From May 15 to May 18, 2020, Leger conducted an online survey among residents of British Columbia to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting them, and to assess how comfortable they are with the government’s plans to reopen businesses and other services.
More specifically, some of the topics the survey explores are:
- How well British Columbians think they are doing at following social distancing recommendations, and how well they think the public is doing;
- How the coronavirus is impacting their financial situation;
- Whether they have had difficulties accessing healthcare;
- Their familiarity and comfort with the Government of British Columbia’s current plans to reopen businesses and other services;
- and more.
Key Findings from Our Survey Include:
- One-in-ten feel the public health response has been extreme
- Most people feel the social distancing measures have been effective at slowing the spread of the virus
- One-quarter have experienced difficulty accessing health care, and one third have avoided accessing it
- More than three-quarters are familiar with the government’s plans to reopen the economy, and less than half are comfortable
- Four-in-ten would be willing to use a location-based service on their smartphone to support contact tracing
Survey Methodology
- A total of n=601 surveys were conducted online from May 15-18, 2020 (with an oversample in Metro Vancouver), including n=400 in Greater Vancouver Metro, n=100 in Greater Victoria, and n=101 in British Columbia outside of Greater Vancouver Metro and Victoria.
- As a non-random internet survey, a margin of error is not reported. If the data were collected through a random sample, the margin of error for a sample size of n=601 would be +4.0%, 19 times out of 20.
- Using data from the 2016 census, results were weighted according to age, gender, and region in order to ensure a representative sample of the population.