City Of Calgary And Environics Research Receive National Award For Cannabis Study
The City of Calgary and Environics Research have been recognized by the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA) with the 2018 Award for Excellence in Public Policy and Government.
The City of Calgary and Environics Research have been recognized by the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA) with the 2018 Award for Excellence in Public Policy and Government.
The award, which was presented at the MRIA’s annual conference in Vancouver, recognizes The City of Calgary and Environics Research for their successful collaboration on a study exploring how Calgarians feel about regulating cannabis once it becomes legal for recreational use in Canada later this year.
The City of Calgary is a pioneer among Canadian cities, proactively studying Calgarians’ attitudes towards issues such as public cannabis consumption, home growing, enforcement and taxation. For this study, Environics’ Corporate and Public Affairs team worked closely with members of The City of Calgary’s Corporate Research Team and the Community Standards business unit to develop a comprehensive, integrated study that fully explored how Calgarians felt about these issues. This included a survey of Calgary residents; focus groups with medical and recreational cannabis users (as well as non-users); and in-depth interviews with those looking to invest in cannabis retail operations. The study featured several innovative approaches, including using social media ads to recruit cannabis users, and using Environics’ proprietary Social Values (SV) system to better understand the underlying attitudes, behaviours and motivations of Calgarians.The City of Calgary has used the results of this study to shape its approach to setting bylaws around public cannabis consumption and home growing. Its approach is being closely watched by other Canadian municipalities as they consider how to manage the impacts of cannabis legalization.
We were proud to partner with The City of Calgary on this ground-breaking study, and congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition.