By the numbers · City of Guelph · 2026
The 2026 Guelph Satisfaction Survey, in plain English
Every couple of years, the City of Guelph asks residents what they think — about their services, their taxes, and their quality of life. The 2026 results are in. Here is what they actually say, with the exact numbers and where each one comes from.
Roads — Guelph's fastest-rising concern
7%→16%
The share of residents naming roads & infrastructure the city's top issue more than doubled in two years — now tied with housing for #1. (City of Guelph 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.13)
Two findings stand out. First, residents — asked to name the most important issue facing Guelph, with no list read to them — put roads and infrastructure at the top of the list, tied with housing. Second, the share of residents who feel they get good value for their tax dollars is the lowest the survey has on record.
This page lays out what the survey found, what the City actually controls, and what the numbers mean for residents — in plain English, with the source for every figure.
Published June 23, 2026· based on the survey reported to Council June 19, 2026.
Roads surged to the top — now tied with housing as Guelph's #1 issue
Nobody handed people a list. The survey asked an open question: what's the most important issue facing Guelph? Residents answered in their own words, and roads and infrastructure jumped to the top.
In 2024, 7% of residents named infrastructure and road construction and maintenance as the city's most important issue. In 2026, that figure was 16% — more than double, and now tied for first with housing at 16%. (Housing, for its part, fell from 33% in 2024.) (Source: 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.13.)
The shift is sharpest among younger residents: 20% of those aged 18 to 34 named roads and infrastructure as the top issue, compared with 8% of residents 75 and older. (Source: 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.13.)
Roads, sidewalks, and the budget behind them are squarely a city responsibility, so residents moving the issue to the top of the list on their own is a signal worth taking seriously.
Guelph's top issue, in residents' own words
Unprompted “most important issue facing Guelph,” 2024 vs 2026
| Issue | 2024 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure & roads | 7% | 16% |
| Housing | 33% | 16% |
Guelph's top issue, 2024 vs 2026 (residents' unprompted answers)
Source: City of Guelph 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.13 (telephone sample, n=601).Guelph nails the nice-to-haves and misses the must-haves
The survey rated 12 city services. The pattern is hard to miss: the services residents most enjoy score near the top, while the bread-and-butter basics households pay property tax for score at the bottom.
The single lowest-rated service in 2026 was road and sidewalk snow removal, at 51% satisfied. Road and sidewalk maintenance was close behind at 55%. At the other end, parks and trails topped the list at 90%, with culture, water and wastewater, and garbage and green-cart collection all at 86%. (Source: 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.26.)
City service satisfaction, 2026 (highest to lowest)
Source: City of Guelph 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.26. Red = the basics households pay for; green = amenities.None of this means Guelph is failing — residents clearly value their parks. The pattern the data shows is simply that the core services property taxes pay for first are the ones residents rate lowest, while the amenities sit at the top.
Value for your tax dollar is the lowest the survey has measured
Here is the number that sums up the whole concern. In 2026, 68% of residents rated the value they get for their municipal tax dollars as good or very good — down from 70% in 2024. Nearly one in three residents, 29%, now rate that value poor or very poor. (Source: 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.43.)
The City doesn't hide the longer trend. Its own information report notes that 68% “represents a decline from pre-pandemic levels in Guelph, where satisfaction reached 80 per cent in both 2017 and 2019.” (Source: City information report, p.4.)
A note on the long-run number, because honesty matters: the 2017 and 2019 figures (80%) and the 2022 figure (78%) were collected by a different polling firm than the 2024 and 2026 figures. So the cleanest apples-to-apples read is the recent one — 70% down to 68% — plus the City's own acknowledgement that the value residents feel has slid over the years. The full slide shouldn't be pinned on any one council as a single straight line.
The residents who feel it most are the ones in their peak earning and mortgage years: among those aged 45 to 54, just 56% feel they get good value. (Source: 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.43.)
And value for tax is only partly a city hall question. Council sets the city's portion of your bill and the value of city services — but your total tax bill also includes the provincially-set education levy and your property assessment, which council does not control. The part City Hall actually owns is its own share of the bill; the question the survey raises is whether residents feel they get good value for it.
“Good value for my tax dollars,” 2017–2026
% rating value good / very good — note the polling-firm change between 2022 and 2024
| Year | Polling firm | Good/very good value |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Ipsos | 80% |
| 2019 | Ipsos | 80% |
| 2022 | Ipsos | 78% |
| 2024 | Forum Research | 70% |
| 2026 | Forum Research | 68% (record low) |
Residents rating value for tax dollars “good/very good,” 2017–2026
Source: 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.43; City information report, p.4. 2017/2019/2022 = Ipsos; 2024/2026 = Forum Research. A change of polling firm can move results on its own, so read across the divider with care.What residents actually want: better value, not cuts
It would be easy to read “value is down” as “people want services slashed.” The survey says the opposite.
Asked to pick how the City should balance taxes and services, a plurality of residents — 41% — said the City should maintain existing programs and service levels even if taxes or user fees have to rise. 37% said the City should not raise taxes or fees even if it means cuts. Just 15% wanted the City to add new programs even if taxes rise. (Source: 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.45; City information report, p.2 and p.5.)
How should the City balance taxes and services? (2026)
Share of residents choosing each option
- Maintain services even if taxes/fees rise — 41%
- No increase even if it means cuts — 37%
- Add new services even if taxes rise — 15%
- Don't know — 7%
| Option | Share |
|---|---|
| Maintain services even if taxes/fees rise | 41% |
| No increase even if it means cuts | 37% |
| Add new services even if taxes rise | 15% |
| Don't know | 7% |
How residents want the City to balance taxes and services (2026)
Source: City of Guelph 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.45; City information report, p.2 & p.5.In other words, the largest group of residents would rather protect what they have than cut it — and almost nobody is asking for an expansion. Meanwhile, overall satisfaction with all city services fell from 88% in 2024 to 81% in 2026, with the share who are “not very satisfied” nearly doubling, from 8% to 15%. (Source: 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.24.)
Taken together, the picture is residents paying more and feeling they get less — while the largest group still wants to protect services rather than shrink them. What the numbers point to is better value for the same dollar, not a smaller city.
The City's own consultant named the to-do list
This list comes from the City's own pollster, not an outside opinion. Forum Research runs a “gap analysis” that finds the services residents weigh most heavily but rate poorly. In 2026 it named three services as the top priorities to improve: building and planning services (56% satisfied), transit (56%), and road and sidewalk maintenance (55%). (Source: 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.26; gap analysis, p.29.)
Two of those three — transit and road maintenance — were flagged in the same priority group in the 2024 survey too. That makes them a pattern across two surveys, not a one-time blip. (Source: 2024 Satisfaction Survey, p.28.)
Forum's “primary areas to improve” (high importance, low satisfaction), 2026
Source: City of Guelph 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.26 & p.29 (gap analysis).Every one of these is something the city can act on. Transit routes, frequency, and fares are set by council. Road maintenance is a core city job. And while provincial law sets the rules for planning, the city controls how fast permits and approvals actually move — a city lever, even where the rules themselves are provincial.
You want to know where the money goes. Barely half feel told.
Residents are clear that they want transparency on spending. In 2024, 87% said they were interested in knowing how municipal tax dollars are invested. But only 54% in 2026 feel the City does a good job explaining it — up just slightly from 51% in 2024. (Source: 2024 Satisfaction Survey, p.44; 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.42.)
That's roughly a 33-point gap between what residents want to know and what they feel they're told. And trust that the City keeps residents informed in an open and transparent way has been stuck at 65% across both the 2024 and 2026 surveys, with 29% saying it does not. (Source: 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.35.)
The transparency gap (2026)
What residents want vs. what they feel they get
- Want to know where tax dollars go87%
- Feel the City explains it well54%
A 33-point gap between what residents want to know and what they feel they're told.
| Measure | Share |
|---|---|
| Want to know where tax dollars go | 87% |
| Feel the City explains it well | 54% |
The transparency gap (2026)
Source: 2024 Satisfaction Survey, p.44; 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.42.This is one of the more fixable findings in the survey, and it costs almost nothing. A plain-language budget that any resident can read — showing exactly what the money buys — is a low-cost lever entirely within the city's hands. Finding out where your taxes go shouldn't require an accounting degree.
Roads and garbage, or Queen's Park? Who actually controls what
It's worth being clear about which levers a city councillor actually holds. Plenty of what frustrates people about Guelph is real — and some of it is decided in Toronto or Ottawa, not at City Hall.
City council controls these
- Road & sidewalk repair + snow removal
- Transit routes, frequency, fares
- Parks, trails & recreation
- Garbage & green-cart collection
- Bylaw & enforcement
- Water & wastewater rates
- How fast permits & approvals move
- The city's portion of your tax bill
City council does not control these
- Cost of living, groceries, interest rates
- The education levy on your tax bill
- Your MPAC assessment — frozen at 2016 values
- Housing prices set by the market
City council controls these:road and sidewalk repair and snow removal; transit routes, frequency, and fares; parks, trails, and recreation; garbage and green-cart collection; bylaw and enforcement; water and wastewater rates; how quickly permits and approvals move; and the city's portion of your property tax bill. These are the levers council can actually pull.
City council does not control these:the cost of living, groceries, and interest rates; the education levy that sits on your property tax bill; your MPAC property assessment; and housing prices set by the market. Notably, the survey's single biggest reason residents say their quality of life has slipped is the cost of living, including taxes and housing — at 30% — which is largely a provincial and economy-wide pressure, not a city hall one. (Source: 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.19; City information report, p.5.)
The honest takeaway is that a councillor can act on the part the city owns: the basics, the services, and the city's share of your bill. That's where the dollar can genuinely be made to go further.
What the numbers add up to
Read together, the survey points one direction: Guelph is a good place to live (89% rate quality of life good or very good, p.14), residents want the basics done well, and they want better value for what they already pay — not a smaller city.
Jon Christensen is running for Ward 5 on what these numbers point to — getting the basics right and better value for what residents already pay. You can read his priorities here.
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About these numbers
The figures on this page come from the City of Guelph's Satisfaction Survey. The 2024 and 2026 results were collected for the City by Forum Research Inc. by telephone, weighted to Census data — the 2026 survey reached 601 residents and is accurate to within about 4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20 (the 2024 survey reached 610 residents). (Source: 2026 Satisfaction Survey, p.4.)
Earlier surveys (2017, 2019, and 2022) were run by a different firm, Ipsos. Where this page compares a recent number to one of those years, it says so, because a change of polling firm can move results on its own. The cleanest comparisons here are 2024 to 2026.
The survey also includes a separate, opt-in online questionnaire. Those results are not used on this page: the City reports them separately and notes they can't represent the city as a whole. Every figure above is from the representative telephone survey.
Finally, these results are city-wide. The survey does not publish ward-by-ward answers, so nothing here is presented as a Ward 5-specific number.
Read the City's own published results and report: City of Guelph — 2026 Satisfaction Survey results.