As part of my PhD dissertation research I have been investigating the Census of Canada. I have a dbase of all the questions since 1871 being edited at the moment and needless to say copious notes. Here is a small extraction that is of relevance to the debates about the census at the moment.

The list is not exhaustive and not fully edited, but does provide insight as to why those questions are asked and why those who know the census are outraged.  It also remains uncertain how the changes will be able to address the legislative requirements.

1. Aboriginal Identity: Employment Equity Act; Indian Act; Multiculturalism Program; Aboriginal Human Resources Development Strategy, used by aboriginal governments, communities, and organizations, characteristics of on and off reserve populations
2. Activity limitations: Data are used to develop and manage transportation, housing, communications, employment equity and other programs.
3. Certificates, diplomas and degrees, field of specialization: Employment Equity Act, Immigration Act, Canada Student Loans Program,
4. Citizenship: Citizenship Act, Canadian Multiculturalism Act, Immigration Act, voting and electoral planning.
5. Common-law status: first asked in 1991, track changes in family structure and family relationships, and prevalence of cohabitation. De facto marital status is also assessed. Common-law data from 1986 and 1981 were derived from relationship to person questions. changes in family structure and family relationships, prevalence of cohabitation, first time in 1991, formerly it was derived, opposite sect included, Same acts as marital.
6. Difficulties with daily activities: Started in 1991. Used for the Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS). Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Employment Equity Act, Canada Health and Social Transfer.
7. Ethnic origin: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Multicultural Program, diversity measure in Canada, and characteristics of ethnic groups, also required for the Multiculturalism Act and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
8. Full-time or part-time work: EI, Old Age Security Act, Canada Pension Plan.
9. Household activities: included for the 1st time in 1996, to measure contributions made from unpaid work, to “give a picture of both the market and non-market component of Canadian Society” (Statistics Canada, 1997:69).
10. Housing: assess current state of hosing stock, evaluate future needs, national Housing Act and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Act, mortgage loan insurance programs, new homeowners insurance programs, land management programs, housing assistance programs, etc. this was asked of 20% sample instead of a 80% sample.
11. Income: social assistance, EI, Old Age Security Act, indicator of the economic well being of Canadians, only source of small area information on income, draw comparision between groups, sources of income, and to analyze income composition,
12. Indian Band/First nation membership and Treaty/Registered Indian: Employment equity act, Indian Act, Aboriginal Business Canada Program, and Aboriginal Human Resources Development Strategy.
13. Knowledge of English and French: Official Languages Act; Citizenship Act, Official Languages Support Program.
14. Knowledge of non-official languages: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Citizenship Acts, Multiculturalism Program.
15. Labour Market: can be used for EI, social assistance, education and training, Incorporation status, place of work, mode of transport to work, language at work
16. Language of work: insight into the vitality of official languagues among official and non official minority language groups, use of language on the job, linguistic integration assessment, integration of allophones immigrants into the labour force
17. Language: to administer Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Also need of language training, assess language skills, home language was added in 1971, to study linguistic assimilation in Canada and to evaluate language programs to help linguistic groups maintain their heritage and to assess which official languages are learned.
18. Languages learned at home: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Citizenship Acts, Multiculturalism Program.
19. Languages spoken at home: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Citizenship Acts, Multiculturalism Program.
20. Marital Status: for producing family data, population estimates, prior to 1991 common-law couples responded as married, analysis between legal marriage and co-habitation. Canada Child Tax Benefit, Old Age Security Program, Canada Pension Plan and Same sex couples
21. Mobility: Canada elections act, Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangement Act, Official Languages Support Program. Measure pop growth, migration in intercensal years, benchmark data to adjust intercensal estimates, migratory statistics, pop growth, mechanism used by the labour market to smooth out income and employment disparities, population estimates needed for the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements and Federal Post-Secondary Education and Health Contributions Act. I year mobilities was added here,
22. Mode of transportation to work: first time, meet the needs of users such as transportation planners and engineers, boards and market analysis. To plan urban growth and transportation networks, environmental impact and energy consumption with transportation.
23. Number or rooms / bedrooms: helps to evaluate overcrowding, dwelling size, housing condition and quality of life,
24. Period of construction: life cycle of buildings, housing renovations, emergency repair programs, RRAP programs,
25. Place of Birth of Parents: Citizenship Act, Immigration Act, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom (but this is a new question so…), second and third generation Canadians.
26. Place of birth: Citizenship Act, Canadian Multiculturalism Act, Immigration Act, adaptation to Canadian culture.
27. Place of work: used to assess commuting, and its impact on the lives of Canadians, to identify requirements for transportation, public service locations (e.g. schools), help urban transportation planners, traffic patter analysis,
28. Population Groups – Employment Equity Act, Official Languages Act, Canadian Multiculturalism Act,
29. Relationship to person 1: Canada Child Tax Benefit, Old Age Security Program, Canada Pension Plan.
30. Religions: Cultural Integration Program, Cultural Enrichment Program, Multiculturalism Program
31. Schooling: illiteracy, remedial programming, continuing education market, refreshing workers skills, (no legislation or program requirements with this one)
32. Shelter cost: National Housing Act, Canada Pension Plan, Canada Health and Social Transfer.
33. Unpaid Work: Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program, Women’s Program and National Advisory Council on Aging
34. Visible Minority – employment equity, status thereof,
35. Year of Immigration: Programs – Language instruction for New Comers to Canada; Independent, Sponsored Immigration and Refugees; Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program,
36. Yearly payment on shelter costs: estimate costs, developing and evaluating housing, welfare and public service programs

This is a list of only the major requirements, there are over 80 pieces of legislation and acts that require census data for the operationalization and implementation of the act’s related programs, services, etc.

• Ottawa Citizen: Statisticians go wild
• MaClean’s: Tony Clement needs you (II)
• My Two Census: Another Canadian Follow-up
• The News Ledger: NOMA – “A lack of current, accurate Census data will be especially challenging…”
  The Chronicle Herald: Opposition growing to Tories’ census changes http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1192184.html
• Restore Canada’s 2011 long form census is on Facebook
• CBC news: Census changes bad for public: economist
• New Democrats: Did I say media storm over the census?
• The Immigrants’ Canada: National Household Survey: Canadian Medical Association
• City Councilor Gord Perks
• Canada.com: Fraser Institute dismisses need for mandatory long-form census
• Toronto Star: Conservative and Liberal MPs ready to square off on census debate
• The Progressive Economist Forum: The Anti-Information Information Society, Brought To You By the Anti-Government Government
  
• Globe online poll: Census (the best part is I can vote many many times on this poll!)
• The Progressive Economist Forum: The Globe’s Experiment in Census-Taking http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2010/07/18/the-globe%E2%80%99s-experiment-in-census-taking/
• Post Media: Count on it: long-form census basic to decision-making in Canada
• Winnipeg Free Press: Statistics Canada never recommended census changes, multiple sources tell CP
• Global National News: Tories agree to explain decision to scrap long-form census
• Toronto Sun: Language czar launches probe into scrapping of long-form census
• Globe and Mail Editorial: Flawed arguments for census changes
• Globe and Mail: Placating Tory base on the census causes Harper government grief – Question remains whether the Conservatives will ride out the controversy or retreat in the face of united opposition
• A worthwhile Canadian Initiative: A question for Maxime Bernier
• A worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Libertarians and the census
• Ottawa Citizen: Chopsticks and onion rings – A lively new history contends that Chinese restaurants played an important role in the development of Canada’s small towns, Bruce Ward writes.
• Canadian Press: Tories want immediate hearings on census
• Runesmiths’s canadian Content: Fun Facts About the Census
• Toronto Star: Conservative and Liberal MPs ready to square off on census debate
• Canada.com: Tories agree to explain decision to scrap long-form census
• Macleans: Civil liberties are in the eye of the beholder
• A worthwhile Canadian Initiative: My Soultion To This Census Mess
• Globe and Mail: Long-form census? Nah, we’ll ask Paul the octopus
• List of Toronto Start Articles: Census Flap
• Globe and Mail: PM’s census policy senseless but great for the party
• National Post: Long-form census critical, group says
• Save the Census Coalition:
• la Presses Affaires: L’entêtement de Tony Clement
• Financial Post: Long-form census is too intrusive
• CBC News: Future of Sask. census prosecution in question
• le Soleil: Une décision qui favorise l’ignorance et l’obscurantisme
• Postmedia news: Count on it: long-form census basic to decision-making in Canada
• The Montreal Gazette: Fraser Institute’s
• Macleans: No comment
• The Immigrant’s Canada: Minister Tony Clement: Marc Garneau
• Le Devoir: Recensement – Les députés conservateurs veulent s’expliquer en comité Ceux qui nient le caractère intrusif du questionnaire long «ne savent pas de quoi ils parlent», croit Maxime Bernier
• The Chronicle Herald: Opposition growing to Tories’ census changes
• The Western Standard: WS on the census: Paul McKeever “Optional long form census a blow to racism”
• Liliath News: Stephen Harper hates StatsCan
• Pasco Phronesis Muddling Through Science and Technology Policy: Canada’s Counting Problem
• Sports News Now: Commuting snapshots across the Spacing map
• Institut de la statistique Quebec: 2011 CENSUS: IMPACT ON QUÉBEC
• Urban Futures Open Letter: Come to you Census!
• Canadian Jewish Congress: Taking the Measure of a Country
• Le Devoir: Huit questions pour décrire une société ?
  Pour les conservateurs, c’est parce qu’ils se méfient de l’État que les citoyens ne se plaignent pas du recensement
• Macleans: Sometimes a gaffe is more than a gaffe POTTER: The comedy of Clement failing basic economics aside, it’s scary that he doesn’t understand his file
• Mayor Dave Bronconnier of Calgary sent letters to the Federal Government (Clement and Calgary MPs) and the Premier of Alberta urging reinstatement of the census long-form.
• Times Colonist: Long census form has lasting value

Previous Posts.

• Toronto Star: Axing census questions adds up to trouble for Tories
  “Truly a stupid decision,’’ Liberal critic says
• The Province: Liberals want to recall committee to study census
• Liberals Art and Culture: Census 2011: Mauril Belanger Supports the Commissioner of Official Languages
• Canadian Institute of Planners: Letter
• Canadian Urban Institute: Proposed Changes on How Canada Collects Census Data Not in the Public Interest
• Lumina: 2011 Census (Reprise)
• The Contrarian: Harper’s Reformers vandalize the census
• The Kingston Whig Standard: Privacy watchdog satisfied with 2011 census
• Canadian Medical Association Journal: Ideology trumps evidence with new voluntary survey
• The Progressive Economics Forum: Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)
• The Calgary Herald: Census censure
• Canada.Com: Tony Clement willing to testify before MPs about census
• Canadian Marketing Association: CMA calls on government to retain mandatory detailed census form
• Radio Canada: Québec désapprouve à son tour
• Le Soleil: Recensement: non à l’abandon du questionnaire long
• Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Blame Stats Canada!
• G&M Poll:
• Individual Action: do something really boring today
• National Post: National Post editorial board: Leave the long-form census alone
• Creative Class: by Richard Florida Politics vs. Data
• Canadian News Wire: La CREPUQ s’oppose fermement à la décision du gouvernement fédéral d’abolir l’obligation de remplir la version longue du questionnaire du recensement de 2011
• Gouvernment du Quebec: RECENSEMENT 2011: IMPACTS POUR LE QUÉBEC
• Ottawa Citizen Editorial Board: Admit the mistake
• The Progressive Economics Forum: Jewish, Evangelical groups oppose census change
• CTV news: Jewish, Evangelical groups oppose census change

Lists:

• CAPDU: List of media stories from CIQSS at l’Universite de Montreal
• Canada Social Data Strategy
• David Eaves: Save the Census Coalition
• Canadian Council on Social Development
• Previous Post (Cumulative List of Media)

Conservative Bloggers:

• Pragmatictory: Big Census
• Doubleblind: Long Form Census-changes
• Barrelstrength: The Long Form Census What Were They Thinking

Here are a bunch more reads on the Census Cuts. I glean these from information people send me, twitter @ these tags #census #cdnpoli #statcan and from goodle alerts.

• Canada.com: Privacy commissioner sees few complaints about census form
• Le Devoir Recensement – L’État n’a rien à faire… dans les salles de bain! Les conservateurs estiment qu’il est répressif de demander aux gens le «nombre de salles de bain» que compte leur maison
• CBC Inside Politics Blog: Behind the numbers: Taking Census: privacy versus the public good
• CBC: Man. Francophones upset over census move
• The Montreal Gazette: Coalition urges Tories to reverse census stand Long form provides vital information to society: groups
• Bloomberg BusinessWeek: Canada Won’t Reconsider Making Census Form Voluntary
• Best Growth Stock: UPDATE 1-Canada under fire for statistics agency changes
• C.D. Howe Institute: Cancelling the 2011 Census Long Form: Libertarians Take Out the Wrong Target
• Settlement.org:  Commissioner Launches Investigation into Decision to Eliminate Long-Form Questionnaire for 2011 Census
• The Province: 2011 census changes hit
• Guelph Tribure: Optional long census will hit the community
• Ottawa Citizen: Change in census law could affect city planning Federal government plans to make long form voluntary.
• Winnipeg Free Press: Less information to cost more: expert Manitoba statistician pans census change
• Canada East: Official languages commissioner launches investigation into census change
• Globe and Mail: Privacy commissioner not consulted on plan to scrap compulsory census
• Globe and Mail: Good information comes at a price
• Winnipeg Free Press: Privacy commissioner not consulted on decision to scrap ‘intrusive’ census
• Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association and the BC Non Profit Housing Association: Statements
• Financial Post: Privacy commissioner sees few complaints about census form
• Royal Ontario Institute: Government Digs In Their Heels on 2011 Census Changes
• Globe and Mail Ottawa Report: Liberals want Tony Clement called on carpet in census feud
• The Mark: The Conservatives’ Census Fail There’s an easy way the opposition could expose Tony Clement and the Conservatives for lying about long-form census complaints.
• Macleans: The census coalition
• Canada.com: Liberal Marc Garneau calls census changes a ‘secret, manipulative’ move
• Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MIRA) Letter: Cancellation of the Mandatory Long-Form Census Questionnaire
• Institute for Economic Affairs: The census only serves to perpetuate the illusion that central planning is possible
• Montreal Gazette: Coalition urges Tories to reverse census stand Long form provides vital information to society: groups
• Toronto Star: Siddiqui: PM facing revolt over census change
• Radio Canada: Trois plaintes en dix ans
• National Post: Census changes a ‘manipulative’ move: Liberal
• The Corch: Supporting Good Data
• Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Tony Clement makes a statement – perhaps not the one he intended.
• Global News: Privacy commissioner sees few complaints about census form
• Le Devoir: Recensement: les raisons d’Ottawa taillées en piècesAucune question sur le nombre de salles de bain. Une seule plainte en 2001, deux en 2006.

Previous posts on the Census:

1. Census Hide & Seek and Language Watch Dogs
2. Consultation (real) Results
3. Conspiracy about the Census & the Consultation?
4. Industry Canada says the census is not part of the Digital Economy
5. More Media on Political Gerrymandering of the Census
6. More on the Census Cuts
7. 2011 Census severely slashed

It is done folks!

And now we know that it was a consultation gone bad. One where the second most popular item was voted off the island by the technocrats in charge – Media relations no doubt – the new source of Canada’s wisdom, truth and knowledge. It was also a consultation that was extended right when the Census submission was moving up the ranks, open data was in the lead and out of nowhere comes an HPC submission that rises to prominence on the day the consultation is extended.

We were never informed why the consultation was extended. I thought it was because it was broken for a weekend. I can’t confirm that because, well, we do not know who is in charge, I was told my Media Relations Official Michel Cimpaye that the ‘Sector’ is in charge. But alas, I think it was something more sinister, like, Clement did not like the Thorn in his side, the Census win, so he ordered the extension and then hid the Census submission. Or, maybe someone lobbied to extend so they could submit, maybe they listened to citizens (not). We may never know with this government.

Here are the real top 4:

463 votes – To Compete You Must Compute submitted by Susan Baldwin 2010-07-08 08:32:20 EDT, Susan Baldwin (Ex Officio) Executive Director of Compute Canada. Submitted on the same day the Consultation was extended. It rose very fast.

389 votes – Reinstate our Census Long Form aka Questionnaire 2B, Submitted by CCSD 2010-07-06 22:52:21ED, by Peggy Taillon Executive Director of the Canadian Council on Social Development and the Lead of the Canadian Social Data Strategy. Submitted 2 days before the consultation was extended, it rose higher than Open Access did and based on email logs it disappeared around Friday July 9th. It remained accessible via a direct link http://de-en.gc.ca/2010/07/06/reinstate-our-census-long-form-aka-questionnaire-2b/ but was removed (1) (2) (3) from the front page in the top 3 and from Theme: Canada’s Digital Content.

338 votes – Open Access to Canada’s Public Sector Information and Data, Submitted by Tracey Lauriault 2010-06-10 11:28:30 EDT, CivicAccess List and datalibre.ca. It was submitted in June and rose slowly up the ranks, beat by Census and then HPC.

197 votes – Improved access to publicly-funded data, Submitted by rakerman 2010 2010-06-03 22:49:09 EDT. Richard Akerman, his was the early submission, it was at the top for a long time and remained in the top 3.

Saturday July 17, from 11am-4pm

Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue

The tag/hashtag for the event is #cco10

You can register through EventBrite, or contact us at changecampottawa@gmail.com

ChangeCamp is a free participatory web-enabled face-to-face event, which addresses the demand for a renewed relationship among citizens and government. The mission of ChangeCamp is to innovate how Canadian governments engage with citizens in an age of mass participation on the Internet. The event aims to develop action plans, for initiatives to improve participation in municipal governance utilizing web-technologies.

Building on the success of ChangeCamp 2009, ChangeCamp 2010 is an event being organized by the Ottawa community to bring together citizens, technologists, designers, academics, policy makers, political players, change-makers and government employees to discuss participatory governance at the municipal level in a web-enabled world. The key theme of this event is:

Data liberation and open, transparent and participative government

Are you interested in exploring ways better your community through improved access to information managed by various governments in the National Capital Region? Imagine being able to combine budgetary, health and voting information from all three levels of government to better understand how your tax dollars are being spent. Recently the City of Ottawa adopted the principles of Open Government and approved a contest for the creation of mobile and web applications to make use of its data with $50 000 in prizes and incentives.

ChangeCamp is a solutions playground open to anyone, where admission and ideas are free. ChangeCamp Ottawa is a unique opportunity. It is taking place in one of the most technologically connected and politically charged environments in the country.

ChangeCamp Ottawa is looking for those interested in e-governance, communications and policy. Are you in?

Register now: http://changecampottawa2010.eventbrite.com/

A Senate question on language issues has resulted in

Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser say[ing] he wants to see whether the government respected its legal obligations when it made the decision.

(Canadian Press)

and

Graham Fraser, commissaire aux langues officielles, a annoncé aujourd’hui qu’il allait procéder à une enquête sur la décision d’Industrie Canada d’éliminer le questionnaire complet du Recensement de 2011.

(Site Officiel du Commissariat)

Phew! Some are taking their offices seriously to ensure that Ministers follow law. The Census has many legislative obligations and one can’t just change it. Those laws are there for a reason, and even the Industry Minister can’t change that. Fortunately for us, there are many dedicated former Statistics Canada employees and Chief Statisticians who stand up for what is right. There are also numerous other organizations working on this issue:

The Canadian Economics Association, the Canada Census Committee, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the Statistical Society of Canada, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and multiple newspaper editorial boards are among those that have spoken out against the decision.

While others such as

representatives from business and finance, health and social services and other levels of government say the long form is vital to the country’s health and well-being

are forming coalitions to call on government to reverse the census decision. Even the cartographers, archivists and librarians are on the case with the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives (ACMLA) and have written a letter to Mr. Clement on this issue. Data pundits, experts, academics, associations, cities, and business people have spoken loud and clear – do not politically interfere with the Canadian Census.

And so, what does the minister do when his smartest citizens provide him with advice on what not to do? On his own public consultation, he removes the #2 most popular submission and relegates it to outcast status as his Media Relations personnel claims that:

changes to the Census are important, [but] they are not directly related to the development of a digital economy strategy for Canada

So there we have it. The nations smart people speak and the nation’s leaders play hide and seek with consultations, make up evidence to make decisions and forget to check and see if they might have broken any laws. This is the state of our democracy folks. Media relations people are the new spokespeople. Democracies are fragile indeed.

References:

Here is the response I received just moments ago from Industry Canada:

The Government of Canada is interested in the ideas and views of all Canadians.

While the changes to the Census are important, they are not directly related to the development of a digital economy strategy for Canada.

Hence, the post was moved to the off-topic section of the site. It is still available for reading and can be accessed by searching the consultation web site and at its original URL (http://de-en.gc.ca/2010/07/06/reinstate-our-census-long-form-aka-questionnaire-2b/).

The site’s Terms of Use clearly state that all postings are expected to be on-topic and relevant, and off-topic ideas will be moved to an off-topic section.

All the best

MC
Michel Cimpaye
Media Relations
Industry Canada
613-943-2502
email: media-relations-medias@ic.gc.ca

I responded with the following questions:

Thank you.

Can you please explain explicitly how this is off topic? I have read the consultation paper at least 3 times and based on what I have read it fits perfectly in Canada’s Digital Content theme.

The Census and its digital data inform and direct the knowledge economy, the digital economy for which it is the purpose of this consultation.

You indicated that there may have been duplication of content. Can you please point me to where such duplication exists? And if that is the case, could you not use the votes received on the Census submission and add them to the duplicate?

Also, can you please advise who precisely made this decision? Who is responsible for this file and who is responsible for the decision you sent?

When was the decision made using precisely which criteria?

How were the 337 +/- Canadians who voted on this submission advised that they were voting on a submission that was removed?

Is there a public announcements?

Can you advise if the person who has submitted this has been advised?

Sincerely
Tracey

1984 comes to mind as does the movie Brazil!

Here is the latest on Media pick-up on cuts to the Census. I am sure I have missed some, and may even have repeated one or two. Please do not hesitate to send more or to point out errors.

Previous Posts with media links: