the Assessment.
The process was funded by the MD of Pincher Creek and the provincial Rural Community Adaptation Program and SASCI.
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| Praxis' Dave de Lange and Richard Roberts with SASCI's David Green |
SASCI's main role in the process was to frame the survey and focus group questions, to provide local support, and to help identify available community resources.
332 (37%) of the households within the MD responded to the survey. Respondents were required to be 18 years of age or older. They were asked to rate the importance of 38 different attributes on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most important, and to then rate their existing level of satisfaction regarding those attributes, using the same scale.
Timeline:
- 2008 - Following the completion of phase 3 of the Southern Foothills Study at the request of the MD Council SASCI is asked to conduct a Community Values Assessment.
- June 10 to 27, 2011 - Telephone survey of MD residents.
- June and July, 2011 - Group discussions with representatives of key economic and socio-cultural sectors and stakeholder groups.
- September 2011 - Follow-up session with some of the group discussion participants.
- October 2011 to present - Draft and review of final report by SASCI and the MD Council, presentation to public.
The most important value statements of those surveyed included:
- Having the ability to make decisions about what occurred on their land (4.77)
- Access to adequate health services (4.75)
- Quick emergency response times (4.75)
- Safety and security (4.70)
- Conserving and protecting water resources (4.64)
- Protecting quality of life for seniors (4.64)
- Living in a community where people look out for one another (4.64)
At the bottom of the list, being least important to the respondents, was attracting population growth. Rounding out the bottom of the list were access to entertainment opportunities, cultural events and programs, and increasing the amount of paved roads.
Survey says!
The best things about living in the MD of Pincher Creek:
- Beautiful scenery
- Friendly people/community minded
- Peaceful, quiet
- Rural lifestyle/ agriculture
- Close to nature
- Wide open spaces
- Not crowded
- Access to recreation
- Clean/fresh air
- Everything
- Safe, secure
The worst things about living in the MD of Pincher Creek:
- The wind
- Long winters
- Isolation, distance to services
- Too many windmills
- Too busy in summer/tourists
- Poor roads/maintenance
- Lack of employment
- Lack of amenities/services
- Oil and gas development
- Increased industrial development
Most important concerns for the future of the area (top 10):|
- Loss of agricultural land to subdivisions
- Windmills destroying viewscapes
- Clear-cut logging
- Environmental degradation
- Over development/unplanned development
- Long term economic viability
- Loss of rural lifestyle due to development and growth
- Overpopulation
- Loss of agricultural land to industry
- Too much government interference/regulation/control
Green said "There is a premise that runs as follows: 'Achieving long-term rural community sustainability depends on the community’s resilience and capacity to change in a manner compatible with the values held by its members'. Assuming that premise to be true, we might agree that improved community self-knowledge and understanding, particularly with respect to values and desired futures, is critically important."
Green continued. "The objectives of the Community Values Assessment, framed in a Terms of Reference that went out in a call for proposals were as follows: to engage a broad spectrum of the public within the MD of Pincher Creek to identify and assess values related to economic, social, and environmental issues; to identify commonly held values, conflicting values, and the relative priority of those values; to identify factors contributing to changing values within and across the MD, factors such as location, occupation, economic circumstances, demographics were taken into account; and lastly, to provide clear, current, credible, and accurate information regarding community values in a format that will support transparent, defensible decision-making by MD staff and Council."
"The CVA was conducted in 2011, and to some degree is a reflection of conditions and circumstances facing the community at that time. At the time of the CVA, the Government of Alberta was implementing a new land use planning process pursuant to the Alberta Land Stewardship Act, and the land use plan governing the MD called the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan, was being drafted. There were various developments proposed on the landscape, including mining north of Burmis and logging in the Castle, as well as many ongoing activities, such as oil and gas development, tourism, and many forms of recreation."
"Property rights were a key issue for many landowners, and there was increasing subdivision pressure in parts of the region. So this document presents the findings of the Community Values Assessment and we believe it provides a credible perspective on the current values and priorities of residents and landowners in the MD."
Green praised the Praxis group for their "unwavering dedication to accuracy in both statistical and anecdotal reporting."
"It has been a pleasure working with these guys," he concluded, before introducing Praxis President Richard Roberts.
Roberts explained the parameters of the Assessment, using slides to illustrate his talking points. "The average length was 18 minutes. We had hoped for 10 to 12 minutes, but people really liked to talk. We went up to 55 minutes with one household representative. We had basically a 37% response rate from the households in the MD."
"Parallel to this we had a list that was developed by SASCI for individuals that we were wanting to bring together in small group sessions," continued Roberts. "We got 29 people to the sessions in June and actually did a follow-up session in early July because a number of people had said 'Look we just can't get to these ones, can you do another one?', so we did."
"In September we did a follow-up session with people who had been in those working groups to talk about the initial results, the findings we had, and also to talk about what their thoughts were on next steps," said Roberts. "What we really saw was that the participants (of the focus groups) consistently called upon the MD (Council) to act as the community voice."
Praxis Senior Associate Dave de Lange said the firm had done "a record amount of drafts on this survey, there were eight I think. In thirty years of doing research I think that's most I've ever come across. We kept on refining and improving the questions as we went through the process."
"The survey set out to see what was important to the residents of the MD, that's really what we were trying to accomplish."
de Lange demonstrated various survey results in graphical form, including statistical analysis used to complete the Assessment. "The idea is, if you have something of a rally high level of importance there should be a commensurate level of satisfaction," he explained.
According to de Lange there was room given in the process for open-ended responses to participants could address their own specific values and concerns.
de Lange said that items which ranked highly in both importance and satisfaction should not be viewed with complacency. "In fact, just the opposite. These are things that you need to keep focusing on all the time. You need to keep investing in them."
A question and answer period followed the formal presentations. Beaver Mines resident Jacques Thouin suggested there were more questions that should be asked. The issue of "next-steps" came up.
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| MD Reeve Rod Zielinski |
"If you go through the survey you'll always find it saying one thing on the one hand and something else on the other. We do try to get value for your money, that was one of the stumbling blocks to get this thing going. The MD put $20,000 into the kitty to try and get this thing going, it took a lot more to get it going, probably the value of two MD employees for a year is what it cost, and a lot of people would probably rather see it spent on people on the ground."
"I'd like to know if there was anything in the study that surprised you," asked one citizen.
"I think for every Councillor there were different things that were pointed out," answered Zielinski, "but for me personally it was how paved roads were down at the bottom, where we think people want good transportation. There's things mentioned out of our bailiwick as far as quality of education, good healthcare. It was very nice to see Emergency Services response right up there with a high value and satisfaction numbers to it. There's definitely good things in there.," Zielinski continued. I can tell you what's reinforcing this is some of our planning bylaws, where if you go through our planning bylaws open spaces is a big thing. We want to see development in the towns and villages, not out in the country. So there's some good things, there's some things that we definitely have to work on."
Another citizen expressed his pleasure that the whole MD Council was present, and his wish that they would speak as the voice of concerned constituents to higher levels of government, mentioning logging in the Castle and other land use issues.
David Green took to the podium again. "One of the things I found interesting about the survey had to do with the social values aspect of the small group sessions," he said. "It really became very obvious very quickly how important the Town of Pincher Creek is, as it lies at the heart of the MD. All of the services that were described as being beneficial to the lifestyle, important from a values perspective, education, opportunities, health care, emergency response times, recreational facilities, were all incredibly important, contributing to a lifestyle in the MD."
"As we assembled the study we often talked about how this really should have been a study that covered both the Town and the MD. I think that would have given us a much broader tool to paint the community values across the board. That might be something to consider in the future," Green said.
A citizen asked if there had been any differentiation between part-time and full time residency. The answer was no. David de Lange also said that there had been no contact with property owners who actually lived in Calgary. He said that too many screening questions took away from the respondents willingness to answer. "The last thing you want to do is turn people off right at the beginning by giving them 15 different screening questions." Richard Roberts said the potential impacts of absentee landlords was one of the subjects of discussion during the focus groups.
In his closing remarks David Green said "Although they are ‘at the helm’ so to speak, the MD Council should not, is not, and cannot be alone in applying and reinforcing the values expressed in this report. This is now your information, your report, and what we now believe to be an important element in the collective resource we call the MD."
"We all need to remember that this is fairly baseline research, and so this is the start, and where it grows from here is anyone's guess. Over time and as circumstances continue to change, it's going to be important to ensure that our collective understanding of community values remains current," Green continued. It's certainly our recommendation that the findings of the report be reviewed periodically, and updated as appropriate."
"On behalf of SASCI I'd like to thank MD Councils, and I used plural there, first the Council that preceded this one for recognizing the importance of confirming community values and setting in motion a process that led SASCI down the path toward a comprehensive assessment and for providing partnership funding, and then to this Council, for its extreme patience while SASCI worked to secure the necessary extra funding and position the project to move forward," said Green. "A very special thanks to Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development - Rural Communities Adaptation Program, for recognizing the importance of this project in the grand scheme of community capacity- building and of course for providing significant funding for the project. I would like to express a special thanks to those ratepayers who were able and willing to participate in the earlier project phases and to each of you for attending and participating this evening."
The Assessment report is far too detailed and comprehensive to attempt to completely synopsise here. Visit www.sasci.ca to read it in it's entirety.
The report recommends a Community Values Assessment be conducted every five years "to ensure that the changes in the community are understood and considered in decision-making."
A copy of the report will be delivered to the Pincher Creek Library. To request an electronic version of the report email sasci@telus.net
Related links:
www.sasci.ca
www.praxis.ca
www.mdpinchercreek.ab.ca
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