New Researcher Query Re: Aboriginal People's Survey: "Non-Inuit in the Arctic" Respnse

Question

I have a researcher here using the 2006 APS and she has asked for clarification in regards to this question about Aboriginal Ancestry, particularly with the responses “Non Inuit in Arctic” and “No Aboriginal ancestry”.

We found some information in the documentation on page 24.

http://prod.library.utoronto.ca:8090/datalib/codebooks/cstdli/aps/2006/aps2006gid_eng.pdf

Variable Name: GDANCESG Position: 8 Length: 2
Aboriginal ancestry indicator-grouped
FREQ WTD
01 North American Indian only 11,270 541,483
02 Métis only 5,202 238,707
03 Inuit only 2,660 36,340
04 Multiple ancestries 4,849 212,281
05 No Aboriginal ancestry 232 7,878
06 Non Inuit in Arctic 155 1,695
====== =========
24,368 1,038,385
Coverage: All respondents
Note: Derived from question 1(Q01).
'Non-Inuit in Arctic' refers to any response other than 'Inuit only' in the Arctic region.



From my reading of this, I believe it refers to other Aboriginal (not Inuit) peoples living in the Arctic, and "No Aboriginal Identity" would capture the rest. Could someone please clarify this for the researcher?


Answer

The Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS) team provided the following explanation in response to your question about Aboriginal Ancestry in APS 2006:

"The target population for the 2006 APS is composed of the Aboriginal population in Canada living in private dwellings, 6 years of age and older as of October 31, 2006, excluding people living in Indian Settlements or on reserve. Reserves in the territories are included in the target population, however. The "Aboriginal population" is defined as either the Aboriginal identity population or the Aboriginal ancestry population.

The APS sample was selected based on responses to four screening questions (Q17, Q18, Q20, Q21) on the 2006 Census long form. Question 17 (What were the ethnic or cultural origins of this person's ancestors?) is used to define Aboriginal ancestry while the other three questions define Aboriginal identity. Some respondents reported Aboriginal identity but no Aboriginal ancestry - these are the respondents in category 5: No Aboriginal ancestry.

Since reserves in the territories were included in the sample population, "non-Inuit in Arctic" would include those selected from these reserves, as well as those off-reserve with non-Inuit ancestry. Note that this latter group could include persons with Inuit identity but not Inuit ancestry, or persons who have non-Inuit Aboriginal identity and/or ancestry."


Additional Question

I have just been speaking with the researcher again and she was also wondering about the variable “gdidentg” located on page 26 of the guide.

She asks the following:

“Would it be possible to ask directly if the Aboriginal Identity variable (gdidentg) response 'Non Inuit in Arctic' includes people with no Aboriginal identity in addition to those with NAI, Métis, multiple or other Aboriginal identities?”


Answer

The APS team confirms that "That's correct. The GDIDENTG variable is based on APS questions 2, 3, and 5, and as was the case for Aboriginal ancestry, the number of non-Inuit responses in the Arctic was very small. So, for the purposes of the PUMF, these responses were combined into the "Non Inuit in Arctic " category."