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While premiers and the prime minister met in Montreal last week, Statistics Canada claimed that Alberta gained 23,700 jobs in a month.

Here at ground zero, the typical reaction was “What the …?” (insert your expletive).

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It doesn’t look true, feel true or smell true. And it can’t be true, unless you like the chances of winning the lottery every week.

University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe explains why: “The margin of error on the job number survey, in this case, is plus or minus 20,000 jobs.”

That means “the range around that single point — 23,700 jobs — could be job gain as high as 43,700, or as low as 3,700.”

Some Albertans might believe this beleaguered province gained some jobs in one month.

But 43,700? Even 23,700? Absolutely absurd.

Such a high margin of error would never be accepted in election polling. When the subject is jobs, it makes a useful finding virtually impossible.

Photo by Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press

Tombe explains that Statistics Canada doesn’t intend these numbers to be taken as absolutes, but rather as “data points” that can be useful in determining a longer-range trend. It’s the only survey available and every province uses it.

The federal agency does release these hard numbers, however, no matter how crazy and error-ridden they sound.

The Alberta government then jumps aboard, starting a closed loop of economic and political claims that may not even be close to the truth.

First, Alberta Treasury Board and Finance pumps out reports that routinely treat any positive federal number as gospel truth.

The latest Weekly Economic Review repeats many of the federal figures without even mentioning margins of error.

Then the NDP endlessly repeats the numbers.

When last week’s job figures came out, Premier Rachel Notley tweeted:

“All in, we have 80,000 more full-time jobs & fewer people relying on part-time work = 59,000 more jobs than Nov ’17.”