Staff recommend reinstating the municipal census every two years, starting in 2027, with total costs ranging from $10 million to $13 million
The civic census could be reinstated in Calgary, as councillors prepare to consider the idea this week.
A staff report going before the city’s executive committee on Wednesday recommends conducting the municipal census every two years, starting in 2027.
“I firmly believe having a census is vital to both planning and understanding changes to Calgary’s population, but also to help us plan our resources and services,” Wong said Friday. “It’s a vital data point for us.”
The next federal census is slated for 2026.
The report notes that bringing the citywide count back would provide valuable insights into Calgary’s population and demographic trends. It argues the data would help the city match municipal services with the needs of residents and businesses and better respond to population growth.
“Calgary is experiencing rapid growth and the five-year interval between federal census collections is not frequent enough to provide the required information needed to inform delivering municipal services,” the report states.
“Census data will benefit not only the city, but also support other public, private and institutional users with valuable data for research, planning and service delivery.”
Cost options to consider
The report outlines three options for the committee’s consideration, including conducting the survey internally or outsourcing much of the work.
Startup costs would be about $4.5 million in 2025-26 for an internally run census with software that is created in-house, or $700,000 for an internal census that uses licensed software.
The first option would cost approximately $4.2 million to conduct the biennial census starting in 2027, according to the report, meaning the total funding required from 2025 to 2030 for the program would be $12.9 million.
Opting for a city-conducted census with licensed software would not require as high of startup costs, but the report indicates the biennial budget would be slightly higher at $4.9 million, starting in 2027. Funding needed between 2025 and 2030 for this option would amount to $10.5 million.
However, administration is recommending a third choice; to contract out both commercial software and some or all of the processing work. City staff “would prepare the census, manage contracts and data, and participate in some aspects of conducting the census,” according to the report, with additional support from the contractor.
“Census data would be collected with the licensed software and stored temporarily with the software provider, then destroyed after it has been transferred to the city,” it states.
This option would have the same $700,000 startup cost as the second option, but would cost the city $5 million every two years, amounting to a $10.7-million program budget from 2025 to 2030, the report states.
Councillor argues in favour of collecting data
If the motion receives the committee’s majority support Wednesday, it would advance to a future council meeting for further debate and a vote.
Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said he supports bringing back the census. He recalled that when the previous council voted to discontinue the program in 2020, the city was still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and other economic challenges.
“We were still not recovered from the downturn in the oil and gas economy and had a very austerity-minded council that was coming up to a civic election,” he said. “Cutting was the flavour of the day.”
Conducting a civic census allows the city to make better informed and more timely decisions than relying on federal data every five years, Carra argued.
“There’s always going to be pushback about spending more money, but I think we have to consider the pros and cons of every expense,” he said.
“You can have a government that tries to ride the wave of public opinion in the moment or you can have a government that takes deep consideration of where we come from, where we’re at, where we’re going and where we need to go. Without data, you can’t have that kind of government.”