Strangers will be knocking on your door this month and the city is inviting you to answer their questions.
The 2008 municipal census will be launched today, sending enumerators to every household to gather information on the city’s population. They will collect general information on age, gender and employment status of residents.
Steve Thompson, the city’s director of elections, says an accurate census is critical because a handful of government funding initiatives are based on population figures.
These include an annual policing grant, funding for libraries and a ground ambulance grant that includes a per-capita component. The province’s Municipal Sustainability Initiative, which Premier Ed Stelmach unveiled last year, also uses population figures.
A confirmed spike in population through the census could mean a huge boost to city funding levels, he added. Last year alone, police funding topped $11.4 million.
“We’re talking tens of millions (of dollars),” he said.
A city-based census hasn’t been compiled since 2005, but a federal census recorded Edmonton’s population last year as being 730,372.
–steve.lillebuen@metronews.ca
