Don’t count out the mandatory census

Despite Prime Minister Stephen Harper's promises about a “new era of accountability” and increased transparency in Ottawa, the Conservative government has failed to deliver. Late last month, they quietly announced a plan to scrap the long-form census and replace it with a voluntary survey. Only when a host of organizations — from the Toronto District School Board to the Province of Manitoba — registered complaints did the government offer any sort of explanation, which consisted only of vague statements about standing up for the “silent majority” and absurd warnings that the census is a symptom of a Canadian nanny state.

Distributed to roughly a fifth of Canadian households twice every decade, most university students have probably never had to fill out the long-form census. The 40-page questionnaire asks about everything from income to disabilities. Conservatives are calling this a gross invasion of privacy; however, the data collected from the survey can’t be traced back to those who complete it, and is vitally important. In an age where a huge segment of the population posts their personal information to Facebook, it is stunningly ignorant to call an official government census an “invasion of privacy.”

Health authorities, school boards, provincial governments, and many other organizations use the information collected by the census to make choices about policy and funding. Calgary, for instance, uses the information to plan bus routes and target after-school programs to low-income neighbourhoods.

Industry Minister Tony Clement has told reporters that Statistics Canada officials support the decision; however, StatsCan head statistician Munir Sheikh strongly implied that his resignation yesterday was related to the government’s decision regarding the 2011 census. Experts have warned that the shift to a voluntary survey will produce information that’s entirely useless, and can’t be compared to 140-years worth of previous census data to track and forecast trends.

There’s not one good reason to scrap the mandatory census. The optional census plan requires the form be sent to a third of Canadian homes in the vain hope of collecting the same amount of data — at an extra cost of $30 million. The U.S. considered switching to a voluntary census in 2003, but the scheme was exorbitantly expensive and was quickly abandoned. Harper and Clement are perfectly aware of this and they know that the reasoning for changing the census is paper-thin. Despite the rhetoric about privacy concerns, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner reports a grand total of three complaints in the past 10 years.

What’s most galling is that despite the criticism from all corners, Harper and his lackey Clement have stood by the idea in an ill-conceived attempt to galvanize the Conservative base. Indeed, the only people who support scrapping the census seem to be far-right paranoiacs with an acute fear of an imaginary Big Brother.

It’s true that the census is irritating and time-consuming, but it’s necessary to ensure the continued function of a huge range of services, from postsecondary education to the construction of new roads. Harper seems more concerned with turning the census into a partisan issue than with preserving a tool essential to organizations across Canada, including his government. It’s no surprise, but transparency and accountability — like the new census — are apparently optional.