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Male, female or 'other': 2019 civic census offers third choice for gender

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Calgarians can now head online to complete the 2019 civic census that for the first time will provide a more inclusive category for gender identity.

A new option in the census this year allows Calgarians to select “other,” in addition to the female and male categories.

City clerk Laura Kennedy said the addition was made in response to feedback from Calgarians.

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“It’s their right,” Kennedy said Tuesday. “Society has changed from the traditional male/female identifiers. It is important that Calgary stay current with those changes and also reflect those changes.

“In a census like this, it is our opportunity to help properly identify our mosaic of citizens in the city and this is just one of the ways we can achieve that.”

Residents can access the survey at calgary.ca/census and sign in using an access code; the city began mailing out access codes on April 1, but residents can also request the code online at the same URL.

This year’s census will feature a basic array of questions, including what the structure type is of the home, whether it is rented or owned, and whether there are school-aged children residing at the address.

The information collected is used by the city to improve municipal services such as transit, recreation and water services; it is also used by school boards to assist in predicting enrolment numbers and in determining the location of future schools.

Calgary’s move to expand the categories available under gender follows a similar move in Edmonton in 2016.

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This year, Edmonton’s municipal census expanded the category further to include: trans woman, trans man, non-binary or two-spirit; residents can also select “not listed above” or “prefer not to answer.”

Since Alberta is the only province in Canada where cities collect their own census data, municipal officials in Edmonton believe their census may be the first in the country to provide several options for gender identity.

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Calgary had been hoping to include more diverse options under the gender category this year, but work on the Olympic plebiscite set the team back. Kennedy said work is underway to improve the options for the 2020 census.

“We ran out of time. We kept ‘other’ at this point, but we do want to further clarify that for next year’s census,” she said.

The city clerk said Tuesday that Calgarians can expect to only be contacted about the census by mail for the time being.

Census takers will begin going door-to-door on April 22, once the provincial election is over.

Information provided through the census is confidential and secure, Kennedy said.

“We will never identify individuals or single dwellings in any of the final reports that will be released later this year in July,” Kennedy says.

Around 23,000 households had completed the civic census as of noon Tuesday, up slightly from the same time last year, according to the city.

— With files from the Edmonton Journal

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