Minister of Industry, Industry Canada C.D. Howe Building, 235 Queen Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H5 Canada
Dear Minister:
We are writing to request an opportunity to meet with you to discuss your Government’s recent decision to discontinue the Census long-form questionnaire and replace it with a new voluntary questionnaire, the National Household Survey.
We are greatly concerned about this decision. Loss of the long-form Census infor- mation will cause considerable economic and social costs. The data are a key part of the decision-making processes of businesses, marketers, public service providers, community service providers, and charities. The effectiveness and responsiveness of public policy initiatives of federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments will be compromised. Canada is a vast country with considerable differentiation in the economic and social situations by geographical location. For many purposes the long-form Census questionnaire is the only valid source of data available of a local nature.
We are all users of information derived from the Census long-form questionnaire, and we would appreciate the opportunity to explain to you how the loss of these data would impair our operations. For many of us this would mean a less efficient use of money we collect from Canadians, in some cases via Government grants. For all of us, it means we will be less sure if we are allocating our resources – be they funds or people – in an effective way, given our respective mandates.
We appreciate that the Government is attempting to broaden the coverage with the replacement to the long-form questionnaire. However, without similar compliance resources and requirements, it will not be possible to achieve reasonable data results with the voluntary form. Many problematic issues can be anticipated with such a move. The very high response rate to the Census provides an unrivalled accuracy and allows many other key sources of data we use from Statistics Canada to be benchmarked and to be drawn from appropriately weighted samples.
It is of course difficult to judge in advance the sort of overall response rate that would be realized for a voluntary survey. Tests of a move from mandatory to voluntary in the U.S. yielded unsatisfactory results and the process was dropped. Past experience indicates that the responses will not be representative of the total population. And in particular the responses from key communities of concern, such as the very poor, Aboriginal communities, recent immigrants and some ethno-racial communities, will likely be quite low. Effective health services would be compromised. Consequently, the impact of these changes will be disproportionately borne by those who are already most vulnerable.
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Without the full Census it will be difficult to know how to adjust the responses to correct these imbalances in response rates across socio-economic groups. It will also become more difficult to benchmark other key data series and determine how to effectively target other surveys with relatively smaller samples. Additionally, there will be a great loss in mon- itoring how various groups are doing over time as there will be a serious break in the data after 2006. This break will render all previous Census results less useful.
We represent a wide spectrum of economic and social interests. But we have a
common concern that our ability to function effectively will be seriously harmed by the changes announced to the Census. We hope you will be willing to meet with us to discuss your concerns and ours so that we can find a mutually satisfactory way to preserve the long-form Census so essential to all of us.
We understand that the far-reaching impacts of this decision may not have been fully anticipated and we respectfully request the opportunity to help find a solution that meets the needs of all Canadians.
Al Hatton, President of United Way Canada – Centraide Canada is available to help
coordinate a meeting at your earliest convenience. He can be reached at ahatton@unitedway.ca, or by phone at 613 236 7400.
Craig Alexander – President, Nicholas Gazzard – Executive Roger Martin – Dean,
Canadian Association for Director, Co-operative Housing Rotman School of Management, Business Economics and Federation of Canada University of Toronto Chief Economist, TD Bank Ken Georgetti – President, Nik Nanos – President and CEO, Rachel Bard – CEO, Canadian Labour Congress Nanos Research Canadian Nurses Association Roger Gibbins – President and Dr. Cordell Neudorf – Chair, Ken Battle – President, CEO, Canada West Foundation Canadian Public Health Association Caledon Institute of Social Policy Al Hatton – President and CEO, Mark Stabile – Director, School Marni Cappe – President, United Way of Canada – of Public Policy and Governance, Canadian Institute of Planners Centraide Canada University of Toronto Mel Cappe – President and Alex Himelfarb – Director, Penni Stewart – President, CEO, Institute for Research on Glendon School of Public and Canadian Association of Public Policy, and former Clerk International Affairs, and former University Teachers of the Privy Council Clerk of the Privy Council Peggy Taillon – Executive Director, Debbie Douglas – Executive Dr. Matthew Hodge – President, Canadian Council on Director, Ontario Council of National Specialty Society for Social Development Agencies Serving Immigrants Community Medicine Mike Veall – President Elect, Don Drummond – Donald Jan Kestle – President, Canadian Economic Association Matthews Fellow and Distinguished Environics Analytics Visiting Scholar, School of Policy Carol Wilding – President and Studies, Queen's University, former Frances Lankin – President and CEO, Toronto Board of Trade Chief Economist of the TD Bank CEO, United Way Toronto and former ADM of Finance
cc. The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister
