Concerns About the 2011 Canadian Census
I have been following a discussion about the concerns regarding the government’s cancellation of the long-form questionnaire for the 2011 Canadian Census. The following message just went out over the Canadian law libraries listserv CALL-L. I have reproduced it here with the author’s permission:
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing to draw your attention to a serious issue that has arisen regarding the upcoming 2011 Canadian census. The government has decided to cancel the census long-form questionnaire and replace it with a voluntary survey, which cannot be counted on to produce reliable information.
The decision poses a severe problem for researchers in a wide range of disciplines. The census long form is the source for data on the Canadian population’s education level, income, ethnic and religious makeup, occupations, and other key characteristics. It is also used to produce the census micro-data files that allow analysis of relationships among individual and household characteristics.
If you haven’t already done so, you can find out more about the proposed changes and their impact on social statistics research here: http://www.ciqss.umontreal.ca/en/census2011.html. Please make your various networks aware of the far-reaching consequences this decision could have, and consider taking one or more of the actions suggested on the web site datalibre.ca.
Thank you.
Dan Edelstein—————————————————-
Daniel M. Edelstein
Academic Director
Windsor Research Data Centre
Thanks to Annette Demers for forwarding this message and making us aware of this issue.
Is it something about Conservative governments? Cameron’s Tories criticized the 2011 census questions as invasive,intrusive and unsuitable – and the BBC reports may well cut back census questions along the lines of Harper’s Canadian conservatives.
It makes one wonder how rational policy is to be planned in future.
Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart had argued for strong consent provisions after the furore about releasing 90 year old census forms. And she opposed the cross-border outsourcing of census form processing.
But does anyone know whether the Privacy Commissioner’s office considers census questionnaires inherently at odds with strong privacy protection?
Here is a link to the letter from the Statistical Society of Canada signed by Don McLeish, President, Statistical Society of Canada, Bovas Abraham, Past-President, Statistical Society of Canada, John Brewster, President-elect, Statistical Society of Canada, and Sastry G. Pantula, President, American Statistical Association
David Eaves wrote a strong piece on this subject that appeared in the Globe & Mail last week: “Why you should care about the sudden demise of the mandatory long census form“.
Some great resources, thank you. I should point out that MP Tony Clement has been responding to concerns about his decision via Twitter. Essentially he has been saying the census long form will go to more people to off-set fewer people filling it in voluntarily, and that the statisticians will ensure it is accurate. The counter-argument is that randomness in the sample will be lost if some people do not fill it out voluntarily.
CBC is liveblogging and streaming the Industry Committee hearings today. See http://tinyurl.com/27z4oed