Canadian Census Debate Builds

Debate over the Canadian government's scrapping of the long form of the census is intensifying, with opponents pointing to an almost complete lack of complaints about the supposedly 'intrusive' survey, while supporters claim opposition comes from 'vested interests'.

The latter claim comes from Niels Veldhuis, chief economist with the conservative think-tank the Fraser Institute, who says voluntary surveys will give the required accurate information about Canadian population and that the mandatory long-form census 'forces' Canadians to answer what he considers 'very private questions'.

In a newspaper interview Veldhuis said criticism of the government's decision is predictable and is coming from academics, economists and social scientists who enjoy access to the data at present. 'There really is no good basis for collecting this information' according to Veldhuis. 'It's a cheap way for academics and social scientists to get information that I believe should be acquired using voluntary means.' He concludes that the information 'is used by central planners to plan how to tinker with the lives of Canadians' and suggests the government should assess Canadians' needs via more specific and smaller-scale market research.

Criticism has come from a broad range of groups, including academics, bankers, church groups and the Canadian Medical Association, and revolves around the loss of a good statistical base for decisions and resulting hindrance to the work of governments, community groups, non-profit organisations and researchers. Opponents say white, middle-class Canadians are most likely to complete the Census and increasing the sample size will increase the bias towards this group and away from groups including those with low income and education, immigrants and allophones. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophone_(Quebec) ).

The country's national statistical agency, Statistics Canada, issued a comprehensive report on response to the 2006 Census, which made no mention of privacy complaints. Canada's privacy commissioner - who was reportedly not consulted on the decision to change formats - has received just three complaints about the census in the last decade, none of which was upheld.

However, at a news conference on Friday, Industry Minister Tony Clement, who oversees Statistics Canada, said the complaints of citizens who objected to the census were not noticed because these people 'might not have access to the mainstream media or maybe they're not media-savvy'.' Clement says Statistics Canada presented him with three alternatives to the long form and opined that all of them were viable and should provide the robust information required.

Web site: www.statcan.gc.ca .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.