Cbrm to monitor population decline
Hiring consultant to make projection report
the Cape breton regional municipality is looking for some assistance in breaking down 2016 census figures to help it with future population projections.
CBRM planning director Malcolm Gillis confirmed that a notice of tender has been issued for the purpose of engaging the services of a “competent” consultant to prepare such a study for the municipality and Cape Breton’s other three jurisdictions — Inverness, Richmond and Victoria counties.
“This is standard procedure — even in the digital information age it takes about a year for Statistics Canada to publish the census data, so we finally have enough data from the 2016 census to go ahead with this,” he said.
“The CBRM population last peaked in 1961, so we’re talking more than half of century of steady population decline, and what we want to figure out — and these reports help us — is whether this decline will continue and if so, at what rate.”
According to the 2016 Canada Census figures, the CBRM has a population of 94,265, the lowest it has been since the municipality, which includes the major centres of Sydney, Glace Bay, New Waterford, North Sydney and Sydney Mines, amalgamated in 1996. The latest figures represent a seven per cent decrease from the 2011 census, which listed the CBRM’s population at 101,619.
“The beauty of these reports is that as we get each report every five years, we get to look back on the projections made 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, and see how they line up with the actual population decline,” said Gillis.
“There are experts in the field of demographics who have sophisticated programs into which they plug in new numbers and they’ll produce a report complete with tables, graphs and written commentary — it’s just very useful information for us.”
Gillis said the breakdown of the population into five-year age groups is particularly useful for municipal planning. Population figures are indicators for taxation forecasts, school enrolment and other purposes.
The tender for the demographic projection report is Oct. 5 at 4 p.m.
Gillis said he expects the contract winner to complete the report in November.