The Long-Form Census Controversy and the Arts

CCA Bul­letin 20/10

July 20, 2010

 

Just the Facts

On June 26, as Cana­di­ans were focused on the G-8 and G-20 meet­ings in Toronto, the gov­ern­ment dis­cretely announced its deci­sion that the long-form cen­sus would no longer be com­pul­sory. The cen­sus, which is sent every five years by Sta­tis­tics Canada to a fifth of Cana­dian house­holds, would be replaced by a vol­un­tary sur­vey of a full third of Cana­dian house­holds. The short ver­sion of the national cen­sus, which con­tains only eight ques­tions, remains com­pul­sory and pro­tected by the Constitution.

Sta­tis­tics Canada was not con­sulted on this deci­sion but sim­ply asked to pro­vide alter­na­tive solu­tions, none of which, they rec­og­nize, will pro­vide the same quan­tity and qual­ity of infor­ma­tion. While no solu­tion can ade­quately com­pen­sate for the change in method­ol­ogy, the extended vol­un­tary House­hold Sur­vey will cost Sta­tis­tics Canada an esti­mated $ 30 mil­lion more to admin­is­ter a sys­tem which all sta­tis­ti­cians describe as faulty.

How will the government’s deci­sion impact on the arts and cul­ture sec­tor?

Gov­ern­ments at all lev­els, as well as the nation’s cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions, directly or indi­rectly use the long-form cen­sus to help design pol­icy, plan and eval­u­ate pro­grams. An under­stand­ing of the chang­ing demo­graph­ics of indi­vid­ual com­mu­ni­ties and neigh­bour­hoods is essen­tial when plan­ning cul­tural pro­grams, design­ing cul­tural infra­struc­ture and more.

As noted by the for­mer Chief Sta­tis­ti­cian, Ivan Fel­legi, a vet­eran pub­lic ser­vant who spent 51 years at Sta­tis­tics Canada before retir­ing in 2008, no vol­un­tary sur­vey can repair the method­olog­i­cal flaws of the new sys­tem. One of the main short­falls of the pro­posed vol­un­tary Cana­dian House­hold Sur­vey is that it will under rep­re­sent a num­ber of Cana­di­ans, includ­ing First Nations, the poor­est and rich­est of Cana­di­ans and the self employed, who cover a very large num­ber of artists and creators.

As a result, we will lose impor­tant data on the cul­tural work­force.  The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA), the Cul­tural Human Resources Coun­cil (CHRC), provin­cial and munic­i­pal gov­ern­ments as well as cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions across the coun­try rely on cen­sus data to pro­vide infor­ma­tion about cul­tural work­ers in Canada.  Artists are mobile, often liv­ing in non-traditional hous­ing (com­mer­cial and indus­trial areas) and work­ing in other occu­pa­tions to earn their pri­mary income.  While the cen­sus is not a per­fect instru­ment to col­lect data on artists, it is far prefer­able to a vol­un­tary sam­ple sur­vey, which would be even less likely to cap­ture infor­ma­tion on artists and cul­tural work­ers.  It is indeed highly unlikely that low paid artists and other types of cul­tural work­ers will have the time or moti­va­tion to pro­vide the kind of infor­ma­tion required for a house­hold sur­vey if it is voluntary.

Another con­se­quence to the cul­tural sec­tor is the very seri­ous impact this new approach will have in the design of sur­veys them­selves. A cen­sus, or some other instru­ment that lists all indi­vid­u­als in a pop­u­la­tion, is required for the proper design of vol­un­tary sam­ple sur­veys. Try­ing to use a sam­ple house­hold sur­vey, in place of a cen­sus, to design social or house­hold sur­veys will effec­tively under­mine the entire sta­tis­ti­cal sys­tem as it relates to non-business data. Fur­ther­more, a vol­un­tary sam­ple house­hold sur­vey can­not be used to design or val­i­date vol­un­tary house­hold or indi­vid­ual sur­veys.  Finally, rely­ing on skewed one-time vol­un­tary sur­veys means that it will be impos­si­ble to com­pare results from one sur­vey to another and to ana­lyze trends, both of which are key ele­ments in fact-based pol­icy making.

For all of these rea­sons, the CCA has decided to add its voice to the grow­ing num­ber of Cana­di­ans from all walks of life and all regions of the coun­try who are protest­ing the government’s deci­sion. As Chair of Sta­tis­tics Canada’s National Advi­sory Com­mit­tee on Cul­ture Sta­tis­tics, I have sent a let­ter to the nation’s Chief Sta­tis­ti­cian, Dr. Munir Sheikh. The Board of Gov­er­nors of the CCA has also sent a let­ter to Min­is­ter Clement, ask­ing him to press the gov­ern­ment to rescind the deci­sion. We are also urg­ing our mem­bers and mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions to write to the gov­ern­ment and to their MPs to protest this most unfor­tu­nate deci­sion (see: What Can I Do? sec­tion below). So far, the arts and cul­ture sec­tor has been remark­ably silent on this cru­cially impor­tant issue. The CCA invites all of you to add your voices to the national protest.

Tell me more

If the gov­ern­ment was hop­ing that the news would slip unno­ticed in the dol­drums of a par­tic­u­larly hot sum­mer and the hooplas of the Mundial, it must be bit­terly dis­ap­pointed. This  uni­lat­eral deci­sion has caused uproar across the coun­try and has been decried force­fully by the busi­ness and aca­d­e­mic com­mu­ni­ties, provin­cial and munic­i­pal gov­ern­ments, the med­ical pro­fes­sion, econ­o­mists, soci­ol­o­gists, geneal­o­gists and his­to­ri­ans, com­mu­nity groups, char­i­ta­ble orga­ni­za­tions, Fran­coph­one minori­ties, Oppo­si­tion par­ties and more.

Accord­ing to the Min­is­ter of Indus­try Tony Clement, who is respon­si­ble for Sta­tis­tics Canada, the gov­ern­ment has received numer­ous com­plaints about the fact that the long-form cen­sus is inva­sive and vio­lates the pri­vacy rights of Cana­dian cit­i­zens. As the con­tro­versy increases, this expla­na­tion is now being repeated by other Min­is­ters and Con­ser­v­a­tive MPs, with some try­ing to paint the protests as the cries of spe­cial inter­est groups try­ing to get a free ride at the expense of Cana­dian tax­pay­ers. The government’s expla­na­tions are being met with one rebut­tal after another, and the issue is front page news across the coun­try.

The inabil­ity of the gov­ern­ment to pro­vide solid evi­dence for its claim has prompted a grow­ing num­ber of crit­ics to state that the deci­sion is purely ide­o­log­i­cal. They note that without reli­able and com­pa­ra­ble data, evidence-based decision-making is impos­si­ble and that it is trou­bling to see our elected lead­ers think decision-based evidence-making is prefer­able.

What is par­tic­u­larly grat­ing is the fact that the new approach ordered by the gov­ern­ment will cost Sta­tis­tics Canada alone (i.e. Cana­dian tax­pay­ers) an extra $ 30 mil­lion to pro­duce what most sta­tis­ti­cians describe as low qual­ity, not to say use­less, data. To these addi­tional costs, one must add the con­sid­er­able costs which will be borne by other ele­ments of Cana­dian soci­ety, as data will become less reli­able over time. We will stray fur­ther and fur­ther from the 2006 Cen­sus and it will become impos­si­ble to com­pare one sur­vey to the other.

Given the suc­ces­sive bud­get cuts Sta­tis­tics Canada has suf­fered over the past fif­teen years, and as recently as last year, and the ensu­ing degra­da­tion of ser­vices, it is dif­fi­cult for the gov­ern­ment to jus­tify find­ing such an amount of money at a time when it is look­ing to reduce a deficit. How can a gov­ern­ment con­cerned with man­ag­ing Cana­dian tax­pay­ers’ money respon­si­bly explain delib­er­ately spend­ing mil­lions more to pro­duce lower qual­ity data that can­not be com­pared over time?

In 2003, at the request of the Amer­i­can Con­gress, the U.S. Cen­sus Bureau pro­duced a report in which it out­lined the impact of aban­don­ing the com­pul­sory long-form cen­sus. The con­clu­sions of this report led the Bush admin­is­tra­tion to back down on its deci­sion. Unless the gov­ern­ment changes its mind in the face of grow­ing oppo­si­tion from all quar­ters, Canada would become the only coun­try in the world to relin­quish reten­tion of a com­pul­sory long-form cen­sus. How­ever, the new U.K. Con­ser­v­a­tive gov­ern­ment has indi­cated it intends to do the same.

What can I do?

This is a very impor­tant issue for all, not only as artists and cul­tural work­ers, but as cit­i­zens. Please make sure you send an email to your MP, Min­is­ter Clement, Min­is­ter Moore and Prime Min­is­ter Harper. Also con­tact the Leader of the Oppo­si­tion and the lead­ers of the NDP and the Bloc Québé­cois . You can find a model here (for a PDF ver­sion click here).