Métis Nation British Columbia Provincial Survey Results

The survey results reported in this document were collected via a survey distributed through Métis Nation of British Columbia Local affiliates throughout BC in the latter half of 2006. Sampling was non-random, but distributed as widely as possible. Where possible and appropriate both table of frequencies and graphs are presented: the graphs provide a more accessible means of interpreting the results, while the tables of frequencies provide more detail about the distribution of results (including missing values) and may be helpful for some purposes (though these tables will be of interest to specialist audiences but are nonetheless worth reproducing).

Results are presented for the basic demographic sections of the survey, and for each section of questions targeted at particular areas of interest.

Some considerations about the structure of the survey should be kept in mind when interpreting the results. Though the survey was intended to be completed by individuals who meet the Métis National Council National definition of Métis, there was no direct control over this participation criterion, and it is likely that individuals who self-identify as Métis, but do not meet the National definition criteria were included. The results of the survey should be read with this in mind.A few additional caveats should also be considered when interpreting the results reported here. First, the survey was filled out by individuals, but refers to, and asks questions about: households, Métis citizens within households, and families; these various categories may not be interpreted in the same way by all respondents. This also presents some problems in terms of how comparisons to other data sets based on individual responses (that are later added together as households) can be made. For example, comparisons to the Census Canada data must be cautious – nonetheless such comparisons can be useful, and some examples are offered in this report. In addition, because only one person in the household answered for the entire household, there can be some effect on the results of certain questions. In particular questions about health and social attitudes are particularly sensitive to variation by age.

We have also added some comparative surveys as appendixes. We suggest that future surveys might be usefully informed by one or more of the examples appended, especially if comparative analysis are a goal of future research.

We would also suggest that future surveys could be done through the MNBC Citizenship registry. This would have two advantages over the 2006 survey. First, only people who have been verified as meeting the MNC National definition of Métis would be included, and second, the sample could be randomized and thus meet statistical standards as representative. Non-random samples are useful and appropriate under certain conditions, but a random sample has some advantages in terms of analysis and could be helpful in future.

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