Calgary is set to bring back its municipal census after nearly a decade without one. City council has voted to reinstate the count, a move that will once again give the city its own regular, locally gathered picture of how many people live within its boundaries, separate from the national census conducted by the federal government.
The decision came through a 13 to 2 vote at council, a clear majority in favour of restoring the exercise. The next count has been set for 2028, meaning it will be a couple of years before residents are once again asked to take part and before the city has fresh, self-collected population figures to work with.
One notable feature of the plan is how the count will be run. Rather than hiring an outside contractor to carry out the work, the census will be done in-house by city staff. That approach keeps the process under the city's direct control and reflects a choice about how best to manage the resources and logistics involved in counting a large population.
Council also settled on how frequently the census will take place going forward, deciding that it will now be conducted every two years. A regular, biennial count is intended to keep the city's population data current, which can matter for planning, budgeting and the delivery of local services that depend on up-to-date figures.
The move was not without disagreement. The question of how often the city should be counting its residents sparked debate at council, with the frequency of the census emerging as a point of discussion. Such debates often weigh the value of more current data against the cost and effort of carrying out the count on a regular basis.
For a city that had gone years without its own census, the return of the count marks a shift back toward gathering detailed local information directly. With the first count slated for 2028 and a two-year cycle to follow, Calgary is positioning itself to keep a closer, more frequent watch on the size and shape of its population in the years ahead.