Incorrect census numbers remain on StatsCan website

Corrected numbers have not replaced incorrect counts, but are posted separately

May 24, 2023, 9:02 am
Kevin Weedmark

The incorrect numbers remain on the census profile online for each affected community.

While Statistics Canada has corrected census numbers for many communities across the country, the incorrect numbers remain on the census profile online for each affected community.

Communities with revised numbers were told by Statistics Canada that the information would be corrected. “Statistics Canada has undertaken a detailed investigation and confirmed that the population and private dwelling counts were incorrect,” Lise Rivais of Statistics Canada wrote to the town of Moosomin

“The investigation found that 74 private dwellings were missed by census enumerators, 70 of which are estimated to be occupied by 117 usual residents. Those 74 private dwellings will be added to the total dwelling counts for Moosomin and 117 additional persons will be added to the population count.”

But rather than replace the incorrect information on each municipality’s community profile, Statisics Canada still has the incorrect population and household counts, with a footnote at the bottom of the page, after hundreds of lines of incorrect information, stating “use with caution,” with a link to a page where the user can scroll down and find the correct information for the community.

“How is the average person supposed to know what that E is for?” asked Moosomin Mayor Larry Tomlinson.

“It looks like they don’t care about people getting the right information, they just did this to appease us, telling us they would correct the information, and then not really correcting it.

“What’s the point of keeping the wrong information there on their website? They already admitted they were wrong. It’s just ridiculous. I don’t know what to think about it. It certainly doesn’t fix the problem.”

The World-Spectator requested an interview with François-Philippe Champagne, the federal minister responsible for Statistics Canada, on the agency website continuing to display incorrect census information, and on other issues with the 2021 census, but the request was declined.

“Thank you for sharing your request with us. After consideration, the Minister’s office has respectfully declined your request to interview Minister François-Philippe Champagne at this time,” a media relations officer wrote.

If you look up on Statistics Canada’s website the 2021 census population of Carievale, or any other community that has had its census population revised, you will find incorrect information. For Carievale, StatsCan shows a population of 85, which is about a third of what StatsCan admits is the actual population of Carievale, 244. The small E beside the 2021 population and the line claiming a 64.6 per cent decrease in population since the last census is meant to take readers to a footnote hundreds of lines down.

Rather than indicate the numbers are actually false, the footnote simply tells readers to “use with caution” then links to another webpage with revised numbers.

On that page, you can scroll down to find Saskatchewan, and to find the numbers for Carievale, corrected from 85 to 244, along with corrected household counts.