As an academic analyst of farm structure and production economics trends, University of Guelph professor Alfons Weersink says information compiled from population census long form returns is an invaluable tool.
It supplements the reams of production, work and farm operator data that Statistics Canada collects from the farm census conducted every five years.
Weersink argues that while the mandatory agriculture census provides a valuable snapshot of the evolution of the farm sector and farmers, links to the detailed population census through the agriculture-population database expands the understanding.
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“I have used this database to examine the extent of off-farm labour work by farmers and its determinants,” he said last week.
“The information can be used to determine the financial well-being of the farm household whereas only the farm income of the households would be measured without the (population census) long form.”
Like scores of business, labour, municipal, research and policy planning groups, Weersink and other agricultural analysts were reacting to a controversial decision by the Conservative government to end in 2011 the requirement that 20 percent of Canadian households must fill out a detailed long form, on threat of fines or jail time for those who refuse.
Instead, industry minister Tony Clement says a third of all households will receive the long form next year and filling it out will be voluntary.
“It is a sad day for the country to be abandoning high quality data by ending the mandatory census long form,” said Rick Barichello, an agriculture academic from the University of British Columbia.
“This will have negative effects on the understanding of the evolution of rural Canada and its small communities.”
A wide array of critics says ending the compulsory nature of the long form means the results will be unreliable.
Certain groups, including new immigrants, First Nations and the poor, will be less likely to fill it out, skewing the results.
They insist the unreliability of the data means the 2011 census results will not be comparable to previous census results, undermining Statistics Canada’s worldwide reputation as a statistical and analytical powerhouse.
On July 21, Canada’s chief statistician and Statistics Canada head Munir Sheikh resigned over the issue. He said the government is wrong to suggest results from a voluntary long form will be as reliable as results from a compulsory return from one-in-five Canadian households.
“I want to take this opportunity to comment on a technical statistical issue … the question of whether a voluntary survey can become a substitute for a mandatory census,” he said in a message posted on the Statistics Canada website to announce his dramatic resignation to employees. “It cannot.”
Clement had been implying that Statistics Canada agreed that with proper promotion and an increased household targeting, the results of a voluntary form could be as statistically valid as a small mandatory form.
He said the government decision to end the compulsory form is a response to Canadians who consider the mandatory long form a violation of their privacy.
“The government made this decision because we do not believe Canadians should be forced, under threat of fines, jail or both, to disclose extensive private and personal information,” he said in a July 21 statement responding to Sheikh’s recent resignation.
“We believe it is not appropriate to compel citizens to divulge how many bedrooms they have in their houses or what time they leave for work in the morning.”
Clement said it was an attempt to achieve a balance between data collection and privacy rights.
Political and research community critics said it was a bogus argument, driven by anti-government ideology.
At the University of Guelph, Weersink said the largest impact could be for those who create rural policy because the long form provided detailed information about changes in the socio-economic condition of rural residents.
“The concerns expressed about designing effective social policy without knowing about the characteristics of the population is more of an issue for smaller, rural areas,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett said in interviews last week that the CFA supports maintaining the compulsory nature of the agricultural census.
At their summer meeting in Halifax this week, CFA board members likely will raise the census issue as they debate a resolution calling on Statistics Canada to reverse a decision to cut base funding for several rural and agricultural research projects.
