Dear Editor,
Re: “Citizens, chamber sound off over project,” News, Feb. 26.
The City of Surrey recently put out a news release stating “City of Surrey residents support the bridge.” The survey this statement was based on was conducted by Insights West on only 600 pre-selected respondents, making it statistically unreliable at best and intentionally deceptive at worst. Further, the only question on the survey, “Do you support construction of a bridge to replace the Massey tunnel” does not offer the alternative of expanding the tunnel, and there was no information about the cost of constructing a bridge versus the cost of expanding the tunnel.
Now, the Richmond Chamber of Commerce has made a similar declaration based on a survey of its members, using the exact same question. Rob Akimow, of the Chamber, declares that 87 per cent of decided respondents favour a bridge, but, again, an expanded tunnel was never offered as an alternative.
Even discounting that, only 16 per cent of the Richmond Chamber’s 1,000 members responded, which means that less than 160 responded, and less than 140 responded in favour of a bridge without the tunnel being offered as an alternative.
Shame on the Chamber of Commerce for producing such fundamentally deceptive media releases.
N Herman
Richmond
