Number of Farms (Vancouver Island) 1971 - 2006

Question

I have a research needing to know the number of farms in North Saanich, Central Saanich, and Saanich, from 1976 – 2006. ESTAT provides this information for the 2006 Census of Agriculture using the Provinces by Census Consolidated Subdivision geography option.

How do I get the same data back to 1976?

Question: Updated

I think I managed to figure this out and get this data (Farm counts from 1976 – 2006 for North Saanich, Central Saanich, and Saanich) from the excel tables located in the /census/agricultural/ folders on the DLI FTP site.

The CCS codes for these three named CCS’s seem to have changed over time.  Do I need to worry about that in terms of the geographic area for each of these 3 CCS’s.

Answer

Our contacts in the Agriculture Division have looked into your question and sent us the following response:

"I checked and found the following:

- North Saanich, Central Saanich and Saanich did not change between 1976-2006
- Victoria was combined with Saanich in 1976
- Victoria was combined with Subdivision B in 1981 and 1986
- Victoria (as a CCS) was amalgamated with Saanich in 1991 to 2006.
- Capital Subdivision A (islands) was split in 2001 and 2006 into Capital F and Capital G
- Capital Subdivision B and C (D in 1991 and 1996) were combined in 2001 and 2006 into Capital H part 2"

I am still waiting to hear back from them about your offlist question regarding the provenance of the CCS codes used in the 1976 files.