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Editorial

Who needs census data anyway? Oh wait…

Rob Maciak

During the 2006 Statistics Canada nationwide census I participated as an enumerator in several rural British Columbia areas. My daily task for approximately two weeks was to hand-deliver both the short and long-form questionnaires to some of the most remote areas of our province. I remember being impressed by Stat Can’s commitment to ensuring that every household in the country participated in the census regardless of their location. I’m sure some of you have heard about Prime Minister Harper’s latest and brightest idea to scrap the mandatory long-form census survey. I can’t say for certain what the impact of this will be on the statistical accuracy of the information collected. It’s not like I am a senior level statistician working for Statistics Canada. However, someone who is—or rather was—working for this critically important bureaucracy is Munir Sheikh, former head of Statistics Canada. So how does he feel about the Prime Minister’s decision to make the long-form questionnaire voluntary? I will tell you: Mr.Sheikh was so strongly opposed to the decision by this federal government that he quit. Well, they call it “resigned”, but you get the point. The government is citing privacy concerns as the rationale for canceling the long-form survey. I’m sure that many Canadians have valid concerns about answering some of the very probing personal questions in the census, but that is exactly why it must be mandatory. The national censuses that occur once every five years must be completed as thoroughly as possible. Information is not only gathered and weighed against national data, but locally collected information is used for local policy and management decisions. In some small communities in our country every data point matters given their limited populations.
This data is used to manage community services. A government willing to scrap a long-form census clearly doesn’t care about social development. I think that the next time taxes are due I’ll neglect to fill mine out and cite an infringement on personal privacy and charter rights as my reasoning. Statistics Canada is ranked as the best statistical agency in the world (according to their own website) because of their technical standards and commitment to protecting the privacy of individuals. As academics and researchers we are among a large group who depend on this information for conducting studies and managing our societies as best as possible now and in the future. This recent decision seems all too typical of a government who does not like to let facts get in their way of dictating our democracy.