Census figures show: Towns growing, but RMs shrinking
February 14, 2012, 3:38 am
Kevin Weedmark
Population counts from the 2011 Census were released last week, and they show that, while towns in the region are growing, villages are growing at about half the rate, and rural municipalities are facing declining populations.
The census figures show that towns in the Moosomin trading area had a total population of 6,243 as of the 2011 census, an increase of 457 or 7.9 per cent from five years earlier.
Villages in the area had a total population of 1,450 according to the 2011 census, up by 49 people or 3.5 per cent from the 2006 census.
But RMs are a different story. Rural municipalities in the area had a total population of 5,958 as of the 2011 census, a loss of 146 people or 2.4 per cent. Some individual RMs recorded significant losses of population. The RM of Willowdale went from 333 residents to 297 in five years-a loss of 36 people or 10.8 per cent.
The total population of the area according to the 2011 census is 13,651, up from 13,291 five years earlier. The census figures do not include workers in the area temporarily, such as those working on the $2.8 billion expansion at PotashCorp Rocanville.
The census figures show the area is growing, but paints a different picture of growth in the area than Saskatchewan Health, which tracks population based on the addresses of everyone with a health card.
The 2011 census shows Moosomin with a population of 2,485-up almost 10 per cent from the 2,262 recorded five years earlier, but 400 people short of the 2,891 people Saskatchewan Health believes are living in Moosomin.
Rocanville's numbers are even more out of line with the Saskatchewan Health numbers. According to Saskatchewan Health, Rocanville's population has been rising every year, and stood at 1,250 as of June 30, 2011.
The census numbers, however, indicate that Rocanville's population actually fell, from 869 to 857 between 2006 and 2011.
Rocanville town administrator Monica Merkosky said she can't believe the census number is accurate.
"I'm disappointed in those numbers but I feel that since the census wasn't mandatory they didn't get everyone participating," she said.
"We've had 50 new houses since the last census so there doesn't seem to be any logic to the census number," she said. "It leads me to assume that a number of people didn't fill out the paperwork.
"I would have liked to have seen a different number. We encouraged people to participate in the census. My only explanation is that a lot of people didn't participate."
Census Manager Marc Hamel told the World-Spectator Thursday that there is often criticism of the census numbers in boom towns and mining towns.
"In the case of mining towns we often have migrant workers who will move there for a certain time, but will count themselves at their usual home somewhere else that they consider to be their main home," he said.
"We have observed that in many booming towns before, but without looking at the details it is difficult to say."
He said Rocanville can ask for the census figures to be reviewed if the town feels the numbers look wrong.
"We do have a formal review process in place-it actually started yesterday," he said. "They can ask for Statistics Canada to undertake a review of the count.
"We would not conduct a new enumeration, but will check to see if there is a boundary problem for instance, if people were counted in one municipality instead of another. If there is an error we will publish an errata."
Hamel said StatsCan deals with a lot of requests for reviews.
"We got about 260 requests last time."
Hamel said that, as census takers go through a town, they note every occupied dwelling. If a household doesn't respond to repeated requests to return the census form, the dwelling will be assumed to contain an average number of people.
"Any occupied dwelling for which we don't have a form we will go through a statistical process and we will make a fictitious dwelling," he said.
He believes Rocanville's number may be lower than people expected because of temporary workers and people who work at the mine during the week but live with a spouse elsewhere on weekends.
"Sometimes people count themselves as living somewhere else, because we want to include only people who have their main dwelling at this address," he said. "There are persons with more than one residence, or spouses or common-law partners temporarily away. People working in a mine may not count themselves where they live through the week, but where they go back to on the weekends, and this is where we see a bit of a variance in numbers."
Merkosky believes the number should be higher, however. "When we see that we're growing, and when Saskatchewan Health is saying we're so much higher, it's disappointing to see this result from the census.
"I'm hoping it doesn't have an effect on potential investors. We're in a good position that way-a lot of developers are eager to come here. I don't know if the census results will impact that."
Development is coming to Rocanville, meanwhile.
"We're in the talking stages with some developers who want to put up rental units-apartment buildings and duplexes, which is important because a lot of people coming to town don't qualify for a mortgage," says Merkosky.
"Work is proceeding on the Rise Developments housing project in Rocanville. We've got water and sewer put in. They have 26 lots for new manufactured homes, and we have 22 across the street from them."
