Calgary is considering reinstating a municipal census in 2027 in response to the city’s rapid population growth and the strain on services from immigration-driven population growth.
The discussion follows the city council’s directive to explore reinstating the biennial census, which was last conducted in 2019, to provide timely and accurate data for municipal planning.
City officials emphasized that the federal census, conducted every five years, is insufficient to address the immediate needs of a city experiencing a population boom like Calgary’s.
“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,” reads the city’s report.
The City of Calgary first conducted a Civic Census in 1931. It continued periodically until 1958, when an annual population count was introduced which continued until 2019. However, the 2020 Civic Census was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that year, in November 2020, funding for the Civic Census program was eliminated during budget adjustments.
City officials argued in their report that the data gathered from conducting a census would help the city make better decisions that reflect the needs of residents and businesses, and help Calgary adapt to its rapidly growing population.
Migration to Calgary skyrocketed due to the city’s affordable housing, which became an area of concern in Aug. 2023 after receiving over 100,000 immigrants in the past four years and the expectation of an additional 110,000 in the subsequent four years.
All four of Alberta’s biggest cities saw interprovincial net gains between July 2022 and 2023.
Despite becoming a desirable destination for interprovincial immigration, even one-quarter of Calgary’s residents said they considered moving because Calgary homes became too expensive in a July 2024 survey by the Angus Reid Institute.
Calgary could develop a census internally, utilize licensed software, or contract the census to external providers. Each has varying costs, but the city’s documents noted that the contractor-supported census is preferred. It would cost around $10.7 million between 2025 and 2030.
The Executive Committee recommends that the city council reinstate a biennial municipal census starting in 2027 and present census funding requirements for consideration in the 2027-2030 budgets.
“Using a contractor and commercial software is the preferred option because it provides confidence that reliable software will be ready to conduct the census beginning in 2027,” reads the report. “The contractor supported census option allows Administration to take increasing ownership of the census process over time and prioritizes focus on managing and distributing the resulting data.”
However, Martin added that the administration could adjust and pivot if the option proved infeasible as work progressed.
The report highlighted that the census would help improve the city’s social, environmental, economic, and service and financial implications.
The two risks underscored were the cost-benefit analysis and data privacy.
“Some members of the public may believe that the benefits of more detailed and more frequent population data is not worth the cost of delivering a municipal census,” reads the report. “However, if a municipal census is not supported, Administration can only use federal census information, which is insufficient to help guide decisions in response to Calgary’s rapid growth and change.”
It added that the city’s administration could implement privacy risk mitigations in line with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and other legislation.
Despite being more pro-immigration than some other premiers, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has recently taken a stance against the Liberals’ immigration policies after announcing emergency education funds to counteract record immigration. Her province’s Alberta is Calling campaign was never available to international migrants, however.