Poll finds 'strong majority' support moving Moncton Public Library
Vanessa Blanch | CBC News | Posted: May 18, 2016 3:27 PM | Last Updated: May 18, 2016
New poll by Corporate Research Associates finds 71% in favour of moving library to old Moncton High School
A "strong majority" of Moncton residents support the controversial proposal to move the Moncton Public Library from Main Street to the old Moncton High School building, according to a new poll.
The Corporate Research Associates poll suggested 71 per cent of respondents said they completely or mostly supported the proposal, while 19 per cent mostly or completely opposed the move.
The remaining respondents said they didn't know.
"The answer is pretty clear on that proposal so it adds to the debate," Mills told Information Morning Moncton.
Mills said no one asked his polling company to include the question on its latest survey, and no outside party paid for the poll.
"Every quarter we do a survey in greater Moncton and we look for the current issues and we try to get a read on public opinion on those issues," Mills said.
"We saw that this was an issue that had been discussed and we thought it would be good to get a read on what the public thought about this issue," said Mills.
The random telephone survey was conducted between April 20 and May 3. CRA surveyed 397 people and the poll is accurate to within ±4.9 percentage points, 95 out of 100 times.
New mayor does not want library to move
Mayor-elect Dawn Arnold said during the election campaign that she doesn't see any need to move the library from its Main Street location.
In an February interview Arnold said the "beautiful" library brings about 200,000 people into the city's downtown every year and those people are crucial to building a vibrant and dynamic downtown.
The proposal to move the library, by MH Renaissance Inc., is supported by Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada, which is interested in being one of the tenants in the cultural centre.
MH Renaissance Inc. president Dennis Cochrane has said the cultural centre in the former high school, with the library as an anchor tenant, would create a new cultural corridor beginning with Downing Plaza along the riverfront and ending at the old Moncton High School and the University of Moncton.
"Starting with Downing, going to the Capitol [Theatre], coming right up through to St. George Blvd., the Aberdeen Centre, Théâtre L'Escaouette, the Discovery Centre, Moncton High, on to the library and University of Moncton," Cochrane said in February.