Local residents feel that the biggest issue the District of Squamish is facing in 2025 is their ability to keep up with the pace of growth of the town.
This was shown in the results from a Citizen Satisfaction Survey which was mailed out to a randomly selected group of residents in April and ended on May 12.
Of the 1,800 surveys that were mailed out, 403 were completed, which gave a response rate of 22%. According to the District, this percentage is a sufficient sample size to generate accurate results of the survey.
The survey results were presented to council on June 24 at the committee of the whole meeting.
What the people had to say
The Citizen Satisfaction Survey showed that 38% of residents feel the most important issue facing Squamish is that amenities, infrastructure and services need to keep pace with growth.
Of the responses, 22% feel the most important issue is the cost of living and housing affordability.
Asked if the quality of life in Squamish meets their expectation, 69% rated the overall quality of life in Squamish as good (51%) or excellent (18%).
Results also showed that 70% of people felt Squamish is a good or excellent place to raise children.
While many said that the quality of life met their expectations, 58% of respondents said that they felt the quality of life had worsened compared to five years ago.
“Among the respondents who felt the quality of life worsened, 44% cited lacking amenities and infrastructure,” the report reads.
On housing security, 79% of people who used the survey felt like they had housing security in Squamish, but 38% of residents felt like there aren’t enough available and affordable housing options.
The top housing issue within the group of respondents was the lack of affordable homes for sale, with 38% of people claiming they felt it impacted them directly; 28% said they cannot afford to upgrade to a larger home for their growing family, and 26% stated there aren’t enough affordable rentals available.
The survey also showed that residents were torn on how to balance rising costs of living, while also maintaining service delivery.
When asked if they were supportive of maintaining current service and investment with increasing taxes, 43% of people said ‘Yes,’ but only 18% said they would like to see council cut or reduce services to achieve less of a tax increase.
Over half of the respondents (56%) had no response when asked if there was anything they would be willing to increase taxes for above the minimum increase, with only 21% stating they “were willing to increase the minimum taxes for recreational amenities, and 11% wanted improved transportation and parking.”
Survey participants were aged between 18 and 75+ years old, with the majority aged between 35 and 44.
Councillor response
The report to council states the goal of the Citizen Satisfaction Survey is “to provide the results to council and staff to help inform strategic planning and budget decisions, and knowledge of priorities that are pertinent to residents of Squamish.”
According to District staff, the last Citizen Satisfaction Survey was completed in 2012.
Municipalities typically send out these surveys every four years, with some opting to complete them every two years.
Squamish councillors voted unanimously to direct staff to receive the survey report and come back with options for a follow-up survey at either an annual, two-year or a four-year interval.
“I’m happy to receive this Citizen Satisfaction Survey. I found it very useful to see the community's perspective result represented in this way as a randomized sample of the community,” Coun. Andrew Hamilton said.
“I certainly heard in this feedback many of the challenges that we know exist: the cost of infrastructure, housing affordability, habitat protection, all of these things. One resounding piece that I've read from this, is the confidence that we're getting good value for the taxes that we pay.”
Coun. Lauren Greenlaw echoed her colleague’s comments and said that the survey acted as a “report card” for how the municipality is performing.
“The major feedback that I see is that people are uncomfortable with the rate of growth, in particular with regards to our available amenities and infrastructure, and that 38% of respondents want to see more contributions from developers,” Greenlaw said.
“And I will point out that 70% of respondents are less than satisfied about our current performance with the parking situations.
“[But] I am happy to see the satisfaction with fire services, RCMP, hazard management, and emergency preparedness, which is great.”
Coun. Jenna Stoner said she was “very excited” to see the results of the survey.
“I feel like this is something that I've been pushing for for a few years,” she said.
“There's room for improvement and that's part of what Citizen Satisfaction Surveys allow us to do, is re-orientate to where we want [to be], to try and lean in and do a little bit better.”
She said one key takeaway from the survey was improving the District’s community engagement.
“It's [about] showing up differently, to have those more in-depth conversations with the community, to build that trust back and that understanding in terms of who does what, who's responsible for what, how we work in advocacy, to our other orders of government,” she said.
“It also brought me a lot of comfort in recognizing that there is a lot of satisfaction living in this community, that there is actually quite a bit of hopefulness. It's a great place to raise children, and there is a lot of support for all the work that public works is doing.”
Looking ahead, District staff plan to incorporate the findings into the 2026-2035 financial plan engagement work.
To read the full Citizen Satisfaction Survey results, visit the
