As my faithful readers know, I’m a reasonable person who’s always willing to consider all sides of an issue, sometimes to a fault, and I rarely get foot-stomping angry over anything.
But if there’s one thing that does raise my blood pressure, it’s governments who make it difficult to get information. Usually that’s confined to unhelpfully funnelling everything through a “communications officer” who knows nothing or making you put in a freedom-of-information request to get the simplest report or number.
This time, though, the problem is a move to reduce the amount of information available by limiting Statistics Canada’s activities. As my friend Andre Picard points out in today’s Globe, that is a serious blow to our ability to understand who we are as a nation, what we’re doing collectively, and how to plan for the future.
I freely acknowledge that I’m a statistics geek whose fondest dream has been to fill out the census long form. But even if you don’t put yourself in that category, the kind of information that Stats Can gathers through the long form and other types of data-gathering currently under threat are vital.
In the complex society we live in, I see statistics gathering as the higher-order brain function of the national body we live in. If we don’t get that feedback to the brain about what is happening in all the various regions of the body, we can’t react to early signs of danger.
At the city, people are concerned about it too. When planners figure out the future density needed for a neighbourhood, they look at existing demographics and immigration information and project them forward. Transportation planners rely on the regular statistical information about who is walking, biking, taking the bus, driving alone, or driving with someone to see how patterns are changing … or not.
Raymond Louie told me yesterday (while we were talking about other things) that he’s going to be bringing a motion forward to have staff come up with a list of all the kinds of statistics they use for planning and what they might have to do to continue to get that information, i.e. collect it themselves. He’s worried that this will end up being just another form of downloading, as cities have to spend more money to get essential information about activities inside their boundaries.
I imagine this is something that will be unquestioningly supported by all parties, as it should be. This isn’t a partisan issue. I encourage all of you to register protests with your local MPs or the PMO’s office directly about this.
10 responses so far ↓
1 Keith // Jul 8, 2010 at 9:49 am
sorry, not in a million years.
2 spartikus // Jul 8, 2010 at 10:12 am
HERE HERE
I’ve been stewing and steaming on this too. It’s an absolute disgrace.
This isn’t a partisan issue.
Alas, but it very much is. The facts, as they says, have a well-known liberal bias. Empirical data collected in the census often conflicts with the world-view currently espoused by the Conservative Party of Canada.
Who are poor are and how they are poor and all that.
3 Frances Bula // Jul 8, 2010 at 10:14 am
Okay, I meant not a partisan issue locally.
4 spartikus // Jul 8, 2010 at 10:18 am
I mean honestly…
A spokesman for Industry Minister Tony Clement (who is responsible for Statistics Canada) justified the change by saying the government wants a “reasonable limit on what most Canadians felt was an intrusion into their personal privacy in terms of answering the longer form.”
Uh…what? Which Canadians felt it was an intrusion? Is there some sort of anti-Long Form census movement I am completely unaware of?
Someone, please, enlighten me.
5 Frances Bula // Jul 8, 2010 at 10:31 am
Apparently, this Canadian from Saskatchewan felt it was an intrusion
http://news.sympatico.ca/canada/anti-census_poster_crusader_not_satisfied_with_federal_axing_of_long_form/6a605064
6 spartikus // Jul 8, 2010 at 10:31 am
Okay, I meant not a partisan issue locally.
You’d think. If Gregor Likes It, It Must Be Opposed (IGLIIMBO) is the operating principle of those who currently control the public face of the NPA
Hopefully, I will be surprised.
7 spartikus // Jul 8, 2010 at 10:38 am
Apparently, this Canadian from Saskatchewan felt it was an intrusion
Well, there’s one! Isn’t it nice our Federal Government is so responsive to the concerns of individual Canadians.
Industry Minister Tony Clement has said that no polling or consultation was done on the issue
The Tories are slowly but surely dismantling everything that was good and effective about our federal government so that they can then say, (when things inevitably go south because of it) “See, government doesn’t work!”
8 East Vancouverite // Jul 8, 2010 at 10:55 am
Newt Gingrich was once quoted as saying that the goal of the GOP was to shrink the federal government enough that it could be drowned in a bathtub.
9 spartikus // Jul 8, 2010 at 11:14 am
That was before good old Newt and co. realized it’s far easier to simply blow government up. For example, embarking on two major wars, while cutting taxes for the wealthy and increasing spending.
Or for a local example of the process, committing to building a certain long-delayed LRT line while not fully funding it.
10 Booge // Jul 8, 2010 at 11:38 am
The dumbing down of Government and Canadians is greatly aided and abetted by this small-minded decision by fiat to abolish the 2011 census 2b-form (this decision was announced by teh PMO).
I have heard that none of the stakeholders ; STC, Academia, Provincial Statistics Agencies, NGOs, Business Groups etc., where aware of this nor are they in favour of it. The former chief Statistician is one of many influential voices speaking out against Harper’s Census Folly!
The opposition needs to stop this nonsense (non-census)
To add even more to the dumbing down: Tony Clement MP and Minister responsible for the Census is debating this neantherdal move via twitter. Gawd help as all.
for a better flavour of the opposition:
http://bit.ly/9tSFqe
Leave a Comment