Mayor Meed Ward interprets the community survey (2023).

The City of Burlington pays Deloitte to conduct a statistically valid committee survey. When I look at the survey I can see 82% of respondents want to maintain or cut services. When the mayor looks at the survey she sees that “57% of Burlington residents were in favour of increases to taxes OR services”. The clever use of the word OR allows the mayor to ignore the 43% of residents who want to cut services.