It’s not likely to rate as high as a major election issue, but the Conservatives’ move to scrap the long-form census continues to rattle a lot of nerves.
The latest group to criticize the decision is the Canadian Association for Business Economics. And if it’s bad for business, any government should be paying attention, since, as the saying goes, money talks.
A survey of this organization of business economists shows that 74 per cent think it’s bad policy to replace the obligatory long census with a voluntary survey.
The voluntary survey was the solution the federal government came up with after first encountering criticism over the change. But that method has also met with opposition, with critics charging that it would skew results, since those of low-income and very high income would be less likely to respond.
Association members claimed losing the information supplied by the long form census would negatively affect the analysis done by their group or organization. Almost 60 per cent expect they’ll have to develop alternative, private sources of data.
They also said that much of the information from the census is used by the private sector. That’s interesting to note, since the reason given for scrapping the form was to get government out of people’s faces.
Forty-six per cent of members said they use the data at least once a week, while an additional 38 per cent said they use it multiple times per month or per year. Only eight per cent said they use it infrequently or never.
Add this voice to the protests of health professionals, cultural organizations and service providers.
If it were merely political opposition members criticizing the change we could consider it par for the course. But when this many organizations come out with the same opinion that something valuable is being lost there’s something worth heeding. A government digging in its heels in this instance only magnifies the error.
