The problem with Canada's current system of doing population counts remains the same as it was five years ago when the majority of Canadians were expected to self-enumerate rather than be counted by door-to-door canvassers who did the job properly for us.
While the old system was more logistically troublesome, it was also far more accurate and Estevan is just one of several communities that will attest to the fact that the census situation in Canada is flawed.
While the Energy City's official population climbed to just over 11,000 from just over 10,000 in the past five years, we all know and understand that this so-called official number is a bunch of hooey.
The far more accurate registration of health cards held by local residents indicates that Estevan is currently serving as home for close to 13,000 people.
So who really cares?
Well, we do, and anyone who wishes to receive civic services should care as well since all the City's funding from senior governments is based on this now deeply flawed Canadian census information and in our case, that means we're coming up short by about 1,800 to 2,000 people which could represent a shortfall in funding of a few hundreds of thousand dollars. Those dollars could be used to pave more streets, clean a few more avenues, replace 10 or 12 blocks of worn out water and sewer lines, provide for another police officer or help pay for a new fire truck or snow blower to clear your neighbourhood following a winter storm or maybe provide an additional summer program for your children.
But that can't happen if we play lazy with our census information, which we did.
Without enumerators coming to our doors, many of us played the census reporting game pretty loosely around here.
We didn't have the time or inclination to fill the form out.
Or if you were recent arrivals from Alberta or Ontario, you mistakenly figured that mom or dad or your common-law mate back there filled it out ... counting you as a citizen of Calgary, Red Deer, Toronto or Kingston rather than Estevan, which is where you really were. After all, you were expecting to go back home eventually anyway, so you might as well be counted there.
That was good news for Kingston or Red Deer but not for Estevan, Weyburn or Oxbow.
So the problem that was identified over five years ago was not addressed and with the current manner of counting people in place, we have no one to blame but ourselves and the Canadian census folks.
The 1,000 to 2,000 of you who are currently living here, but didn't really believe that you were living here, have deprived the city and local rural municipalities of some vital services that you, by the way, will require.
Perhaps Estevan will only be a temporary home for you. Maybe you will move on elsewhere in a year or two. If you do, you will leave with the knowledge that you left a legacy of lost funding for those of us who will remain here, simply because you didn't want to be bothered with the two minutes it took to fill out your census form correctly and truthfully. In fact, we're willing to bet a good portion of you don't even recall receiving one to fill out, that's how much it meant to you at the time. Just deny you received a form, or didn't know how to get one.
So once again Estevan's administration will have to provide services for 13,000 people, pretending that there are only 11,000 of us thanks to a flawed system, and from what we hear from other communities around the province, we're not alone.
Our humble advice to the friendly folks who operate our population counting system ... please get back to work.
