Waterloo Region Polling
Cambridge | Kitchener | North Dumfries | Waterloo | Wellesley | Wilmot | Woolwich
Jump to the poll results:
• Speed Limits: Reduction & Decision Process
• Waterloo Region District School Board: Responsibility, Trustee Feedback & Alternative Interest
• 2 Tier Government Structure: Preferences, Advantages & Disadvantages
• Poll Methodology, Distribution, Sample Details

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Speed Limits

1430 people in Waterloo Region responded, as follows:
Additional Details:
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Kitchener Ward Breakdown
Waterloo Ward Breakdown
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Both Waterloo & Kitchener City Councils have voted recently to lower speed limits in residential areas from their previous 50 km/h limit. Waterloo Council chose to reduce the speed to limit to 30 km/h while Kitchener Council chose to reduce to 40km/h. How do you feel about the residential speed limit reduction?

1414 people in Waterloo Region responded, as follows:
Additional Details: View exact question presentation
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Prior to Waterloo Council voting on the speed limit change, the City engaged in public consultation that received over 1000 resident responses. When asked about their preference, residents responded as follows: 41% preferred reduction to 40km/h with 30 km/h in school zones 29% preferred reduction to 30 km/h on residential roads & school zones 5% supported either option 24% rejected both options City staff (led by Jenny Setterfield: Manager, Transportation Engineering) analzyed the options, resident feedback, stakeholder feedback (GRT, Fire Dept, Police, School Boards etc) feedback and consulted industry experts. City staff made the recommendation to City Council to reduce the speed to 40 km/h. [City Staff Report, pg 64] [City Staff Video Presentation] The City of Waterloo Council voted (5 for, 3 against) to reduce residential speeds to 30 km/h [June 13 Council Meeting Minutes, pg 7] How do you feel about the difference between public preference / city staff recommendation (40kmh in residential areas with 30kmh in school zones) & the final Waterloo Council vote (30kmh in both residential and school zones)?

745 people in Waterloo Region wrote ~14,000 words in response to being asked
"In situations where City Council takes an action that is different from public opinion and/or from staff recommendation, what action(s) (if any) should City Council take to help the public understand the difference?"
 A word cloud of the responses weighted by recurrence looks like:

Waterloo Region District School Board

877 people in Waterloo Region responded, as follows:
Additional Details: View exact question presentation

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'School boards are responsible for student achievement and well-being, safe and inclusive school climates, ensuring effective stewardship of the board’s resources, and delivering effective and appropriate education programs for their students.' [Source: Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, pdf page8] How do you feel WRDSB delivers on above responsibilities?
Viewing the WRDSB parent responses by geography appear as follows:
Additional Details:
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Kitchener Ward Breakdown
Waterloo Ward Breakdown
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'School boards are responsible for student achievement and well-being, safe and inclusive school climates, ensuring effective stewardship of the board’s resources, and delivering effective and appropriate education programs for their students.' [Source: Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, pdf page8] How do you feel WRDSB delivers on above responsibilities?

442 people wrote a total of >10,000 words in response to being shown (see exact presentation) the official role of school trustees & then being asked:
"Is there anything you’d like to communicate to WRDSB Trustees about what they should focus on? What are they doing well? What needs improvement?"
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'School boards are responsible for student achievement and well-being, safe and inclusive school climates, ensuring effective stewardship of the board’s resources, and delivering effective and appropriate education programs for their students.' [Source: Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, pdf page8] How do you feel WRDSB delivers on above responsibilities?

A word cloud of the responses weighted by recurrence looks like:

Next, we asked to what degree the respondents were interested in alternative schooling options (see exact presentation). Filtering for current & future parents, the responses appear as follows:
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Next, we asked to what the biggest barriers to pursuing alternative schooling are (see exact presentation). Filtering for those interested in alternative schooling, the responses appear as follows:
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Two Tier Government Structure

696 people in Waterloo Region responded, as follows:
Additional Details: View exact question presentation

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We asked what the advantages/disadvantages are of a two-tier government structure (see exact presentation). the responses appear as follows:

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Poll Details

Methodology:
The poll was distributed between August 18th & August 31st via the following methods:
• Ads on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The ads were geographically restricted to only be displayed within Waterloo Region. In order to cast the widest net possible within our Region, no other targeting was used (e.g. age, gender, etc).
• By email to residents who have previously opted-in or subscribed to receive our polls
• Physical door-hangers were delivered to several hundred households in areas that had low turnout using via the digital methods listed above
You can view the exact ads used for distribution on Twitter: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] , Facebook: [1] [2] [3] [4]. and LinkedIn: [1] [2] [3] [4]. Here's what the door hangers looked like.

Sample Size: 1568 usable responses resulted from running Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn ads, door-hangers and the email campaign which was sent out to subscribers. An additional 106 responses were received that were not used as they were identified as duplicate submissions or came from locations outside the Waterloo Region. Not every respondant answered all topics, so topic specific sample size is specified in the topic results presentation below.

Known Sample Bias:
• While several hundred door-hangers were distributed with details on the poll topics and how to participate, most responses came in via digital outreach (emails to subscribers, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn). This creates bias towards residents who are frequently online.
• The poll was distributed only in English, thereby limiting engagement from non-English speakers.
• Respondents needed to be interested enough in the poll topics to choose to participate. Those not interested in speed limits, school board or government structure may not be well represented in our sample.
• Cambridge residents are underrepresented in the sample (in large part due to above point, since the speed limit changes and polling were specific to Kitchener & Waterloo)

We have additional data analysis available. If further data or analysis could be useful to you to help make Waterloo Region the best it can be, please reach out to us at contact@waterlooregionpolling.ca. Per our terms/privacy policy, we will never share personal information but we will do our best to enable anonymized/aggregate data to be used to help Waterloo Region decision makers and stakeholders.

Are you interested in commissioning your own local poll or recommending topics we should poll on? Let us know by emailing contact@waterlooregionpolling.ca and we'll work together to make it happen.