Residents of the Columbia Basin are more pessimistic about their personal circumstances than any time in the past five years, according to a new statistical report by Selkirk College.
This is particularly true in the realm of personal finances.
Seventy per cent of respondents surveyed in 2023 say now is not the time to make a major purchase, and 24 per cent think their financial situation will be worse in six months.
Groups of residents were polled in 2019, 2021 and again in 2023 by Selkirk Innovates.
The report, entitled 2023 State of the Basin Subjective Well-being Report, funded by the Columbia Basin Trust, explores residents' perceptions, experiences, and behaviours related to their personal, economic and community well-being.
In addition to pessimism about their economic prospects, many residents reported a decreasing level of trust within their communities.
The data collected is subjective, and intentionally so, says co-author Jayme Jones, a researcher at Selkirk College.
"It is the perceptions of the residents that live in the region on a wide variety of topics. And what's really helpful is then we can use this, decision-makers can use this, alongside the objective data that we collect."
She said residents' perceptions, combined with more objective data, "give you a more holistic picture of well-being in our region by looking at both."
Residents' increasing concerns about climate change recorded in the surveys, she said, was one driver in the development of Regional District of Central Kootenay's climate change plan. Perceptions about a shortage of child care is also useful to decision-makers, adding to objective data, she said.
The personal well-being section of the survey asked respondents about their satisfaction with their physical health, mental health, their job, the time to do the things they like, and satisfaction with the quality of the local environment. The responses showed a downward trend from 2019 through 2021 to 2023.
The community well-being section asks about the reputation and livability of the community as well as the impacts of climate change, poverty, and the pandemic.
In the community leadership and collaboration index, the 2019-2023 score went from 5.2 to 4.4 out of seven. In the having a say and being heard index, the score went from 5.0 to 4.1 out seven. The sense of belonging index dropped from 5.8 to 5.1.
Jones resists seeing the results as negative because she says residents had high levels of belonging and connection in the first place.
"It's just that it has gone down over the last three polling years. So I don't want to frame this as a negative."
The report also contains questions about the degree of trust and friendliness between neighbours, which saw lowered scores for 2023.
A section on other determinants of well-being included questions about the respondents' perceptions of housing, recreation, arts and culture, childcare, public transport, food availability, volunteering, sense of belonging, public safety, and retail services.
One of the drawbacks of the study, Jones admitted, is that each of the three polls were answered by different people, but she says they each have a sample size that legitimately represents the population.
Nelson community development consultant Mike Stolte, commenting the economic indicators in the report, noted that the report's overall consumer confidence index dropped from 67 per cent to 35 per cent since 2019.
"People are not bullish on the economic future ... it's more negative than it has been in quite some time."
Stolte also noted in the drop in scores for community collaboration and leadership, and the feeling of being heard.
"Going back to the start of the pandemic, governments have become lightning rods for people's anger," he said.
This has accompanied a loss of trust and respect, "which are, I would say, the foundational pillars of community that were eroded during COVID and they take a long time to be built back up. ... All it takes is one bad event and you can easily eliminate years and years of ... community goodwill."
He said he looks forward to a further survey in two years to see if the level of trust has improved, hoping to see an increase in "the sense of neighbourliness, a sense that we can count on our neighbours."
But improvement will take some community-building, said Stolte, including "trust building events and getting out and getting together and having block parties and volunteering, and all those things that build those strong connections, so that when bad things happen you've got that social capital that allows you to weather the storm."
