The county’s records show more households than counted by the recent federal census. These findings led county officials to ask for a review from Statistics Canada.
While the 2011 census found that there are 3,888 dwellings in Lac La Biche County, the county’s recent records show that there are 4,794. This is a difference of almost 900 dwellings.
Records also showed that since 2006, the county issued more than 600 permits for new dwelling units.
Administration had presented this information to council last week, and councillors voted on Thursday to submit a request to Statistics Canada asking for a review of the findings.
If an error is confirmed, the federal data will be updated, said Laurent Roy, who is in charge of the formal reviews at Statistics Canada.
“We do have a process in place to make sure we disseminate quality information,” Roy said.
He added that since the census results have been released earlier this year, they’ve already had to handle a few reviews.
LLB OFFICIALS SURPRISED WITH FEDERAL RESULTS
Municipal officials were looking into the census results since they were released earlier this year. The data showed that Lac La Biche’s population had gone down to 8.402 in 2011 from 9,123 people in 2006. It also showed that the number of private dwellings went down from 4,327 to 3,888.
The results were surprising and disappointing since the county had appeared to be growing and getting busier, said Mayor Peter Kirylchuk, adding that he welcomes the county’s own data.
“It’s based on sound information,” he said. “I’m pleased that administration put together information that gives the indication that our numbers should not have dropped.”
Councillor Guy Piquette also said that he was surprised with the federal results, and had a hard time believing that the county lost 700 people —- which would be like losing two hamlets the size of Plamondon. Piquette stressed that it’s important to have an accurate number.
“It’s in our best interest to determine accurately what the population is,” he said.
For example, in addition to using the numbers for planning, some provincial grants and funding is issued based on population counts. One of these is the Municipal Sustainability Initiative which is granted at $112.39 per person.