Citizen photo by David Mah
Not only is a women's recovery centre a benefit to Prince George, it should also be located in the Haldi Road area, suggests an opinion poll conducted by local students.
A group of UNBC political science students released the results of a public opinion poll Thursday that was undertaken as a major part of their Canadian politics and policy class.
Sixty-nine per cent of respondents strongly agreed with the idea that a women's recovery centre would benefit the Prince George community and 48 per cent of respondents strongly agreed with the idea of Haldi elementary school as an acceptable location for such a facility.
Clinton Priestley said classmates found the results surprising.
The students started their poll process with three hypotheses in mind, explained Jennifer Martin: that the neighbours would be opposed to the project, that the key issue with the project was the location and that many common fears associated with the project were the result of NIMBY sentiments.
The poll also suggests the official community plan amendment was contentious, with no clear majority of respondents agreeing on satisfaction with the consultation process or whether the community had opportunity to provide input.
As a learning tool, the poll project was productive, if more than a little time-consuming, students said. Crafting a survey meant to be neutral was also challenging, as the topic was one many people had strong opinions about.
"We had people telling us their views, which was a challenge," said Martin, noting some people also didn't like the questions asked.
A majority of the poll's 248 responses came from outside the Wal-Mart in College Heights, Priestly said, which they picked as a polling place due to the high volume of traffic.
However, he added, a larger sample size would have been preferable. Prior to launching the study, the students said they were hoping to collect closer to 400 responses.
The survey was conducted between Feb. 21 and March 3 and is considered to be accurate to plus or minus 6.3 per cent, nine times out of 10.
