2011 Census Long Form – Don’t take my DA away!
For the last 14 years I have assisted many new entrepreneurs and small businesses with their market research. One of the most utilized market resources is the Census. The advantage of the Census is that it allows a small business to assess its local market with reliable data at a reasonable cost. Much of the data is available free of charge. This essential information helps to ensure your business is being launched or expanded on more than just a hunch.
For those with privacy concerns it should be noted that this data is only numerical in nature. Individual names and addresses are not accessible from the Census. It is not a mailing list.
The proposed removal of the long form from the Census is a foolish one. The long form data is essential for not only new entrepreneurs but for businesses of all sizes, as well social groups, community organizations, municipal, provincial and federal governments and yes even the political parties who use local Census data to strategize for their re-election campaigns!
Industry Minister Tony Clement is naive to think that the new survey will garner more responses because it is distributed to more households. The Survey of Household Spending (SHS), a detailed voluntary consumer expenditure survey from Statistics Canada garnered an average national response rate of 63%. This rate applied to the new voluntary survey proposed to replace the long form would produce fewer responses than the actual Census.
What makes the voluntary survey especially troubling is the inevitable regional variation in response rates. At a provincial level the SHS response rate ranged from 57.2% in Alberta to 71.3% in Newfoundland & Labrador. This type of variation will be even more dramatic from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. A voluntary survey will not provide the same quality of data at a local level. Information at a DA level will not be possible. Future business decisions, social and government policies will be based on insufficient data. One of the greatest benefits of the Census is the insight it provides at a neighbourhood level. This will be lost for no apparent reason other than a cabinet whim.
Industry Minister Tony Clement comments that fears are “overwrought”. Perhaps it is his government that is “overwrought” with concern about potential Census protests and so feel the system that has been in place for 35 years should be changed without thought or public consultation. When I worked at Statistics Canada during the 1996 Census there were numerous people who came into the Toronto office concerned about filling out the Census. Some were extremely angry. Yet once it was explained why the Census was taken and what the information was for, they filled out their forms without further distress. I did not threaten people will jail time or place them under duress, I simply explained the rationale behind the questionnaire.
The payback from detailed Census data collected once every five years from one in five households is enormous. All Canadians benefit. The removal of the long form is a very short-sighted and foolish policy decision.