CCA bulletin 18/11 - Participate in the 2011 census and the National Household Survey!

Just the facts

In addition to being federal election day, Monday marked the debut of the 2011 mandatory short-form census.  On May 2, 2011, the eight-question document began to make its way by mail to approximately 15 million households across the country.  According to the Statistics Act, all Canadian residents are legally required to complete the census questionnaire. The census questionnaire can be completed online or on paper. To complete the forms online, Canadians will need the secure access code located at the top of the letter or paper questionnaire.

Approximately four weeks after the mandatory short-form census, some 4.5 million Canadian households will also receive the new National Household Survey (NHS). The voluntary NHS has replaced the mandatory long-form census questionnaire after a controversial decision by the  government in June 2010. If you receive the NHS, it is very important that you complete this voluntary survey in full! (more)

CCA Bulletin 32/10 - Of this and that and other things: A pre-holiday wrap-up (Part 2)

This will most likely be our last bulletin of the year, but before we wish you all the best for the New Year, we must finish our year-end wrap-up of a number of important issues:

• An update on the 2010-11 federal budget
• An update on the Canada/European Union negotiations
• The latest on the long-form census
• Culture Days 2010 revisited

Federal Budget 2010-11: the CBC does not fare as well as initially thought!

The government released the second set of supplementary estimates for the 2010-11 fiscal year (The CCA reported on the first set, supplementary estimates A, in its 2010 Federal Budget Analysis).

One of the findings to emerge from the CCA’s analysis of this most recent set of supplementary estimates pertains to the source of some new funding. Budget 2010 announced that organizations would be expected to undertake ‘cost containment measures’ to reduce the pace of growth of operating expenditures. That means that only some of the new funding to organizations in the supplementary estimates is truly ‘new’. A portion of the funding is sourced by the organizations themselves from cuts taken internally. (more)

CCA Bulletin 20/10 - The Long-Form Census Controversy and the Arts

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. (more)