2011 Canadian census
Statistics Canada—an agency of the Canadian federal government—conducts a nationwide census every five years. Completion of the Census is mandatory for all Canadians and those who do not complete it may face penalties ranging from fines to jail time.[1] The Canada 2011 Census will be a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population on May 10, 2011. It will consist of a mandatory short form questionnaire and a voluntary National Household Survey. [2] The replacement of the mandatory long form questionnaire by the NHS has been the focus of much controversy.
The Statistics Act mandates a Senate and/or House of Commons (joint) committee review of the opt-in clause (for the release of one's census records after 92 years) by 2014.[3]
The 2011 Census will be the fifteenth decennial census, required by section 8 of the Constitution Act, 1867.[4] As with other decennial censuses, the data will be used to adjust federal electoral district boundaries.[5]
Forecasts
In 2011, Statistics Canada projects Canada's population will reach 34.5 million people[6]
Questionnaire revision
Short Form
The original schedule of the short form questions for the 2011 Census of Population was published in the Canada Gazette, Part I on August 21, 2010.[7] The 2011 Census will actually consist of those eight, the same eight questions that appeared on the 2006 Census short-form questionnaire, with the addition of two questions on language.[8] The federal Minister of Industry Tony Clement announcement that questions about language would appear on the mandatory short-form census came in response to a lawsuit brought by the Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities, which claimed that the voluntary status of the long-form census would impact language-related government services.[9]
In addition to possible questions on activity limitation,[10] various organizations have already called for changes for the upcoming census:
- Adding "Aboriginal identifier" to the short form (already found on the long form).[11]
- Relationship of same-sex married couples.[12]
- Place of work and transportation-related questions.[13]
- Food security questions.[14]
National Household Survey
The National Household Survey (NHS) will be conducted within four weeks of the May 2011 Census and will include approximately 4.5 million households.[15] The information collected by the NHS is intended to replace the data from the previous long-form census questionnaire. This questionnaire will cover most of the same topics as the 2006 Census.
Various industry professionals have indicated that the data collected by the NHS will not be compatible with the data previously collected by the long form questionnaire.[16] Many of the same professionals have indicated that the data gathered by a voluntary survey will not be of the same quality as the previous mandatory long form.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]
Census of Agriculture
The Census of Agriculture will add options allowing Statistics Canada to access the respondents' financial data from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) given the Business Number of the farm.[25]
Voluntary long-form survey controversy
Ahead of the 2011 Census, the Conservative government announced that the long-form questionnaire will no longer be mandatory. This decision was made by the June 17th 2010 Order in Council created by the Minister of Industry defining the questions for the 2011 Census as including only the short-form questions; this was published in the Canada Gazette on June 26th 2010[26], however a news release was not issued by Minister of Industry Tony Clement until July 13th 2010. This release stated in part "The government will retain the mandatory short form that will collect basic demographic information. To meet the need for additional information, and to respect the privacy wishes of Canadians, the government has introduced the voluntary National Household Survey"[27] On July 30th 2010 Statistics Canada published a description of the National Household Survey, intended to be sent to about 4.5 million households. Industry minister Tony Clement stated that the change to voluntary forms was made because of privacy-related complaints, though he acknowledged that the decision was made without consulting organizations and governments that work closely with Statistics Canada. Clement had previously said that this change was made on the advice of Statistics Canada.[28]
The move has been criticized by a number of organizations and individuals and has been the subject of some amusing satirical articles. [29] The new voluntary form is judged to be less accurate than the mandatory long form by many industry professionals and the organizations which make use of the data. Ivan Fellegi, the former Chief Statistician of Canada originally appointed in 1985 by the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, said that he would have quit his job if the government had taken this change during his tenure. He claims that those who are most vulnerable (such as the poor, new immigrants, and aboriginals) are least likely to respond to a voluntary form, which weakens information about their demographic. [30] Munir Sheikh, Fellegi's successor as Chief Statistician appointed by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper on February 15th 2008[31], resigned on July 21, 2010 in protest of the Conservative government's change in policy.[32] In a public letter, Sheikh wrote that he could not legally comment on what advice he had given the government regarding the census, but he did comment against the government's decision, writing:
I want to take this opportunity to comment on a technical statistical issue which has become the subject of media discussion. This relates to the question of whether a voluntary survey can become a substitute for a mandatory census.
It can not.
— Munir Sheikh[33]
The National Citizens Coalition and the Fraser Institute support the change. [34] The strongly libertarian National Citizens Coalition, which claims a membership of between 40,000 and 45,000, is continuing to campaign against the mandatory long form census.[35]
Groups against the change come from all parts of the political spectrum, and include the Federation of Canadian Municipalities; Atlantic Provinces Economics Council; City of Toronto; National Statistical Council;[36] Canadian Jewish Congress; Evangelical Fellowship of Canada;[37] Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops;[38] Canadian Medical Association[39]; Statistical Society of Canada; the American Statistical Association[40]; Registered Nurses Association of Ontario; Canadian Conference of the Arts; and the governments of Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Manitoba.[41]
On July 19, 2010, representatives from several institutions signed a letter expressing their disapproval of the change, and their desire to speak to Clement to find another solution. The organizations represented were:
- Canadian Association for Business Economics
- Canadian Nurses Association
- Caledon Institute of Social Policy
- Canadian Institute of Planners
- Institute for Research on Public Policy
- Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants
- Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada
- Canadian Labour Congress
- Canada West Foundation
- United Way of Canada
- Glendon School of Public and International Affairs
- National Specialty Society for Community Medicine
- Environics Analytics
- The University of Toronto School of Public Policy and Governance and Rotman School of Management
- Nanos Research
- Canadian Public Health Association
- Canadian Association of University Teachers
- Canadian Council on Social Development
- Canadian Economic Association
- Toronto Board of Trade
A House of Commons industry committee special hearing on July 27, 2010 heard that during the previous census, out of approximately 12 million forms, 166 complaints were known to be received directly or indirectly.[42] In answer to Clement's claim that those who don't fill out the census risk jail time, Jack Layton, leader of the national New Democratic Party, noted that in the entire history of the census, the government had not prosecuted and jailed a single person for failing to complete the census, and pointed out that the threat could be removed entirely by amending the legislation so that incarceration is no longer a penalty for refusal to complete the census.[43] In response, the government announced plans to introduce legislation to remove the threat of jail time for anyone refusing to fill out any mandatory government surveys. [44]
Some groups have argued that the decision was motivated by a wish to destroy a useful tool for social advocacy, by making it harder to identify and count disadvantaged groups.[45] However, the Conservative government maintains that its reasoning for the cancellation is that they do not believe it is appropriate to force Canadians to divulge detailed personal information under threat of prosecution. [46]
On October 20, 2010, Statistics Canada predicted that a voluntary long-form would result in a decline of total respondents from 94% to 50%. Consequentially, they expect a "substantial risk of non-response bias" and plans to "[adapt] its data collection and other procedures to mitigate as much as possible against these risks." The response rate also led them to predict an increased risk of sampling errors, due to the fact that only 16% of the Canadian population would be surveyed, as opposed to 19% under a mandatory long-form similar to the one in 2006.[47] The government announced in August 2010 that it would be spending $30 million dollars on a campaign aimed at increasing the response rate to the voluntary form but information released by Statistics Canada in December 2010 revealed that half of this money would be required for tasks unrelated to the promotional campaign. [48]
Data releases
In late 2010, Statistics Canada issued the release dates of the first five census topics from the forthcoming 2011 census. The topics and its release dates are as follows:[49]
- Population and dwelling counts – February 8, 2012;
- Age and sex – May 29, 2012;
- Families, households and marital status – September 19, 2012;
- Structural type of dwelling and collectives – September 19, 2012; and
- Language – October 24, 2012.
See also
References
- ^ "Has anyone ever been jailed for not filling out the long form census?". Canada.com Blogs. 2010-08-04. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
- ^ "Statement on 2011 Census". Industry Canada. 2010-07-13. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
- ^ "Bill S-18: An Act to amend the Statistics Act". Retrieved 2006-07-03.
- ^ Constitution Act, 1867
- ^ "Elections Canada: General Information". Retrieved 2006-07-03.
- ^ "Canadian Statistics: Projected Population". Retrieved 2006-06-30.
- ^ "Canada Gazette > Part I: Notices and Proposed Regulations > 2010-08-21".
- ^ "Tories make language concession on census". The Globe and Mail. 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2010-09-16.
- ^ "Canada Gazette > Part I: Notices and Proposed Regulations > 2010-08-21".
- ^ "2006 Census Consultation Report: Activity Limitation". Retrieved 2006-07-03.
- ^ "Congress of Aboriginal Peoples: Annual General Assembly: Resolution 2". 2004-04-17. Retrieved 2006-07-03. [dead link]
- ^ "Same-sex marriage supporters say wording of 2006 census discriminates". Canoe. Retrieved 2006-07-03. [dead link]
- ^ "Transportation Association of Canada: Urban Transportation Council (minutes)" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-07-03. [dead link]
- ^ "Toronto Board of Health: Food Security: Implications for Early Years Population" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-07-03.
- ^ "2011 Census questionnaire". 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2010-09-07.
- ^ "Critics say census changes could result in biased information". Canada.com. 2010-07-12. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
- ^ "Clement to face MPs on census". CBC News. 2010-07-24. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
- ^ "StatsCan in turmoil over census". The Montreal Gazette. 2010-07-23. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
- ^ "The bizarre decision on the census". Canada.com. 2010-08-04. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
- ^ "Count on it: long-form census basic to decision-making in Canada". Canada.com. 2010-07-17. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
- ^ "StatsCan warned of poor census response rate". CBC News. 2010-08-10. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
- ^ "Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council". CBC News. 2010-07-05. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
- ^ "Tories scrap mandatory long census". CBC News. 2010-06-29. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
- ^ "Professors may need more funding after census changes". CTV News. 2010-12-08. Retrieved 2010-12-08.
- ^ "Report to the AAEA Economic Statistics and Information Resources Committee" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-07-03. [dead link]
- ^ http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2010/2010-06-26/html/order-decret-eng.html
- ^ http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ic1.nsf/eng/05709.html
- ^ Campion-Smith, Bruce (2010-07-16). "StatsCan recommended move to voluntary census, Tony Clement says". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2010-07-21.
- ^ Wheeldon, Johannes (2010-07-30). "Introducing the New Hire and Census Form". The Mark News. Retrieved 2010-08-01.
- ^ Ditchburn, Jennifer (2010-07-01). "Former StatsCan head slams census decision by Tories". The Canadian Press. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
- ^ "Alumni Announcements". Department of Economics, University of Western Ontario. 2010-07-16. Retrieved 2010-07-21. [dead link]
- ^ Proudfoot, Shannon (2010-07-21). "StatsCan boss quits over census changes". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 2010-07-21.
- ^ Munir A. Sheikh (22 July 2010). "Media advisory: 2011 Census". Statistics Canada. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Gutstein, Donald (27 July 2010). "Why Attack the Long Census?". The Tyee. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
- ^ "National Citizens Coalition official website".
- ^ "Siddiqui: Gutting of census stirs opposition to Stephen Harper". The Star. Toronto. 2010-07-10.
- ^ "Ditching census upsets faith groups". CBC. 2010-07-16.
- ^ Perreaux, Les. "Bishops castigate Clement on census change". Globe and Mail.
- ^ Campion-Smith, Bruce. "Axing long form census threatens health-care improvements, doctors warn". Toronto Star.
- ^ Thorne, Stephen. "Don't mess with census, statisticians tell Tories". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
- ^ "Census consensus eludes premiers: Several scold Harper".
- ^ Perreaux, Les. "Bishops castigate Clement on census change". Globe and Mail.
- ^ Fitzpatrick, Meagan. "It's time for a compromise on the census: Jack Layton". Vancouver Sun.
- ^ "Clement amends census changes". CBC News. 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
- ^ Murdoch, Frances Russell. "Opinion Harper's Latest Step in Building 'Tea Party North'". The Tyee.
- ^ "Statement on 2011 Census". 2010-07-13. Retrieved 2010-09-07.
- ^ "National Household Survey: data quality". Statistics Canada. 2010-10-20. Retrieved 2010-10-24.
- ^ "Government slashes funding for campaign to encourage census participation".
- ^ {{|url=http://www.census2011.gc.ca/ccr_r002-eng.htm | title=2011 Census topics and release dates | publisher=Statistics Canada | date=2010-11-17 | accessdate=2010-12-16}}
External links
- 2011 Census home page (English) (Statistics Canada)
- Page d'accueil du Recensement de 2011 (français) (Statistique Canada)
- Census of Agriculture and Census of Population questions (English) (PDF)
- National Household Survey questions (English) (PDF)
- 2011 Census dissemination discussion forum (Statistics Canada)
- 2011 Census and Geography Dissemination Guide (Statistics Canada)
- 2011 Census Content Consultation Report (Statistics Canada)
- 2011 Census Content Consultation Guide (Statistics Canada)