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Morinville hopes a boom in its population will result in more cash coming into town coffers this year and, thanks to the Internet, fewer dollars going out.
The town of 7,636 residents will conduct a census this year that for the first time will include an online option aimed at reducing the number of door-to-door visits by enumerators, council agreed last week. It's hoped the online option will reduce census costs while boosting the overall bottom line through per capita grant funding.
Morinville Mayor Lloyd Bertschi said he likes the idea of an online option.
"It is a great idea. We get a rebate for every person who uses it online," he said.
The 2011 census was budgeted at $4,800, but those costs could be lowered through the online option run by Edmonton-based Pivotal Research.
If at least 15 per cent of residents respond online the town will receive a small discount on the overall package. The savings increase with the number of online responses.
Bertschi notes when St. Albert did its census last year 40 per cent of respondents used the Internet.
"If we can approach those kinds of numbers that would be fantastic," he said.
Coun. Gordon Boddez said he believes the online approach will have a major appeal for many residents.
"A lot of the younger people in their thirties and forties and twenties, they spend a considerable amount of time online and it is just natural for them to do that."
Per capita funding
The federal government will also conduct a census this year, but Bertschi said the population figures from that head count won't be known until sometime in 2012. Morinville could be missing out on per-capita grant money in the meantime, he said.
"We have had a number of [housing] starts completed in the last couple of years, and with the way the majority of the provincial grants are done it is on a per capita basis."
As part of the online census, all households in town will receive an online pin and information about the website where they can go and enter their information.
The website will operate May 2 to 15; after that enumerators will fan out across town between May 16 to June 2 to reach residents that did not go online.
Bertschi said the census will also include a community survey asking residents for their opinions on civic issues. He said the questions for that survey have not yet been determined, but they will be designed to get a feel for resident concerns.
"It is just information on different things and directions the community wants us to be going."
The town completed its last municipal census in 2008.
