Airdrie’s quality-of-life rating dropped to 68 per cent in the 2025 resident satisfaction survey, conducted by Y Station Communications and Research. The result marks a decline from 2023, when 73 per cent of residents rated their quality of life highly.
The mean satisfaction index was 2.99 out of five, according to Y Station Communications and Research, which presented the biennial findings to council on Tuesday. In 2023 the mean was 3.90.
The 400-response study was conducted between April 1 and 18 using a mix of landline and social media-linked outreach. The final dataset was statistically weighted.
"Our final data set was then weighted to ensure that proper demographic representation of the actual population," said Y Station principal Tracy With.
An additional 806 open-link submissions were received but excluded from weighted results.
"We just have to be careful, because those are not considered statistically reliable and valid," she said.
"This study is completed in response to the City of Airdrie’s commitment to ensuring a positive quality of life and dedication to residential satisfaction with municipal services."
The resident survey is conducted under the city’s AirdrieONE governance framework, which directs administration to "conduct the citizen survey on a regular basis to accurately track citizen concerns and priorities" and ensure "community stakeholders feel heard and that their input has been considered in decision-making."
Forty-seven per cent of respondents rated Airdrie an eight, nine or 10 as a place to live on a ten-point scale.
"Very nice to see that still hold true at 47 per cent for Airdrie," With said.
Public engagement participation more than doubles
Resident satisfaction with public engagement scored a mean of 3.25 out of five.
"Nice to see our somewhat or very satisfied factors sitting around that 40 per cent mark," With said. "Very consistent over the years, even just staying in those solid numbers."
Forty-three per cent of respondents said they had participated in engagement opportunities in the past year, up from 17 per cent in 2023.
"Big boost in those that have been involved in public engagement opportunities up from 17 per cent to 43 per cent," With said.
Among those who participated, 45 per cent cited the survey itself. Twenty-one per cent referenced other city-related engagement. Thirteen per cent attended public meetings, hearings or forums. Eight per cent attended open houses, and five per cent cited the municipal census.
"What is it that they participated in? Our survey — which warms my heart."
"I love that folks are thinking the census is engagement… and I guess in some way it is."
Twenty per cent of respondents said they could not recall how they had engaged.
"We are tending to see open houses become a little less on the radar when it comes to municipal engagement."
Growth, congestion, taxes and crime among top concerns
Respondents cited Airdrie’s rapid growth, traffic congestion, taxes and criminal activity as key reasons for declining quality of life.
"We hear about the rapid growth of the city, that it’s being crowded," With said. "This is going to happen in a city the size of Airdrie that… continues to grow year over year."
Traffic congestion was cited by 13 per cent of respondents, down five points from 2023. Taxes were mentioned by 11 per cent.
"We did have a federal election on or around some of the survey collections, so that would definitely have an impact on our taxes question."
Recreation access was mentioned by 10 per cent, and criminal activity by nine per cent — also down five points from 2023.
"We did see a bit of a change from the ‘remain the same’ category slide into ‘decreased.’"
Nineteen per cent cited availability of services and amenities as contributing positively to quality of life. Eighteen per cent pointed to parks and trails. Thirteen per cent highlighted Airdrie’s low crime rate. Eleven per cent referenced city growth. Ten per cent mentioned the small-town or small-city atmosphere.
"They do mention that again in our next slide, but they like to make sure you hear it, so they put it in both the positive and the negatives," With said.
Fire, parks, waste and RCMP rank highest; transit, arenas and website lowest
High-satisfaction, high-importance services identified by residents included:
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Airdrie Fire
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RCMP
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Utility services
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Parks, pathways and open spaces
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Outdoor recreation facilities
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Garbage, recycling and organics collection
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Recycling depot program
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"In terms of the green dots, those are high importance and high satisfaction," With said. "The recycling depot program — again, very unique to Airdrie. We don’t see those come up in those key strengths areas very often."
Lower satisfaction services that ranked high in importance included winter and summer road maintenance, and Genesis Place.
"Winter [maintenance] significantly improved… but it is still an area of improvement."
The following services showed year-over-year declines:
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Town and Country Centre
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Genesis Place
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City website
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Ron Ebbesen and Plainsmen arenas
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Airdrie Transit
"Those were where we tended to see a little bit of a change in those services over time."
Coun. Tina Petrow questioned how snow and ice control could appear in both improvement and low-satisfaction categories.
"It was interesting to see that snow and ice control came up as low satisfaction… but on the slide right before, it said it was a dramatic increase from year over year," she said. "Those two things completely contradict each other."
"While it increased, it is still one of the lowest factors that we measured for Airdrie," With said. "Even though winter snow maintenance improved, it has a long way to go to catch up to something like Airdrie Fire."
"So it is a comparative analysis… when we compare all of these factors in one table, that is still one of the ones that has lower satisfaction and high importance."
Residents split on whether to raise taxes, cut services or maintain status quo
The average satisfaction score for value for taxes was 2.98 out of five. With noted the number was not directly comparable to prior years due to a return to a five-point scale.
"We’re redistributing the numbers here just a little bit."
Asked what strategy the city should adopt, residents responded as follows:
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24 per cent: increase taxes to enhance or expand services
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23 per cent: increase taxes to maintain current service levels
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17 per cent: cut services to maintain current taxes
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18 per cent: cut services to reduce taxes
"These are all very tightly clustered," With said. "I would be careful in terms of any planned tax increases. This isn’t a wholesale go crazy. It’s not a fire sale."
"But it does give you that latitude to look at where you’re able to enhance or expand your services, or at least to maintain — as opposed to cutting."
Council flags contradictions; administration to integrate findings into 2026 plan
Petrow also raised concern about the lack of clarity around public mentions of rezoning.
"What is happening with rezoning? Is that we’re rezoning too much? We're not rezoning enough?"
"To be able to make some positive momentum forward to address the concerns, it’d be really great to know what that means."
"We have verbatim responses attached to all of these comments… we can go through and pull those… scrubbed of any specific information that would allow you to identify which respondents are mentioning those," With said.
Petrow said the in-person explanation made the data more useful.
"It’s one thing to read it, but then to have you actually go through it is a completely different way of interpreting the information."
Mayor Peter Brown said the survey reflected expected challenges of a fast-growing city.
"We’re bound to have some of these growing pains."
"You approved the schematic design for the next phase of the rec centre… Inspire is open [in the fall]… it’ll be interesting to see next year if this changes slightly with the recreational opportunities or people saying that there are things that are being done in our community."
"I have not met one person who’s just moved here who says I don’t like the community… they never say anything but positive things to me."
Chief Administrative Officer Horacio Galanti said the results would be used to inform council’s next strategic plan.
"There’s a lot of lessons learned here… some specific areas to focus and great information to use as a foundation."
"Some relatively easy wins, but also the deeper, more foundational items, I think could be part of the next strategic plan for council, because it’s a multi-year approach..."
Council received the 2025 Resident Satisfaction Survey presentation for information.
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