Decrease! What Decrease? Intern Stipends Have Gone Up, Not Down, in ManitobaROBERT D. MCILWRAITH Departement of Clinical Health Psychology University of ManitobaDONALD S. STEWART Counselling Service University of ManitobaIn their report on Canadian internship settings (Canadian Psychology, August 1996) Howes, Vallis, Wilson, Ross & Louisy correctly reported that Manitoba had the highest intern stipend in the 1992 - 1993 Internship Directory of the Canadian Council of Clinical Psychology Program Directors (CCCPPD, 1991), although they underreported it by $1,000. They then went on to report that by the time of the 1996 - 1997 Directory, Stipends...decreased in Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia (mean decreases of $5,290, $1,074, and $880 respectively). (pp. 175). Unfortunately, these data create the incorrect impression that Manitoba's interns have been hit with a huge reduction in pay; the biggest in the country. This is not true.In their data on the 1992 - 1993 internships, Howes, Vallis, Wilson, Ross & Louisy reported the stipend of what was at that time the only internship programme in Manitoba listed in the Directory - the programme in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba - and they noted that their stipend figure was based on an n of one. The intern stipend for the internship programme in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, actually rose substantially over the next four years, from $28,671 in 1992 - 1993 to $30,417 in 1996 - 1997; an increase of $1,746. Psychology interns in the Department of Clinical Health Psychology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba remain Canada's highest paid psychology interns (according to the 1996 - 1997 and the just - published 1997 - 1998 CCPPP Directories), and they have never had a in their stipends.In their figures for 1996 - 1997, Howes, Vallis, Wilson, Ross & Louisy appear to have averaged the data from two programmes in Manitoba: the aforementioned internship in the Faculty of Medicine, and a new internship programme at the University Counselling Service, which wasn't listed in the 1992 - 1993 Directory. The stipend for the Counselling Service Internship programme is $19,000 per year, according to the 1996 - 1997 CCPPP Internship Directory (CCPPP 1995).The analysis reported in the article is a good illustration of the kinds of statistical artifacts that can result when one chooses to use the with very small samples. In this case, the sample for Manitoba consisted of one programme at time one, and it occupied the extreme high end of the distribution; an outlier. The sample at time two consisted of two programmes, and averaging their stipends created the impression of significant decline in funding and support for training in Manitoba. Hypothetically, even if the second internship programme in Manitoba had paid the second highest stipend in Canada, the data analytic approach used by Howes et al. would still have transformed this positive state of affairs into the appearance of a in funding in Manitoba.Even if one decided that comparing the stipend of one programme at time one with the average of two programmes at time two was a reasonable approach to the data, calculating the 1996 - 1997 stipend for seven interns (five in the Faculty of Medicine programme and two at the Counselling Service) yields an apparent mean decrease in stipend of only $517 per intern. …