During the recent meeting in Saskatoon, when Portage City delegates met with Statistics Canada over the Crime Severity Index, Mayor Sharilyn Knox says, that while changes are being lobbied for the report, it's affecting First Nations residents among others.

"We are all working toward Truth and Reconciliation. and these type of statistics tend to cause more harm in that. as well," explains Knox. "We want to be cognizant of that. And we feel it really came up about the calls to action and some of that information that was going out really goes against what some of those calls to action are."

It was noted that stats for a homicide are rated in the CSI according to percentage from the population. If a homicide takes place in Portage, and one takes place in Toronto, Toronto's index climbs a 100th of a point, while Portage climbs 7 whole points. 

Councillor Doyle said that of the threshold is taken up to 100,000 people instead of 10,000, the formula would put Portage from number 6 to 84 on the list. 

"It takes us out of the spotlight, and takes another city and puts them in the spotlight. That's not what we want to see either. But at the same time, when you take that population as a denominator, and you change that, it changes everything. The 11 communities that met would all be off the top ten record."

Knox adds an academic was present at the meeting and shared the points for which the CSI is a benefit.

"It is good for trends, which it was meant for, evaluating policy or programs, and social, economic, culture, and population change. But what it's not good for is ranking, and that's what people see. How many times do you see people talk about how that we're number 6 on the list?"

Doyle asks in what word can a person realistically compare Toronto and Portage in any metric, including housing prices. 

Basically, the Index is not being used for what it was meant for.

Related Stories