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(Hamilton) A new poll shows that residents of the new city of Hamilton say the citys own employees would do a better job than private contractors hired by the city.

The poll, conducted by Vector Research for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 5167, shows that two out of three people across the new city say that public employees would do a better job of running sewage treatment, collecting garbage, and maintaining the quality of drinking water.

The findings are consistent for all eight of the public services measured in the poll.

Residents were also asked whether they felt the Transition Board should have the power to apply its recommendations and make them official policies of the new city, or just make recommendations and let the new city council make those decisions. By nearly 3-1 (63% to 23%) people in the new city oppose giving the Board power to implement its recommendations.

On the question of private versus public delivery of services, people were surveyed on the following services:

Maintaining quality of drinking waterPublic - 67% support Contractors 22%
Running the sewage treatment plantPublic 65% Contractors 28%
Collecting residential garbagePublic 63%Contractors 31%
Taking care of the elderlyPublic 60%Contractors 30%
Maintaining parks, golf courses, rinks, pools, etc.Public 59%Contractors 35%
Cleaning and repairing streets & roadsPublic 55% Contractors 37%
Clearing snowPublic 54%Contractors 37%
Running the citys recycling programPublic 48% Contractors 45%

The findings in this poll are based on telephone interviews conducted from July 27 through to August 2 (2000), with 300 adults throughout the cities scheduled to amalgamate into the new city of Hamilton. A sample of this size has an accuracy of 95%, or plus/minus 5.7%.

For information:
Gus Oliveira, President, CUPE Local 5167
(905) 522-0917 (o)
John McCracken , CUPE Communications Rep.
(416) 292-3999 (o)
Marc Zwelling, Vector Research
(416) 733-2320 (o)

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