North Cowichan conducted its third Citizen Satisfaction Survey this spring. 84% of residents rate the overall quality of life in North Cowichan as good or very good, and 85% are satisfied with the overall level and quality of services provided by the municipality.
- A detailed summary of the survey results can be found at northcowichan.ca
North Cowichan conducts statistically valid surveys every four years to better understand community satisfaction with municipal services and learn what issues are most important to residents.
Forum Research Inc. randomly selected and contacted 400 households via random dialling of landlines and cell phones between May 4 and 18. Results from this sample size are representative of North Cowichan’s residents aged 18 and older, within a margin of error of +/-5%. A parallel open link survey was also available, with those results reported separately.
When asked about satisfaction with specific municipal services, fire protection, parks and trails, and recreation and sports facilities scored highest.
When asked about local issues most important to residents, the most cited challenges facing the municipality remained similar to 2022: homelessness and related street disorder (38%), taxes (17%), and community planning, development, and zoning (13%).
Other questions aimed to understand how people connect with the municipality, including when they needed to reach out, pay a bill, or receive information. Social media is the preferred way to get updates from North Cowichan, followed by email subscription, and on the North Cowichan website.
Note: the statistically valid telephone survey results summarized above have been kept separate from the open-link online version of the survey, as the results of the online survey were not obtained via random sampling and may not be representative. A separate summary of the online survey results can be found here: Open link survey results (2026).
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