Questions have been finalized, and Lacombe is ready to perform its 2014 census.
At a regular meeting of council on March 24, City of Lacombe Chief Administrative Officer Norma MacQuarrie presented council with an update on the process of the 2014 census, set to begin in the next few days.
“For your information council, I wanted to highlight for you what is current to date in terms of the 2014 census,” said MacQuarrie.
When the proposal of a 2014 census was last put before City council, there was a feeling of apprehension as the 2012 census had been received so poorly and did not account for an estimated 1,000 residents.
A number of improvements will be implemented to avoid that in this year’s census.
MacQuarrie said that the City of Lacombe has contracted with the City of Airdrie to incorporate a geographic information system into the mapping for the census and has been able to pinpoint apartment and other multi-family dwellings as opposed to single-family dwellings which will be an asset to enumerators before they even set out.
Address mapping has also been completed.
A number of tools have been made available for residents to fill out the census themselves as well.
Residents will be able to fill out the census online (for the first time ever) or by phone before enumerators begin visiting dwellings on April 7. Enumerators will then only visit dwellings that have not already filled out the census.
There will also be a kiosk available at City Hall for residents to use to fill out the census online.
Residents wishing to complete the census online will be able to do so as early as April 1.
Letters to Lacombe residents with personal identification numbers will be mailed out today for use in the census. Enumerators have been recruited and training will begin today as well.
Council voted to accept the update as information. Lacombe’s 2014 census will be completed by the end of June.