State of Protected Heritage Areas Report, April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2009

Annex 5: Public Appreciation and Understanding

In 2008–2009, Parks Canada measured its performance related to its Public Appreciation and Understanding Program Activity using the National Survey of Canadians (NSC). The NSC was designed to measure Canadians' attitudes towards natural and cultural heritage and their appreciation of the places administered by Parks Canada; their awareness and understanding of Parks Canada, including its programs and responsibilities; and their general support for Parks Canada's mandate and activities. Questions from the NSC are used to develop indices for Public Appreciation and Understanding. Each index is comprised of knowledge- and/or value-based statements, and is calculated using the percentage of Canadians that answered correctly and/or agreed to specific conditional statements with respect to national parks or national historic sites.

The NSC is a national telephone survey of a representative sample of Canadians. The survey was composed of 40 questions, which took approximately 20 minutes to administer, and was conducted in the official language of choice of the participant. The survey was administered to 48,436 Canadian residents aged 18 and older between March 2 and March 30, 2009, and had a response rate of eight percent (3,779 respondents)—the industry standard for telephone surveys today. Based on the size of the sample, the results of the survey are considered accurate 19 times out of 20 (95% level of confidence).

¹ To be included in the calculation of the Appreciation index, Canadians had to answer correctly or agree to one of the first two statements with respect to national parks or national historic sites. This pool of Canadians was then assessed using the next three statements to determine the final index.

² To be included in the calculation of the Understanding index, Canadians had to agree to all three statements concerning national parks or national historic sites.