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311 usage signals strong community engagement

There are some statistics that the City of Vancouver loves to brag about, and others not as much. Take bike lane usage figures, for example.
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Thanks to the sheer simplicity of dialing three digits (or sending a tweet to @CityOfVancouver) 311 has made it a lot easier for us to connect with city hall, says Mike Klassen. Photo Dan Toulgoet

There are some statistics that the City of Vancouver loves to brag about, and others not as much.

Take bike lane usage figures, for example.

How many cyclists have used the Burrard Bridge bike lane — is it one million, or one-and-a-half? I’ve lost count of the city’s counts, but there is a page on the city’s website for those who must know.

Statistics that the city are less inclined to talk about are the numbers of homeless people, which have remained stubbornly high for several years now.

Some recent statistics that you would have expected the City of Vancouver to crow about were reported in an oddly negative light.

The 311 call centre service has been experiencing record growth as Vancouverites become more aware of it. Thanks to better efforts at promoting it, more and more of us are dialing, clicking and tweeting the city with questions and service requests.

Almost 120,000 queries were handled in 2015.

The 311 service is relatively young. It is said that former city manager Judy Rogers was the driving force behind getting Vancouver to adopt 311 10 years ago.

She had seen the service in use at the City of Calgary and was convinced it was the right choice for back home.

The report and motion to implement the 311 service was brought to the NPA-majority city council in November 2006. The service was then dubbed “311 Access Vancouver,” and framed by staff as a vital evolution in city services.

The staff report states, “Adoption of 311 Access Vancouver represents an opportunity and an investment in our commitment to citizen service. It will demonstrate Vancouver’s commitment to quality, accessibility, inclusivity, and accountability, and our commitment to be an employer of choice. The ‘excellence in citizen service’ model will affirm Vancouver’s position as a leader in local government improvement initiatives.”

Instead of a cumbersome list of 500-plus telephone numbers, you were promised 24-7 access to city services, in a range of languages commonly spoken here, including Mandarin and Cantonese, the first tongue of more than 27 per cent of Vancouverites.

A translation service exists today for callers who request it.

Back then the Vision Vancouver-COPE members of council were considerably less enthusiastic about the initiative, and fought against its adoption. Coun. Raymond Louie even floated the idea of having 311 go to a public vote.

Judy Rogers’ dream of having 311 revolutionize the connection between city services and the citizens who want them only passed thanks to the NPA’s one-vote majority on council.

All of Vision and the one COPE councillor voted against 311.

When Vision took power in December 2008 it was as if they did not know what to do with this service. It was more than two years into their term as government before you even saw any mention of 311 on the city’s website, for example.

Eventually, the Vision administration came around to embracing 311 — perhaps tantalized by the access to data the call centres provide.

By carefully tracking the subject of the inquiries and where they came from, the city could adjust service levels that would make the public service more efficient.

However, this kind of positive influence 311 has on city services was framed as being “a victim of its own success” and “popular, but costly” in a round of media reports earlier this month.

One report noted how the highest number of 311 calls came from Kitsilano and Kensington-Cedar Cottage (full disclosure: that is my neighbourhood), as if that were a bad thing.

If anything, high 311 usage signals strong community engagement. More of us should pick up a phone or tweet the city to make our surroundings more livable.
Vancouver has been lately doing backflips on how to make its citizenry more “engaged” with mixed results.

Thanks to the sheer simplicity of dialing three digits (or sending a tweet to @CityOfVancouver) 311 has made it a lot easier for us to connect with city hall.

Maybe it’s time for Vancouver to look again at Calgary for new ideas.

Just look at the simple and elegant design of the City of Calgary website if you really want to see a local government that is making great strides in engaging its citizens.

mike@mikeklassen.net 

@MikeKlassen