RSSeNEWS to be determined...

Statisticians and champions of minority groups are demanding that Canada's Conservative government reconsider its decision that the 2011 census will discontinue the mandatory long form census in favour of a voluntary survey.

In a letter to Industry Minister Tony Clement, the Statistical Society of Canada (SSC) submitted that "in the interests of both cost and retention of the Canadian reputation for the quality of statistical information, the decision to replace the long form by a voluntary survey be revisited, reinformed and reversed".

SSC expressed surprise that "that decisions are made limiting the ability of experts at Statistics Canada to carry out a mandate for the benefit of Canadian policy makers, educators, small business and science without consulting these same experts.”

Current SSC president Don McLeish, predecessor Bovas Abraham, President-elect John Brewster and American Statistical Association president Sastry Pantula all signed the letter.

Canada's former chief statistician Ivan Fellegi has described the decision as  "indefensible" and said it could introduce serious bias into the census results as some groups in the population are less likely to respond to a voluntary survey.

Official Languages commissioner Graham Fraser is worried that the changes will exclude certain hard to reach groups. He has pledged to investigate the census changes to ensure the administration meets its legal obligations.

Fraser commented that "When it comes to making decisions on offering services in both official languages and to evaluating the size of official language communities, information about people's mother tongue, language spoken in the home and knowledge of both official languages are all used ... The short-form questionnaire asks only about mother tongue, which would see some people, especially newcomers, effectively counted out."

National Inuit leader Mary Simon has also asked the government to reconsider its "ill-conceived" decision. She says the change will result in less comparable data for aboriginals and the wider population and hence frustrate “our long-term goal of closing the gaps in health, education, and economic conditions among our people and communities and other Canadians".

Simon said that “Canada prides itself on the quality and completeness of its census process. Statistics Canada does not take a back seat to any similar agency in the western world. This decision is clearly a step backwards for Inuit and the Canadian census.”