While many Canadians will no doubt be delighted that they no longer have to fill out the long-form census questionnaire, several groups are decrying the government’s decision to eliminate it.
Everyone from business groups, historians, and genealogists to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) is upset that the mandatory long-form census will be scrapped in favour of a voluntary shorter survey.
The eight-question short census questionnaire, which gathers basic information on the number and ages of people in the household, will instead now be mandatory.
The move has drawn criticism for its potential to reduce the amount and accuracy of information gathered in the traditional format that has been used in every census since 1951.
In an open letter to Industry Minister Tony Clement, who is also the minister responsible for Statistics Canada, and Munir Sheikh, chief statistician with StatsCan, the CCPA’s Armine Yalnizyan condemned the change to the gathering of census data.
“This move will weaken the quality and availability of data that tells us what is happening to employment, immigration, housing, incomes, and education—the very issues that beg for the best policy decisions possible as we inch our way through recovery,” writes Yalnizyan, a senior CCPA economist.
“The information that the census long-form generates is invaluable for decision-makers at every level of governance. We are unlikely to get a similarly high quality of information across geographies and sub-groups of the population from the proposed survey.”
The government made the change in response to complaints by some Canadians that the long-form was an intrusion into their privacy.
“Our feeling was that the change was to make a reasonable limit on what most Canadians felt was an intrusion into their personal privacy in terms of answering the longer form,” Erik Waddell, spokesman for Industry Minister Tony Clement, told the Canadian Press.
The new voluntary National Household Survey (NHS), which will include much the same questions as the long-form, will be conducted within four weeks of the May 2011 census. About 4.5 million homes will receive the NHS questionnaire, an increase on the 1 in 5 households that would have received the long form.
Another bone of contention with critics is that, while the long-form census is released after 92 years, the information gathered in the NHS will never become public.
However, as a result of the outcry, Clement’s office said last week that the government is considering ways to possibly make the information available.
The Canadian and Toronto associations of business economists, who rely on the information provided in the long-form census, are also drafting letters of protest to Clement.
“As a practising economist, the census is the single most important piece of information we get,” Craig Alexander, chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank and president of the Canadian Association of Business Economists, told CP.
“It’s absolutely crucial from a public policy point of view.”
Ivan Fellegi, the former chief statistician of Statistics Canada, also opposes the changes. The veteran public servant, who spent 51 years at StatsCan before retiring in 2008, told CP that it would have made more sense to get rid of the long-form altogether than to replace it with the voluntary NHS.
“It would have been a heck of a lot better if this long-form census was cancelled because at least we would have saved $100 million—that would have had a rationale,” Fellegi said.
“To come out with something (voluntary) that has uncertain quality, and certainly for some groups it will be unpublishable quality, is not something that I can understand.”
On Wednesday, the Liberals called on the government to reverse the decision to eliminate the long form. If that doesn’t happen, Government Ethics and Democratic Reform Critic Marlene Jennings said the Liberals “are prepared to explore the introduction of an amendment to the Statistics Act to ensure a comprehensive, mandatory long-form stays.”
“Municipalities, provincial and territorial governments, community groups, businesses and other organizations that depend on this data to develop relevant policies are going to be left in the dark,” Jennings said.
“The Canadians who they are trying to help will feel the effects most—recent immigrants, low-income families, Aboriginal peoples—namely, the most vulnerable groups in our society.”
Everyone from business groups, historians, and genealogists to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) is upset that the mandatory long-form census will be scrapped in favour of a voluntary shorter survey.
The eight-question short census questionnaire, which gathers basic information on the number and ages of people in the household, will instead now be mandatory.
The move has drawn criticism for its potential to reduce the amount and accuracy of information gathered in the traditional format that has been used in every census since 1951.
In an open letter to Industry Minister Tony Clement, who is also the minister responsible for Statistics Canada, and Munir Sheikh, chief statistician with StatsCan, the CCPA’s Armine Yalnizyan condemned the change to the gathering of census data.
“This move will weaken the quality and availability of data that tells us what is happening to employment, immigration, housing, incomes, and education—the very issues that beg for the best policy decisions possible as we inch our way through recovery,” writes Yalnizyan, a senior CCPA economist.
“The information that the census long-form generates is invaluable for decision-makers at every level of governance. We are unlikely to get a similarly high quality of information across geographies and sub-groups of the population from the proposed survey.”
The government made the change in response to complaints by some Canadians that the long-form was an intrusion into their privacy.
“Our feeling was that the change was to make a reasonable limit on what most Canadians felt was an intrusion into their personal privacy in terms of answering the longer form,” Erik Waddell, spokesman for Industry Minister Tony Clement, told the Canadian Press.
The new voluntary National Household Survey (NHS), which will include much the same questions as the long-form, will be conducted within four weeks of the May 2011 census. About 4.5 million homes will receive the NHS questionnaire, an increase on the 1 in 5 households that would have received the long form.
Another bone of contention with critics is that, while the long-form census is released after 92 years, the information gathered in the NHS will never become public.
However, as a result of the outcry, Clement’s office said last week that the government is considering ways to possibly make the information available.
The Canadian and Toronto associations of business economists, who rely on the information provided in the long-form census, are also drafting letters of protest to Clement.
“As a practising economist, the census is the single most important piece of information we get,” Craig Alexander, chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank and president of the Canadian Association of Business Economists, told CP.
“It’s absolutely crucial from a public policy point of view.”
Ivan Fellegi, the former chief statistician of Statistics Canada, also opposes the changes. The veteran public servant, who spent 51 years at StatsCan before retiring in 2008, told CP that it would have made more sense to get rid of the long-form altogether than to replace it with the voluntary NHS.
“It would have been a heck of a lot better if this long-form census was cancelled because at least we would have saved $100 million—that would have had a rationale,” Fellegi said.
“To come out with something (voluntary) that has uncertain quality, and certainly for some groups it will be unpublishable quality, is not something that I can understand.”
On Wednesday, the Liberals called on the government to reverse the decision to eliminate the long form. If that doesn’t happen, Government Ethics and Democratic Reform Critic Marlene Jennings said the Liberals “are prepared to explore the introduction of an amendment to the Statistics Act to ensure a comprehensive, mandatory long-form stays.”
“Municipalities, provincial and territorial governments, community groups, businesses and other organizations that depend on this data to develop relevant policies are going to be left in the dark,” Jennings said.
“The Canadians who they are trying to help will feel the effects most—recent immigrants, low-income families, Aboriginal peoples—namely, the most vulnerable groups in our society.”
