Centre for Civic Governance

In a recent poll by the Columbia Institute, 15.8% of British Columbians have named housing and homelessness as the most important problem facing their community, up from 14.3% last year.  Columbia Institute Executive Director Charley Beresford says “These numbers show a rising concern about housing and homelessness in communities across BC.  They are a call to action.”

For the second year in a row, British Columbians have put the same five issues at the top of the heap in response to the open-ended question “What is the most important problem facing your community?” Besides housing and homelessness, British Columbians named crime/safety, transportation, and healthcare as their top five concerns. To view a presentation of the poll click here.

Rising sharply in the rankings over last year though, are economic concerns such as gas prices, cost of living and unemployment.  Gas prices have moved as a concern from 22^nd to 8^th spot; concern about ‘cost of living’ has jumped from 24^th to 12^th and concern about Unemployment from 14^th to 6^th.

British Columbians think their local government should take strong action on global warming, even if it means they have to pay higher taxes, with 56% of British Columbians saying they strongly or somewhat agree.

The poll was conducted for Columbia Institute by Stratcom June 27^th to July 7^th, 2008. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4%, 19 times out of 20.