Article content continued

“There’s still a lot of Calgarians who don’t feel safe, or they feel threatened because of the colour of their skin or their religious affiliation or their sexual orientation,” she said. “And we’re feeling that and seeing that all over the world right now. We’re becoming increasingly polarized, but obviously that’s being felt at a local level as well.”

The report indicates 28 per cent of survey respondents “often or sometimes feel uncomfortable because of our religion, ethnicity, skin colour, culture, language, accent, gender or sexual orientation.”

Photo by Darren Makowichuk/Postmedia/File

However, this year’s study also contains positive news, Barrie said. For example, 69 per cent of those surveyed feel quality of life in the city is good or excellent, and 68 per cent think the city is a great place to raise children.

“People are rating their quality of life quite high,” she said. “They feel like Calgary is a great place to raise their kids. If you are a senior in our city, you also have a really high quality of life, and you have a really strong sense of belonging…We’re doing really well when it comes to our arts scene. Calgarians really celebrate arts events, festivals.”

But other concerns identified in the survey include findings that half of Calgarians feel unable to access timely mental health care.

“Some issues that seem to come up every year are things like mental health, and Calgarians feeling like they don’t have access to mental health care in a timely manner,” said Barrie. “So even if they know where to go, that they’re not getting it when they need it.”