Ottawa Wellbeing Report – Leisure & Culture This is part of a series of reports that provide a snapshot of community wellbeing for Ottawa. Following the Canadian Index of Wellbeing framework, each report presents data from the eight domains of wellbeing. These domains are: Community Vitality, Democratic Engagement, Education, Environment, Healthy Populations, Leisure and Culture, Living Standards, and Time Use. This report presents data for the Leisure & Culture domain. Due to gaps in available data at the local level, data are presented on selected indicators within the eight domains of wellbeing. Furthermore, some of the indicators found in Ottawa reports differ from those in the Canadian Index of Wellbeing. In this report, the data are presented for the Ontario part of the Ottawa-Gatineau census metropolitan area (CMA), unless otherwise specified. Where possible, data for Ottawa are compared to those for Ontario and/or Canada.
Key Message •
The percentage of total household expenditures spent on recreation has remained steady at around 6% between 1997 and 2006.
The Canadian Index of Wellbeing recognizes that culture is an important component of individual and community wellbeing (Smale et al., 2010). The domain explores the relationship leisure and culture and wellbeing using four aspects: participation in leisure and recreational activities, perceptions associated with leisure and culture, experience of leisure and culture, and opportunities provided in support of leisure and recreational activities (Smale et al., 2010). The indicators found in this domain encompass these four aspects and include activity participation, time use, visitation, and expenditures on social, arts, culture, and recreation activities (Smale et al., 2010). This report presents selected indicators from the Leisure & Culture domain of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing for Ottawa (refer to Table A1 of the Appendix for a list of indicators). What is the current data telling us? Household expenditures on culture and recreation Participation can be measured in terms of total amount of time devoted to leisure and culture activities or total amount of money spent on such activities (Smale et al., 2010). The Survey of Household Spending collects information on total household expenditures on a wide range of categories, including shelter, food, transportation, health care, arts, culture, and recreation. The CIW indicator is specifically on equipment and services related to arts, culture, and recreation (Smale et al., 2010). However, given gaps in data availability, the indicator presented in this report is expenditure on ‘recreation’ only (Statistics Canada, 2010). Between 1997 and 2006, the percentage of total household spending on recreation has remained steady, around 6%, for Ottawa (Statistics Canada, 2010). The percentage
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showed slight variations during this time and ranged from 5% to 8% (Statistics Canada, 2010). The steady trend found for Ottawa is similar to those found for Canada and Ontario. References Community Foundation of Ottawa. Ottawa’s Vital Signs 2010 – The City’s Annual Checkup. Retrieved from http://www.cfo-fco.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/VitalSigns2010.pdf. Smale, B., Donohoe, H., Pelot, C., Croxford, A., & Auger, D. (2010). Leisure and Culture – A report of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW). Waterloo: Canadian Index of Wellbeing. Statistics Canada. (2010). Table 203-0001 - Survey of household spending (SHS), household spending, summary-level categories, by province, territory and selected metropolitan areas, annual, CANSIM (database). Retrieved from http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a05?searchTypeByValue=1&lang=eng&id=2030001&pattern =2030001#customizeTab.
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Appendix Table A1. A comparison between deadline indicators from the Leisure & Culture domain of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing and the indicators presented in this report. Domain Leisure & Culture
Canadian Index of Wellbeing Headline Indicators Household expenditures on culture and recreation – Expenditures in past year on all aspects of culture and recreation as a percentage of total household expenditures Time spent in social leisure activities – Percentage of time spent on the previous day in social leisure activities Time spent in arts and culture activities – Percentage of time spent on the previous day in arts and culture activities Time spent volunteering for culture and recreation organizations – Average number of hours in past year volunteering for culture and recreation organizations Average monthly participation in physical activity – Average monthly frequency of participation in physical activity lasting over 15 minutes Attendance at performing arts performances – Average attendance per performance in past year at all performing arts performances Visitation to Canadian National Parks and National Historical Sites – Average visitation per site in past year to all National Parks and National Historic Sites Average nights away on vacation – Average number of nights away per trip in the past year on vacation trips to destinations over 80 kilometres from home
Indicators presented in this report Household expenditures on culture and recreation – Expenditures in past year on recreation as a percentage of total household expenditures
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