RSSeNEWS to be determined...

Canada's Conservative government has rejected compromise proposals put forward by the National Statistics Council (MS Word format - opens in new window) to defuse the row over replacing the mandatory long form census with a voluntary survey.

Some opponents of the government's plan, including the opposition New Democrats, had said that if the mandatory long form census were retained, they would accept the abolition of prison sentences for non completion.

But at a press conference Treasury Board president Stockwell Day reiterated the government's ideological stance, saying "We've been clear that we're opposed to the mandatory nature of this and forcing people by some criminal sanction ... whether that's jail or whether it's a fine".

"The mandatory nature of criminalizing Canadians for not wanting to give the more extensive data in the long form is simply not tenable and that’s why we are doing away with it."

Day also repeated the assertion that data collected by the long form, which hitherto was sent to one in five Canadian households, could be sourced more effectively elsewhere.

"Countries like Norway, Denmark, have dispensed with this type of information-gathering years ago," he said, and asked "with the high degree of sophistication and integration of computerization and data these days, do you need to go through that whole process at all?"

"Capabilities that weren’t even in place in 2001 for data collection and integration are now available and in a way that’s more instantaneous," Day noted. But he did not give any details on what capabilities he was referring to.

He acknowledged that "some basic data is needed", and said that the government had no plan to to curtail penalties for failure to complete the short form census.