Lack of financial benefit factors in census cancellation

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on February 16, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Lethbridge city council has cancelled the 2022 municipal census on a recommendation from its Governance Standing Policy Committee.
The matter was addressed Tuesday afternoon by the full sitting of council.
The SPC has given several reasons for that recommendation including the lack of financial benefit to the city, uncertainties with a census software program and the difficulty in recruiting people to conduct the census due to COVID.
The report says data from the 2021 federal census is more comprehensive.
The city has conducted a census almost every year since 1954. The SPC report says the data has gotten the city an average annual provincial and federal grant funding of $423,900. With the average annual cost of the census being $152,324, that means an average net gain to the city of $271,576.
The report says as part of the 2019 provincial budget, the Alberta government announced it would transition from municipal census numbers to a system of provincially developed population estimates to allocate municipal grants.
The estimates were to come into effect in 2021 based on methodology used in other provinces.
The 2019 municipal census, which showed a population of 101,482 people here, was to be used as the basis for 2021 because of COVID as well as 2020 for federal and provincial grants.
The Alberta government, on its website, says Lethbridge last year had a population of 101,799 and had growth of 6.57 per cent over the last five years.
The SPC said a municipal census has value for several reasons because it includes data on a neighbourhood basis and captures a portion of the community, namely students that would otherwise be missed.
It also shows what is happening demographically within different city neighbourhoods.

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