The number of Ottawa citizens calling 311 rose in 2010 from 247,933 to 274,030 in 2011 according to an analysis of the 2011 City of Ottawa 311 service request volumes. The volume of calls is on the rise each year because of the growing population in Ottawa.

As the city grows, more and more people are picking up their phones, dialing 311 and complaining about an infraction or something they presume to be a cause for concern.

A video report conducted by CBC Jeff Semple in 2011 showed that complaints over the past ten years have nearly tripled: http://video.ca.msn.com/watch/video/snitch-city/16a5g2ui4.

Semple said that the most amount of calls to 311 dealt with parking. Derek Spalding of the Ottawa Citizen recently uncovered that the noise volume in Ottawa has gone up over the years as well and has compiled data about the some of the noisiest wards.

The story I hope the data will tell is that it’s not only noise or parking that people are calling in to the City of Ottawa about. There are other factors why people are calling in 311, and they include: animals, graffiti, tree maintenance, the rain barrel program and road travelled surface issues.

And with the growing population in Ottawa, these numbers will undoubtedly increase and new issues might arise that people call in 2013 when the data is released in several months.

I plan to look at the 2013 data when released and see if there are any new trends that people have called about.  Maybe some issues that haven’t been called in the past, are becoming more prevalent? Or maybe there are some prevalent issues discussed in earlier years, that aren’t being discussed anymore?

Further, I would like to identify the common issues or complaints people are calling in about in another Canadian province that has a similar or same population per capita as Ottawa. It would be interesting to compare the two cities, side-by-side and see if commonalities arise.

And perhaps, new initiatives are in the works or have already been launched to deter people from calling 311 and the city is advising people to check their complaint online before calling?

In 2011 alone, 13,233 calls were made to 311 in regards to Bylaw Services about animals. Of those 12,233 calls, the highest calls were made from the Rideau-Vanier ward with 1,102 and 939 calls from the College ward.

The highest amount of 311 calls received were about Tree Maintenance with 15,256, Road Travelled Surface (road maintenance) with 14,801 calls and to round out the top three, 14,266 calls were made concerning garbage collection (solid waste collection).

In 2011, a total of 2,800 calls were made about noise. The calls came from the Rideau-Vanier ward and 1,804 calls from the Somerset ward.

Over 2,321 calls were made about graffiti dealing with vandalism in 2011. Those calls originated from the Somerset ward with the most calls in the graffiti (vandalism) category with 220 calls. Alta Vista was the ward with the most calls in the graffiti (offensive) category with 16 calls. And finally, Barrhaven was the ward with the most calls in the graffiti (hate) category with 12 calls.

Data found: http://app06.ottawa.ca/en/city_hall/statisticsdata/opendata/info/service_request/