Registrations down for cultural and recreational activities!

 Gatineau is reporting a drop of 12% in registration for its spring cultural and recreational activities, compared to spring 2015. Registrations dropped from 10,928 to 9,622 in 2016.

Furthermore, 145 courses were cancelled in 2016 for lack of registration, compared to 109 in 2015. This represents a cut of 33%.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly why, but it appears the city must change the way it gets its information out to the public.

City council will be looking at this situation, resulting from having the program web-based since 2015. Paper copies are still available in some municipal buildings but the catalogues are no longer  distributed throughout the city. People aren’t seeing the program.

Formerly, the City distributed 105,000 copies in French and 20,500 in English. According to a Léger Marketing 2011 survey, 70% of households consulted the program, while 30% didn’t see it at all. The same survey indicated that 57% of citizens agreed that the catalogue should only be available online.

Since 2015, the call centre 3-1-1 received four complaints on the fact that the catalogue wasn’t distributed to households.

An electronic copy of the spring 2016 catalogue, as well as relevant information, is presently available on the City’s website. Since winter 2015, registration can only be done online.

Turning to the web, which should be totally implemented in 2017, will save Gatineau over $160,000 annually starting in 2018, although fewer people will be served.  (Transl. : CB)