Gray says Moosomin needs to get ready for 2026 census
October 27, 2025, 1:05 pm
Nicole Taylor, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Speaking to members of the Moosomin Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Moosomin Mayor Murray Gray said Moosomin needs to start preparing now for the 2026 census to ensure that there is an accurate population count.
During the last census in 2021, The World-Spectator noticed that population numbers for the town didn’t add up and were significantly less than the number of households the town had on record for utility hookups and taxation records.
The World-Spectator investigated and found the same issue in Esterhazy, where according to the census there were 200 empty households but that was not the case.
The World-Spectator was also contacted by people in Moosomin who said they had contacted Stats Canada asking to be included in the census, but could not get Stats Canada to respond.
Based on that investigation, the town of Moosomin asked Stats Canada for a recount and Stats Canada responded with a revised census number that was 4.3 per cent higher for Moosomin than the initial 2021 number. The town’s population numbers were adjusted by an additional 117 people by Stats Canada, resulting in $25,000 more for Moosomin each year in provincial Revenue Sharing, or $100,000 before the next census.
At the meeting on Tuesday, Kevin Weedmark, who had done the investigation for the World-Spectator back in 2021, says Stats Canada numbers have become more and more out diverged from Saskatchewan Health numbers over the years, which appear to be more accurate.
“Saskatchewan health numbers (for Moosomin) keep going up, and even though those aren’t a census, they are consistently more accurate than the actual census,” he said. “They provide the numbers for every age demographic. There were three people in Moosomin at the time of the 2021 census that were 101, 102, and 104 years old. We can tell you exactly who those people are, but Stats Canada said that there was no one in Moosomin in those categories. When we looked at the numbers of young people going into school, we found the numbers matched up perfectly with those from SHA, but not from the census.”
Mayor Murray Gray said that after the 2021 census, the town vowed they would take action for the 2026 census to ensure that Stats Canada does a better job, and also to encourage as many people as possible to fill out their census.
“We planned after last time when the census shorted us that we needed to get our act together before the next one which is coming up in May of 2026,” Gray told Chamber members.
“We want to be proactive in making sure that we feel that count is accurate.
Last time we asked for a recount, which they didn’t do, they just nominally added 117 people to our supposed population, which didn’t even change on the Stats Canada website. If you went on the Stats Canada website, it still showed the same number, but they acknowledged that they were wrong and had bumped it up in official records.
“Revenue sharing is definitely based on population, so we were affected by that. I think the most positive impact that we can have in the Town of Moosomin from an increase in population is economic development. From showing that development, it can be easier to attract new businesses to town and sell ourselves as a growing, progressive community.”
Suggestions to improve 2025 census
Gray had a few suggestions on ways the town could work together to ensure the 2026 census count went better.
“There are a couple of other things that have come up in the meantime, since we’re about 10 months out. First off is the people that were hired in order to do the count. If we can get somebody we know who can work for the census, and make sure that they take the job as seriously as they should, making sure that every person is counted, I think that’s something we can do now that we’ve talked about it ahead of time. I think it’s important, and we’ve been trying to get the word out through the paper and meetings.
“We also need to have conversations with family and friends around town to make sure that they know when census day comes and that they don’t just put it aside and not realize the importance, because if we don’t talk about the importance, people might not see it and not take the small amount of time to do it.
“I actually had the idea of canvassing the town a little bit ahead of the census, in order to make sure people do it, but I don’t want to do it at taxpayers’ expense. I think that if we all could find somebody to take the job on in order to do it, we wouldn’t have to incur any costs in order for it to happen.
“I think we could just as easily drop a message in our water bills as the quarters come, and get it out in the media and on social media.
“If there are ways that we can ramp up the discussions ahead of May 2026, I think we all play a role in that and knowing the importance of that count and that number. We were very fortunate to have that adjustment back in 2021, but I really would like to have a real concrete number in the next census so that we can know where we’re at and continue our plan of economic development and other things like that to continue to grow as a community.
“That’s the long and the short of it, needing everyone to know how important it is for our town and to have it filled out to look after our people. The people doing it three or four years ago recalled that in the past they would give the people making the count a bit of a review on how to do it accurately.
We need to get to those people doing the count from Stats Canada and let them know the importance.
“I’m open to any other suggestions from others. I’ve had three and a half years to think about it, and I didn’t even think that I would be mayor when the next census came!” said Gray.
