TRIEC and others urge the Government of Canada to reverse decision to drop mandatory completion of census long form

July 13, 2010

TRIEC firmly believes that Canada should keep the completion of the census long form mandatory and maintain its integral status as a public resource. We respectfully submit that the small percentage of the population opposed to completing the census is far outweighed by the many who stand to suffer if the data is not collected and analyzed properly.

Statisticians tell us that people who volunteer are not necessarily representative of the population as a whole. Aboriginal people, recent immigrants, and the poor are also less likely to fill in the long form.

TRIEC fears that the data generated going forward will not accurately capture the well-being of immigrants. The long form responses represent Canada’s best data on immigrant groups.

Read the open letter from TRIEC to the Government of Canada.

Read open letters from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Canadian Association for Business Economics and Canadian Institute of Planners.

Read opposition articles from:

• C.D. Howe, Good information comes at a price
• Globe and Mail, The federal government is senseless on the census
• Globe and Mail, Siddiqui: Gutting of census stirs opposition to Stephen Harper
• Globe and Mail, Liberals want Tony Clement called on carpet in census feud
• Globe and Mail, Privacy commissioner not consulted on plan to scrap compulsory census
• Macleans, Francophone federation says “Non” to census cut
• Financial Post, Critics say census changes could result in biased information
• CBC Radio, “The Current”
• CBC News, Inside Politics Blog, Behind the numbers: Taking Census: privacy versus the public good
• Inside Toronto.com, People most vulnerable will suffer by census change, coalition group says
• Toronto Star, MPP wants census restored

Read the follow up news release from Industry Canada.

TRIEC also urges the Government to carry out another longitudinal survey of immigrants, which underscores how well, or badly, newcomers are doing. As a country that relies on immigration for population and labour force growth, the health and well-being of immigrant groups determines how well we all do.

Reference: TRIEC