Yellowknife (Apr 02/03) - It's official: the 2001 census by Statistics Canada missed approximately 3,000 people in the NWT.

"They just basically fouled it up," said David Stewart, the territorial statistician from the GNWT Bureau of Statistics.

"Whatever happened during the operation of the census, they missed a number of households. Not to speak for Statistics Canada, but they recognize 2001 was a disaster."

Statistics Canada admits they miscounted.

"We miss population doing a census in every province, that's why we do net under coverage," explained Stephen Young, a census manager for Statistics Canada in Edmonton. "And the percentage for the NWT (net under coverage) is greater than the previous census (in 1996). No doubt."

Over the next few months, Stewart said, Statistic Canada and the GNWT Bureau of Statistics will be comparing notes to decide just how many people are in the NWT. The federal agency originally said about 37,300; the territory claimed 42,000.

The impact of those numbers, if they stand, could cost the NWT over $100 million dollars in federal funding, Finance Minister Joe Handley said in a press release.

The NWT is funded on a per capita basis. The amount of money the NWT gets from the federal government depends partly on growth of the territorial population compared to the growth in the Canadian population, said Margaret Melhorn, deputy minister of finance.

"When (the population numbers) come in so much lower than we expect, it has a significant effect on our funding levels," she said.

In Lutsel K'e, more than 30 per cent of the dwellings were missed in the 2001 census count.

"There were huge problems in Lutsel K'e," said Stewart. "The sample size was very small. It just seems the 2001 census had some major operational problems."