PENHOLD – The town wants to count you in.
Penhold council recently passed a motion to conduct a 2019 municipal census between April 1 and June 30.
The last municipal census was conducted in 2014 and the last federal census in 2016.
According to the 2016 census profile with Statistics Canada, the Town of Penhold had a total population of 3,277. That was up from 2,375 in the 2011 federal census.
The last municipal census conducted in May 2014 had Penhold's population at 2,842.
The Municipal Government Act allows for municipalities to hold a census, but it is up to the municipality itself to decide when to conduct one, said Penhold mayor Mike Yargeau.
“We try to do one every two years but we had a federal census in between there,” said Yargeau. “So we didn’t do a municipal one (in 2016) because the federal government did one and we got data from them.”
The town wants to conduct a current census to update its population information and provide accurate numbers so it can obtain proper funding from provincial and federal governments, he noted.
“It directly affects the amount of funding you get from the government,” said Yargeau. “MSI funding and a lot of grants are based on your population. So if our population has grown in the last five years, which we know it has, then we’re essentially missing out on money that we would be getting.
“It’s good to have accurate information any time we’re applying for grants or going forward, when we’re trying to attract economic investment,” he added. “We want to be able to show people up-to-date statistics of what’s in Penhold and the population we have.”
This year’s census will be carried out in a couple of different ways, said Yargeau.
“We use a program developed by the City of Airdrie,” he said, noting residents will receive information in the mail, perhaps with their water bill, indicating how they can complete their census form.
“You can log on and fill out the census information (online),” said Yargeau. “Once that phase is complete, we go out in the field where we have people go door to door to collect the information that we haven’t received yet.”
The cost of the 2019 municipal census is expected to be about $10,000.
