Prince Rupert Environmental Society Survey

April 28, 2004 Statistics

Over the winter PRES volunteers conducted a random telephone survey of Prince Rupert and outlying coastal villages. We asked the question “Do you think we should have salmon farms in the northcoast?” Over three quarters of people surveyed had an opinion; yes or no. 71% of these said “No”.

We submitted a complete summary of our statistics from the survey results to Ian Bercovitz, Director Statistical Consulting, Simon Fraser University. He did not analyze the raw data, but given our summary statistics, he confirmed based on the survey results provided:

“71 % of the decided people living in Prince Rupert and outlying villages say no to salmon farms with a margin of error of 5% nineteen times out of twenty.”

Summary of Statistics from Survey Results:

Question

Do you think we should have salmon farms in the northcoast?

Results

Population sampled

(residential phone listings of adult Prince Rupert and outlying coastal village residents)

10,000 or less

Timeframe

The survey was conducted December 2003 and spring of 2004.

Further details of survey method

A random sample was selected by copying the telephone book for the Prince Rupert and local villages, shuffling the pages, and marking adult residential listings at regular intervals. The randomly chosen listings were then called.

The three volunteers who did the telephoning were careful not to bias the responses. They called the marked listings. They said: “Hi I am from Prince Rupert and I am doing a one question survey. Do you think we should have salmon farms in the north coast?” The responses were all recorded and later carefully counted and summarized. Jean Martin, Luanne Roth and Charles Justice did the calling and all obtained similar results.

The sample size required was established by research on the internet and the calculation of the margin of error for our conclusion was checked without charge by Ian Bercovitz, Director Statistical Consulting, Simon Fraser University.