The municipal census for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo will take place this year, and municipal authorities are already starting to prepare for this important project. Census recruiters need to hire roughly 100 census takers, and since the municipality funding is calculated on a per capita basis the census results must be accurate. RMWB municipal census 2015 coordinator Gary Gordon explained “We want to enumerate 100% of the dwelling units, that’s our goal. We’re looking forward to having a successful census. We’re not sure what the numbers are going to be in terms of, there’s a bit of a downturn, but we’re confident that we’re going to reach every door.” The census will take place between April 1 and June 30 of 2015. On January 27 the council voted to get approval for a census and to count the local shadow population.

The municipal census for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo is a very important project. Mayor Melissa Blake commented that “It’s important for the municipality to count as many people as we can, because we get per-capita grants that actually can amount to something significant. It will be a fascinating exercise to go through the count of our shadow population, but I’m as keenly interested to learn more about our urban population.” Gary Gordon explained “We look at the census as three projects in one; we have the urban services area, which is the largest population, and it’s very challenging, we also have the rural communities … and then again working with the people in the project accommodations. The make-up of the community, a community where people work long hours, a lot of people that fly in and fly out or drive in and drive out … it’s very difficult to get a hold of people and that certainly makes it a challenge.”