By Allison Martell
TORONTO, July 6 (Reuters) - Statistics Canada has not
collected jobs data for Fort McMurray since the Alberta city was
engulfed by wildfire in May, the federal statistics agency said,
and it has not yet decided when the country's key employment
survey will resume there.
Some 90,000 people were evacuated from Fort McMurray and the
surrounding area in early May as an out-of-control forest fire
burned into the heart of Canada's oil sands region. Re-entry
began in early June. At its height, the fire shut down about
half of oil sands production.
The survey is one of Canada's most closely watched economic
indicators, and economists would usually look to it to measure
the fallout of events like the wildfire. With no data collection
in Fort McMurray, the June report that is due out on Friday will
not fully reflect the impact of the fire.
"We don't want to impose on people - they are going through
very hard times," said Christel Le Petit, the Statistics Canada
assistant director responsible for the survey. "Some could have
maybe responded, but we didn't want to ask."
When Statistics Canada released May jobs and unemployment
data last month, the agency said it had not collected data for
Wood Buffalo, the area that includes Fort McMurray. The agency
said this week its Labour Force Survey had still not resumed in
Wood Buffalo.
The decision to resume will be made with local and
provincial governments, Statistics Canada said. An Alberta
government spokeswoman said the province had no concerns with
resuming in July.
Le Petit said it was the first time the survey had been
suspended in a disaster-struck area in the 10 years she had
worked on it.
"We've had some small impact on collections in the past, but
we were able to get to some of the people. This is really
unique," she said.
To partially correct for the missing data, Statistics Canada
substituted results from similar households in surrounding
areas. Since some oil sands workers live outside Fort McMurray,
the survey likely captured some of the impact of the fire.
Even so, any impact on the provincial and national
unemployment rates would be small, given that Fort McMurray is
home to just 2 percent of Alberta's population.
(Editing by Peter Cooney)