The federal government's decision to scrap the mandatory long census form for the 2011 census and replace it with a voluntary national household survey isn't sitting well with Manitoba's Francophone community.

Francophone leaders said Tuesday that they fear the new, voluntary system won't accurately track how many non-English speaking people there are in the country.

As a result, government programming and policy may be impacted, Daniel Boucher, President and Executive Director of the Société franco-manitobaine, said.

"You don't just fiddle with that kind of stuff – you can cut a bunch of other things that don't reflect our values or who we are," he said.

West of Quebec, Manitoba has Canada's largest number of French-speaking people. Boucher said adding bilingual services provided by the federal government could be cut if all people who speak French aren't properly tallied.

"In terms of the last census, there were 47,000 Francophones in Manitoba who were identified … but the statistic that would be left out [is] there are over 100,000 people in Manitoba that speak both French and English," Boucher said.

The government announced the changes in June, saying Canadians found the long-form census too intrusive.

All Canadians will still receive a mandatory short census. One in three households will be sent the new household survey as well. Previously, one in five households were sent the mandatory long-form census.

But while more people will receive the longer survey, the fact that it is voluntary means Statistics Canada will have to double its efforts to get people to respond.

Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser has opened an investigation into the government's move.

He said he wants to see whether the government respected its legal obligations when it made the decision to make the long-form census questionnaire voluntary instead of mandatory.