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Highlights:

 

SLIDE 2 (Methodology)

Polling was conducted by Harris/Decima from April 26 to May 5 of this year and covered an array of issues and topics related to the provincial budget which came down on March 26.

Harris/Decima is one of Canada’s largest full-service research firms and is among the country’s most established names in public opinion and market research.

The poll consists of 503 randomly selected residents of Newfoundland and Labrador via telephone.

The poll is accurate to plus or minus 4.4%, 19 times out of 20

Of particular note is that there is a fairly equal and uniform breakdown along key demographic characteristics:

• Gender
• Age
• Urban or rural
• Region
• Union / Non Union

 

SLIDE 6 (Support for Provincial Budget)

This slide highlights the results regarding the public’s opinion of the most recent provincial budget. The results are clear.

Respondents overwhelmingly showed little support for the budget with 71% saying they oppose or strongly oppose it.

20%, representing 1 in 5 residents of this province, said they were strongly opposed to the budget.

Only 2% said they strongly support the budget.

As you can see, opposition to the budget is high across all key demographic indicators.

SLIDE 8 (Oversight on Provincial Budget)

Harris/Decima asked if the government conducted proper study and consultation prior to the decisions announced in the most recent budget?

Again, the results were clear.

84% of the respondents said that the government did not conduct proper consultation and study prior to making the decisions contained in the budget.

Again, numbers were high across all demographic indicators.

SLIDE 9 (Reviewing the Cuts in Budget)

As this slide indicates, people were asked if they thought that the government should review all of the cuts announced in the budget?

The vast majority of the respondents polled, 81% overall, said that the government should review the cuts announced in the budget.

Since the budget came down, NAPE has been calling on the government to review all cuts and layoffs. This sentiment is clearly supported by the general public.

SLIDE 11 (Support for Cuts in Budget)

This slide refers to people’s opinions regarding the cuts contained in the budget.

The question posed to respondents was: Based on what you have seen or read, how strongly do you support or oppose the proposed cuts?

As you can see from this slide, 79% of respondents who had seen or heard about proposed staff cuts showed some level of opposition to the cuts contained in the budget.

41% of respondents said that they strongly opposed the cuts, while only 3% overall said that they strongly supported the cuts in the budget.

SLIDE 14 (Impact of budget on Services)

Respondents were asked if the cuts would have an impact on the delivery of public services in the province. 

84% said it would have an impact on the public services of this province.

Of these people, 55%, representing over half of the people in this province overall, said that it would have a major impact on the public services.