Each year, almost 8 million people participate in events and activities held in Toronto parks, stadiums and facilities as part of the City’s permitting process.
With the many pressures and demands on parks and facilities, the permitting and booking process helps balance planning, scheduling and use in a fair and equitable manner for both active and passive users. Permits prevent conflict between users and contribute to the maintenance and operations of parks and facilities.
As part of our review, we have been engaging permit holders since July of 2016 through our consultation process and as a result, we’ve heard from almost 2000 permit holders on what they liked about the process and what they would like to see changed.
Seventy-two per cent of permit holders are satisfied with their experience. 14 per cent are not satisfied. (The remaining 14 per cent are neither satisfied nor unsatisfied).
Customers who are applying for a Special Event or One Time Use Permit are slightly more dissatisfied than those applying for a Seasonal permit. This seems to be due to the complexities of booking a Special Events permit and interpreting the numerous rules; which you’ve told us is daunting, especially for someone who is applying for a permit for the first time.
Forty-seven per cent of permit holders begin the process over the telephone but they would like to switch to online if it was available. The website is the primary source for information and online is the preferred channel to contact us. Not surprisingly, the more contacts people have to make to obtain a permit, the less satisfied they are with the service.
In general, permit holders are happy with the service they receive from the staff. 84 per cent thought our staff were courteous and helpful and 80 per cent found staff to be knowledgeable. In fact, many surveys mentioned staff positively by name and we aim to continue to build on that great relationship.
There were four key themes identified as opportunities for improving the level of satisfaction with the permitting process and these are the areas where people would like us to focus our initial attention.
Thank you to everyone who participated in all of our consultations. Your feedback is important to us and will contribute to the changes we will be making to the permitting process. We are committed to making permitting better.