filling out a census might not mean you count as a resident....
The census comes, you fill it out, the government files its report and usually that’s that. But for one small village in Canada that was not the case.
Residents of Atwater, Saskatchewan are bemused and bewildered after the latest report came out stating their small community of 34 people doesn’t exist. According to the government it has been abandoned. At least that is the status that they have been given.
Now, this is no fault of the people who live there. All dutifully filled in their census returns as requested by their government. And every year they all complete their tax returns, pay what is owing, and live a law abiding Canadian citizens.
So how is it the Government of Canada can declare a village non-existent when people live there? What happened in the census review department to make them decide the forms filled out by the people who live in the community 100 km north of Regina, the province’s capital, didn’t mean they still lived in the area? Have they re-done the boundaries so these people are now a part of another area?
More importantly, if the town no longer exists does this mean they no longer have to pay taxes? Or abide by Canadian standards?
This isn’t the only village in Saskatchewan to fall to such a faith. The Canadian Government has also declared the village of Keeler a place with no residents although there are roughly 10 people who still live there.
Such a strange deduction of the information collected by Stats Canada. And the government still has nothing to say about the issue – be it a mistake or a decision that there’s not enough people for it to be considered a place anymore. Surprising… well, not really. [Source; Image]
