Fall 2002 Survey of First Nations
People Living On-Reserve

FINAL REPORT

Submitted to:

Indian and Northern Affairs
10 Wellington Street, Room 1900
Hull, Quebec
K1A 0H4

EKOS RESEARCH ASSOCIATES INC.
December 17, 2002

EKOS RESEARCH ASSOCIATES
Toronto Office
480 University Avenue, Suite 1006
Toronto, Ontario
M5G 1V2
Tel: (416) 598 8002
Fax: (416) 598 2543
E-mail: toronto@ekos.com

Ottawa Office
99 Metcalfe Street, Suite 1100
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 6L7
Tel: (613) 235 7215
Fax: (613) 235 8498
E-mail: pobox@ekos.com

Edmonton Office
9925 109th St. NW, Suite 606
Edmonton, Alberta
T5K 2J8
Tel: (780) 408 5225
Fax: (780) 408 5233
E-mail: edmonton@ekos.com

1. INTRODUCTION

This is the third large, national survey with First Nations people, living on-reserve in a series of surveys, conducted since August of 2001. Results of the first survey were released in the fall of 2001. The second survey was released in May of 2002. These surveys are the first of their kind in Canada. This survey of First Nations people living on-reserve in Canada was designed to provide research partners in this study with a representative assessment of the views of First Nations people living on-reserve on a number of key issue areas. These include:

1.  general attitudes regarding priorities and views about performance of the Government of Canada;
2.  patterns of contact with the Government of Canada, satisfaction with service delivery and best methods of communication with the Government of Canada;
3.  views about education of Aboriginal youth (on and off-reserve);
4.  attitudes related to Aboriginal identity, culture and language;
5.  patterns of behaviour, awareness and attitudes on a number of health-related topics; and;
6.  awareness and concern related to climate change.

Three eligibility requirements were set for the survey (as was the case in the previous two):

• a member of an Indian Band or First Nation;
  
• resident (for at least some part of the year) on a reserve in Canada; and
  
• being 16 years of age or over.

The sample frame was built on the basis of selected postal codes in Canada. These postal codes were associated with all census sub-divisions (CSDs) identified by Statistics Canada as being a reserve or from the physical locations of the 630 or so Band offices across Canada. Once an exhaustive list of postal codes was created, the associated telephone numbers from all phone books in Canada were pulled. This list of telephone numbers included approximately 120,000 telephone numbers. When compared to the population distribution of 368,000 or so First Nations people living on-reserve (from the Indian and Northern Affairs 2000 Register for On-Reserve residents, excluding the Territories), the sample frame appears to under represent residents of Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and over represent residents of British Columbia. Beyond the primary construction of the sample frame, there has been some fine-tuning to exclude some postal codes that incurred particularly high ineligibility rates during the first few days of data collection. Also, cross-referencing was conducted to ensure that the CSDs of First Nations reserves that did not participate in the Statistics Canada 1996 Census (77 reserves) or in the 2001 Census (32 reserves) were included in the frame.

The survey sample contains a total of 1,507 completed interviews with First Nations residents of reserves. The maximum margin of error associated with the overall sample is +/ 2.5 per cent, at a 95 per cent confidence interval. The survey sample was stratified to include roughly 200 completed interviews with residents in each of the Atlantic, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, whereas 250 cases were targeted in Ontario and Manitoba. From the sample frame built, telephone numbers were randomly drawn within the specified stratification. Each of the seven provincial/regional strata of 200 cases carries a margin of error of a maximum of +/- 6.9 per cent, while Ontario and Manitoba carry an error rate of +/-6.2 per cent.

The questionnaire was designed in close consultation with each participating department (Appendix A). The questionnaire was thoroughly tested prior to starting data collection. This involved conducting over 30 interviews by telephone with First Nations respondents. The final questionnaire required an average of 21 minutes to complete over the telephone, using trained interviewers.

The survey was conducted between October 22 and November 5. Just over one in three cases (531) were completed with panel members of the sample (i.e., those who had participated in either the first or second surveys) and two-thirds (976) were completed with new sample members. The overall response rate for the survey was 50 per cent (44 per cent in the panel portion of the sample and 51 per cent in the new sample). This response rate is very high. In fact it is higher than obtained for most national, general public surveys conducted today, which typically range between 20 and 30 per cent. The rate of refusal was particularly low at 1.8 refusals per completed interview overall (and 2.4 refusals per complete in the new portion of the sample only). In the general public, there are typically three to four refusals per complete. In the first On-Reserve survey, the response rate was also 52 per cent and the rate of refusal was about 2.5 refusals per complete.

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