SASKATOON (Staff) – Statistics Canada is likely to be a little less popular with farmers this spring. The 1996 census forms are expected to arrive May 14, right in the middle of seeding.
The department calculates it will take 40 minutes to fill in the agricultural census. This data collection occurs every five years and provides the government with information needed to properly develop and target its policies and programs, said department official Lynda Kemp.
Census day used to be in the first week of June. However, that is the most common moving day for urban Canadians and many forms were going astray. The census date was set earlier despite concerns from some in the department about the impact on farmers. The reason they were not heeded is obvious in Statistics Canada’s own figures: Farmers represent only three percent of Canada’s population.
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New questions in the agricultural census ask about businesses operated on the farm and any farm-related injuries. Also included as farms for the first time will be Christmas tree growers and poultry hatcheries.
More than one operator
Kemp credited farm women’s groups for forcing Statistics Canada into a “real landmark change” in the last census by allowing more than one name on the line for farm operator. Kemp said 25 percent of all respondents declaring themselves as Canadian farm operators are women.
Yet in Saskatchewan, only 21 percent of all farm operators are women. She said the discrepancy is likely because women prefer livestock to machinery and over half the farms in Saskatchewan are strictly field crops.
Another oddity is that males reported working more hours off the farm than females in every province except Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island.
