Census: Is the mandatory, long-form survey intrusive?
- October 5, 2010 9:49 AM |
- By POV
By CBC News
Internal documents obtained by CBC News contradict Conservative MP Maxime Bernier's claims that he received about 1,000 complaints a day about the mandatory long-form census.
The former industry minister, now a Conservative backbencher, said in July of this year that he was blitzed by complaints when he oversaw the 2006 census as minister.
However, in a July 18 email found among documents obtained by CBC News through an access-to-information request, ministry employee Paul Halucha asked a high-ranking official at Statistics Canada whether the agency had any numbers to back up Bernier's statement.
Industry Canada's "internal survey of correspondence did not show anything close to a thousand a day," he wrote to Statistics Canada's Connie Graziadei, adding in brackets "we got a standard 25-30 a year."
Industry Minister Tony Clement, who will oversee the 2011 census next spring, has said the government received too many complaints from citizens who said the mandatory long-form census is intrusive and they don't want to feel forced to file.
Read more.
Do you think the mandatory long-form census is intrusive? How do you think the Conservative government has handled the census controversy? Let us know.
(This survey is not scientific. It is based on readers' responses.)
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