Calgary Conversations: Celebrating 20 years of 311

CALGARY – As Calgary 311 celebrates 20 years in service, Calgary Conversations – the City’s podcast – takes a look at how the system has grown over the past two decades, how it continues to change to meet the needs of Calgarians and some of the lighter calls that have taken place along the way.

The City’s 311 line launched in May of 2005 bringing more than 500 separate phone numbers into a one-stop-shop of information.

“Since that time, we have been able to incorporate 300 different languages in our translation services,” said Acting 311 Manager Patricia Scott.

“These days, 311 is so much more than just a phone service. We have the 311 app, where Calgarians can report a concern, describe it, upload photos and the user can monitor the progress of the concern.”

All service requests, dating back to Day 1, are available for 311 agents to view for historical reference and a current 311 dashboard is available on calgary.ca  so Calgarians can view in real-time the locations and status of 311 calls.

In 2024, 311 received 944,440 calls that were handled by 50 full-time agents and another 45 on-call agents. Calls range from filling a pothole to tax inquiries to swim lessons information and recycling. The average wait time for 311 is 39 seconds, a dramatic drop from last year’s average of nearly six minutes. Scott says training has really helped bring the wait times down.

With so many calls each-and-every day, there are bound to be some curve balls.

“We’ve had people call in asking how they can cook their frozen turkey, because dinner is in three hours and we've had kids calling to see if we can help them with their social studies homework,” says Scott, who adds that the turkey client did get some off-the-book recipe tips from the agent.

“We recently had a gentleman call in to see if we could recharge his solar panels.”

A point of pride for Scott is that 311 is Calgarians helping Calgarians.

“Our offices are located right here in Calgary and they are staffed by Calgarians and we answer questions for Calgarians,” said Scott.

Check out the full podcast episode here or download it from your favourite podcast platform.

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