Census-takers seek a “snapshot” of Nunavut and Nunavik

AARON SPITZER

IQALUIT — Statistics Canada is asking residents of the eastern Arctic to stand up and be counted.

This month, federal census-takers will begin knocking on doors across the North.

They’ll be conducting the first-ever survey of Nunavut’s population, and counting Nunavik’s residents as well.

“The census can be described as a snapshot of the country ,” explained Patricia Simon, who is overseeing the canvassing of Nunavut and Nunavik.

“We want the best coverage. Ideally, we want 100-per-cent coverage.”

Canada conducts a federal census every five years, gathering not just population data but information on residents’ ethnic and linguistic background, religion, employment, income level, and marital status. For Northerners, who will be given what’s called the long form, there will be 51 questions in all.

The last census was in 1996, when Nunavut was still part of the Northwest Territories.

Most Canadians won’t be qui ed with census questions until May 15, but counting kicks off early in the North.

That’s the way it’s been done for a century, explained Simon. The problem with May, she said, is that at that time Northerners are more likely to be out on the land. “So we take the coldest part of the year, hoping that people are staying home.”

There are other ways that the census will be done differently in the Arctic. While each Nunavut and Nunavik household will be visited in person, southerners are counted through a process called sampling. Only one in five households gets a census form, which they fill out themselves and mail back in.

That process doesn’t work in the Arctic, where small populations mean sampling can’t produce an accurate picture of the population.

Nunavut may have few people, but counting them is a big job. Work in the first community, Pond Inlet, begins Feb. 16. The last of the canvassing — in Iqaluit and Qikiqtarjuak — will wrap up March 14.

In Nunavik, enumerators begin work in Kuujjuak on Feb. 18 and finish up in Ivujivik March 16.

Some of the head-counting will be conducted by Southerners who will travel north in the next few weeks.

But much of the work will require employees who are fluent in Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun, and who can transpose the answers given by unilingual residents onto the official English- and French-language forms.

To that end, Stats Canada is in the midst of a hiring blitz, seeking residents of Arctic communities to help with the counting. Each candidate must pass a written test and an oral interview, and then will receive at least 19 hours training in skills ranging from explaining questions to properly recording data.

They’ll also learn about the importance of keeping what they learn confidential. They’ll even take an oath, promising not to betray people’s trust in them.

Confidentiality, Simon said, “is a big, big, big priority. We have a really good record of this.”

Though responding to the census is required by law, Simon said, “We don’t menace people with that fact.”

Census takers will work to accommodate residents’ schedules, she said. “Our purpose is not to twist arms… We’re persistent and we’re nice.”

After the information is collected and the numbers are crunched the census results become available to the public. The first statistics — the population tallies — will be released in the spring of 2002. Further figures will be published in reports after that.

Census information is used for a variety of purposes. Governments — from Ottawa to the hamlets — use it to determine how to dole out transfer payments and plan for future projects.

Industry can examine the data to spot trends in consumer demand, while academics use the figures to analyze social phenomena like language loss or population migration.

For that reason, said Simon, the main aim of census officials is to be accurate.

“I guess you probably can’t count every single solitary person,” she said. “But we’re going to come very, very close.”