Regulations pitbulls: calls to 311 explode

The telephone of the City of Montreal is not ringing off the hook since the announcement of the ban on pit bull type dogs. Since July, nearly a third of calls made to the 311 touch the new animal control regulations, which significantly slowed the metropolis response time to other applications Montrealers, shows a document obtained by La Presse . To the point where nearly one in five hung up before getting a response.

The third calls

From 1 st July to 30 September, no less than 26 500 calls received 311 concerned the introduction of new regulations on dangerous dogs. About 7,000 callers seeking to learn about the ban, while just over 19 000 wanted to save their pet. The City notes that this flood of calls represents “a marked increase this year.” This increase coincides with the announcement at the end of June, that Montreal had banned dangerous dogs, including pit bull types. The Regulation was finally released at the end of August.

Reasons for calls to 311

Animal allowed 30%
Collection of bulky items 12%
Waste collection 11%
Collection of branches 10%
8% tax
Other 29%
Waiting times are getting longer

This explosion of calls was felt in the response time to calls at 311. “The downward trend severely affect the average waiting time in queues for citizens, which increased from less than 2 minutes more 3 minutes for the quarter, “said a city document obtained by La Presse .

In fact, no district has met the standard set by the City, which provides that 80% of calls must be answered within 100 seconds. Montreal noted that the response rate to 311 on time is “& nbsp; in steady decline for several quarters.”

When citizens call 311

87% Weekdays from 8 am to 17 pm 30
7% Weeknights 17 h to 20 h 30
5% Weekends
Bad first impression

The periods of longer and longer to respond to 311 give a bad image of the City to citizens, is outraged the mayor of the borough of LaSalle, Manon Barbe. “The network is not enough, and the first impression of citizens is to wait long for someone to answer them,” lamented the elected at the last council. This emphasizes that his district had the standard answer all calls within 100 seconds. However, during the last quarter, only 32% of calls have met this deadline.

Slow districts

LaSalle is far from being the slowest to respond to the calls of its citizens. It was at Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Pierrefonds-Roxoboro that Montrealers had to be more patient. Both districts have responded to only 20% of calls within the prescribed period. Conversely, even if they have not reached the 80% target, Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension and Saint-Léonard posted the best results: 73% of calls were answered in less than 100 seconds. Note that the mayor of Villeray, Anie Samson, is also responsible for services to citizens Coderre administration.

Nearly one in five hangs

Manon Barbe said to have herself tested the system 311 twice and been blown away by the long delays. She waited six and eleven minutes … before hanging up. She is far from alone: the waiting times have increased so much that nearly one in five people calling 311 hangs up before an attendant answers. The document obtained by La Presse indeed indicates that 53 500 of the 290,900 calls made to the service have been “abandoned”. Not surprisingly, dropouts are particularly numerous in the districts taking longer to answer calls.

Part of abandoned calls

Pierrefonds-Roxboro 40%
Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce 33%
LaSalle 31%
Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie 30%
Montreal Average 18.3%
32 days for an email

Email rather than call the City does not ensure faster processing. Rather, it is better to be patient. The citizens of Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough who contacted them by e-mail had to wait 32 days on average before getting an answer. Pierrefonds-Roxboro has also fared poorly in this regard, taking a little over 23 days. Conversely, Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension was by far the most effective with a response time of less than one day. Montreal sets the objective of responding to emails in two days. Still, e-mail messages still represent a tiny portion of the requests to the City.

Methods to contact the City of Montreal

Telephone 81%
In person 17%
Emails 2%
awaited pilot project

The Coderre administration emphasizes that citizen satisfaction with the 311 remains high, at 86%, according to the most recent city survey. “But we are fully aware of the limits of 311, especially in monitoring queries”, recognizes the elected Harut Chitilian, head of Smart City. It indicates that Montreal is working to implement a pilot project that will build on an online application to facilitate exchanges with citizens. Seven of the 19 boroughs must take part in the pilot project, which will be launched shortly. 311 a unified power project is also under consideration, according to some elected officials. Manon Barbe hopes however that the boroughs retain staff to answer questions that citizens directly formulate them.