More than 50 federal government agencies and departments rely on long-form census data on ethnic origins, visible minorities, citizenship and immigration for planning and policies, according to a newly released internal report.
In the documents, Statistics Canada says more than 700 different clients bought reports or data based on the 2006 census, including 297 government bodies from all levels, 232 businesses, 66 non-profit organizations, 54 health and social service agencies and 62 educational institutions.
In June, the government announced it was replacing the mandatory long-form census with a voluntary National Household Survey (NHS).
"Statistics Canada is confident that the NHS will produce usable and useful data that will meet the needs of many users," the agency says in the documents. "It will not, however, provide a level of quality that would have been achieved through the mandatory long-form census."
Among the federal departments and agencies that reported purchasing Statistics Canada reports or using data based on the census questions about ethnic origin and immigration are Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Status of Women, National Defence, Canada Revenue Service, Citizenship and Immigration, the Bank of Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.
Included among the approximately 60 agencies and departments that said they had not made use of the data are the National Research Council, Correctional Service of Canada, Environment Canada, Passport Canada, Canadian International Development Agency, Export Development Canada, Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canadian Transportation Agency and VIA Rail Inc.
The documents were released this week in response to questions tabled in the House of Commons in September by Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla.
"There is going to be a great void with the scrapping of the long-form census," Dhalla said. "I think it's going to have an impact on many diverse communities across Canada, and most importantly, have an impact on ethnic communities in Canada."
The Bank of Canada reported using long-form data to track Canadian migration patterns during economic changes. Health Canada employs it to assess well-being in First Nations communities, while the Public Health Agency relies on this information to target services to clusters of immigrants or particular ethnic groups. The Canada Student Loan Program uses this census data for demographic analysis of post-secondary enrolment, and the Department of Justice uses it to tailor studies on elder abuse to different ethnic populations.
Many agencies and departments said they use the census data to evaluate whether their employee demographics are in line with the Canadian population and employment equity rules.
The biggest impact of replacing the mandatory census with a voluntary survey will be "non-response bias," or the fact that people who don't respond tend to have different characteristics than those who do, Statistics Canada says — meaning that a voluntary survey won't be representative of the Canadian population.
"Given that the NHS is anticipated to achieve a response rate of only 50 per cent, there is a substantial risk of non-response bias," the agency says in the documents.
Statistics Canada says it has never conducted a survey on the scale of the NHS, nor does it know of any country that has, so it's "largely unknown" how effective its efforts to mitigate these and other issues will be.
Read more: http://www.canada.com/technology/Dozens+federal+departments+agencies+count+census+Report/3857519/story.html#ixzz16Aj7Y6YO
