Manitoba’s chief statistician applauds the return of long-form census

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This article was published 04/11/2015 (3339 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Manitoba’s chief statistician is ecstatic that the Liberal government is bringing back the compulsory long-form census, calling it “better than the invention of the proverbial wheel.”

Wilf Falk says Manitobans should be glad the long-form census is back, since it will be both cheaper and more useful than the 2011 voluntary National Household Survey that replaced it.

Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains held a press conference on Parliament Hill this morning to announce the return of the compulsory census for 2016.

“Our plan for open and fair government starts with the reinstatement of the mandatory long-form census,” he said.

“With the 2016 Census of Population Program, communities will once again have access to high-quality data they require to make decisions that will truly reflect the needs of the people, the businesses, institutions and organizations.”

In 2010 the Conservatives cancelled the mandatory long-form census in favour of a voluntary household survey.

Here’s a look at what we don’t know about Manitoba, because of the voluntary National Household Survey.

It cost Statistics Canada $22 million more to do the voluntary survey because it was sent to more people. But since it was voluntary, it had much lower rates of response, and Statistics Canada was forced to withhold detailed information about hundreds of communities across the country because of poor data quality.

“The data is all about good decision making, and you want to have a clear picture about whatever the community is that you’re interested in,” said Falk today.

“It’s sort of like looking at a picture. You want a high resolution picture, so you can see everything, as opposed to some cloudy picture where you really can’t make out what’s really going on.”

About one-fifth of the population – carefully selected to represent a cross-section of Canadians – will be asked to fill out the long-form census and everyone is asked to complete the short form. The data from the long-form is then extrapolated to give an idea of the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of communities.

A big change in the 2016 census is that the forms will no longer ask about income, making them significantly less intrusive and quicker to fill out. Statistics Canada will get that information from tax returns instead.

“A lot of times Statistics Canada uses enumerators, who are local individuals, and if you’re living in a small town, and let’s say for argument the StatsCan enumerator is your neighbour or very close to you, you don’t want them looking over you and seeing your income,” Falk said. “That’s taken away now.”

Bains could not say exactly how the government intends to enforce the mandatory nature of the long-form census.

Currently the law provides for fines up to $500 or three months in jail for people who don’t fill out the mandatory census – about one-fifth of the population is asked to fill out the more detailed survey.

Bains would say only “the law is the law” when asked about penalties.

Falk wasn’t concerned about the penalties, pointing out that no Canadian has ever been jailed for not filling out the census, and only a handful are charged and fined.

The Liberals tried numerous times to bring the long-form census back while in opposition. New Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett had a bill in 2010 that would have brought it back but without jail time. It passed second reading in a minority parliament but only had one meeting at committee before the 2011 election.

Liberal Ted Hsu, who didn’t run again in this election, had another bill that was voted down last winter.