Glossary
Census Metropolitan Area (CMA)
Government Assisted Refugee (GAR)
Aboriginal Person
The term ‘Aboriginal Person’, as defined in the Census, refers to a person of aboriginal ancestry or who identifies as aboriginal; i.e., North American Indian (First Nations), Métis or Inuit or of mixed aboriginal or aboriginal and non-aboriginal ancestry.
Census
A survey that collects data from all the members of a population, whether it's people or businesses. The most common use of the term "Census" is the population Census of Canada which is taken at five-year intervals which counts persons and households and a wide variety of characteristics.
Census Metropolitan Area (CMA)
A CMA is a geographic delineation defined by Statistics Canada, consisting of one or more adjacent municipalities that share a high degree of integration with a major urban core. The urban cores of CMAs all have a population of at least 100,000. As of 2006, there were 27 CMAs in Canada.
First Nations
First Nations is a term of ethnicity used in Canada. It refers to Indigenous peoples of North America located in what is now Canada, and their descendants, who are not Inuit or Métis.
Immigrant Population
The immigrant population is comprised of people who are, or have been, landed immigrants in Canada. A landed immigrant is a person who has been granted the right to live in Canada permanently by immigration authorities.
Low Income Cut-offs (LICOs)
Income levels at which families or unattached individuals spend 20% more than average on food, shelter and clothing. Measures of low income known as low income cut-offs (LICOs) were first introduced in Canada in 1968 based on 1961 Census income data and 1959 family expenditure patterns. Since 1992, these cut-offs have been updated yearly by changes in the consumer price index. The LICO thresholds referred to in this report are before tax LICOs.
Metro Vancouver
Metro Vancouver is another name for the Vancouver CMA and the two terms of used interchangeably throughout this report.
Metro Vancouver is also the name of the non-partisan political body and corporate entity that operates under provincial legislation as a ‘regional district’ on behalf of twenty-two member municipalities and one electoral area. The three primary roles of the Metro Vancouver regional district are service delivery, planning, and political leadership.
Municipality
The term municipality is used to refer to a legal entity in BC: a city, town, village or district municipality.
Government Assisted Refugee (GAR)
GARs are Convention Refugees Abroad and members of the Source Country Class whose initial resettlement in Canada is entirely supported by the Government of Canada. This support is delivered by CIC-supported non-governmental agencies. It can last up to one year from the date of arrival in Canada, or until the refugee is able to support himself or herself, whichever happens first. It may include: accommodation; clothing; food; help in finding employment and becoming self-supporting; and other resettlement assistance. The Canadian government offers financial assistance for government-assisted refugees and loans for all resettled refugees.
Homelessness
Someone was considered homeless according to the Metro Vancouver homeless count if they did not have a place of their own where they could expect to stay for more than 30 days and if they did not pay rent. This included people who had no physical shelter – staying on the street, in doorways, in parkades, in parks and on beaches – and those who were temporarily sheltered in emergency shelters, safe houses for youth, or transition houses for women and their children fleeing violence. Someone who stayed at a friend’s place where they did not pay rent (couch surfing) was also considered homeless for the purposes of this count, because they had no security of tenure.
Composite Learning Index
The Composite Learning Index (CLI) is an annual measure of Canada’s progress in lifelong learning. It combines data from 24 different statistical indicators that reflect the many ways Canadians learn, whether in school, in the home, at work or within the community. The wide range of learning indicators selected for use in the CLI are combined to generate numeric scores for 4,700 cities and communities across Canada. A high CLI score means that a particular city or community possesses learning conditions that support social and economic success.
Passenger Trip
Passenger Trips counts riders on the system by mode where the fare was paid (i.e. number of system users). It is different from System Boardings that counts all riders using the system including transferees from other modes (i.e. number of trips).
Service Kilometers and Hours
Service kilometers refer to the number of total kilometers covered by public transit in regular passenger service within one year. Service hours represent the total number of hours that the transit fleet is in regular passenger service within one year.
Medically Treatable Diseases
Deaths due to medically treatable diseases are based on Charlton’s classification. The disease categories are ones for which mortality could potentially have been avoided through appropriate medical intervention. It should be noted that the causes are considered to have been medically treatable only if the death occurred to persons within a specified age range.
Health Literacy
Health literacy generally refers to the ability of individuals to access and use health information to make appropriate health decisions and maintain basic health. It is intended to measure whether individuals can read and act upon written health information, as well as whether they possess the speaking skills to communicate their health needs to physicians and the listening skills to understand and act on the instructions they receive.
Chronic Condition
In the health sector, the term “chronic” refers to a health-related state that lasts a long time, i.e. three months duration or longer. Chronic conditions are usually characterized by complex causality, multiple risk factors, a long latency period, a prolonged course of illness, functional impairment or disability, and in most cases, the unlikelihood of cure. Examples include diabetes, arthritis, osteoarthritis, various respiratory diseases such as asthma as well as different types of heart disease and autoimmune diseases.
Potential Year of Life Lost
Years of potential life lost (YPLL) or potential years of life lost (PYLL), is an estimate of the average years a person would have lived if he or she had not died prematurely. It is, therefore, a measure of premature mortality. As a method, it is an alternative to death rates that gives more weight to deaths that occur among younger people.
