Inside Politics

Census Document Dump: Yes, MINO!

by Kady O'Malley Posted: August 11, 2010 12:20 PM Last Updated: August 11, 2010 12:25 PM
Going through the census files, one thing that becomes almost immediately apparent is the level of political involvement -- some might suggest overinvolvement -- in even the most minute operational matters at Statistics Canada. At one point, a ministerial staffer even asks whether it would be possible to post the questions for the new National Household Survey on the agency website before the end of July. At the same time, however, it sometimes seems as though the very same exempt staffers who were peppering Statistics Canada officials with census-related questions weren't paying much attention to the answers -- or, indeed, to the briefing material that had been prepared in advance.

For example, on the evening of June 29, as the first wave of media requests began to trickle in, the industry minister's policy advisor -- and unsuccessful 2008 Conservative candidate -- Elie Salibi asked Statistics Canada if there was "any other G8 country that uses a voluntary census or long form," noting that "we need the answer kind of urgently." June 29 2010 - MINO to StatsCan - "..Need this info kind of urgently"  

Short answer: No. 

Long answer, also no, but with specific examples, and explanations of why they weren't terribly relevant in a Canadian context. In fact, Salibi could have saved himself some time by consulting the communications plan, which included the following backgrounder: From the communications plan: "International Censuses"  

Alternately, Salibi could have checked with his colleague, communications director Erik Waddell, who had inquired about "other industrialized countries" with "both a mandatory 'short form' and a mandatory "long form" census" back on June 14. (As above, the gist of the answer was that there weren't any, although the American experience with the ACS, which is a mandatory sample survey, is mentioned): June14 2010 - "International" talking point in the making      

As for the aforementioned Waddell, the above posted email from June 29 reveals that the same night that Salibi was looking for an international perspective, he was busy sending his own sternly worded dispatch to the agency on behalf of his minister, who, he noted, "would like something in writing tonight explaining exactly why the 92 year disclosure cannot be included in the NHS," adding that they were "concerned that this issue did not come up in any of the briefings to the Minister leading up to now."

The following response -- undated, but with an 'action date' of July 9, 2010 -- from the then-Chief Statistician informs the minister that "the legislation must be changed" to allow personal information collected under the NHS to be released after 92 years, as was the case with the long form census, and offers two possible solutions: include a question seeking consent, or change the law retroactively, and "inform Canadians that the government is in the process of changing legislation." That way, it notes, somewhat optimistically, "Canadians would hopefully not be critical of Statistics Canada asking a question inconsistent with law." July 9, 2010 - Sheikh's request re: release of NHS information
Meanwhile, over at Statistics Canada, debriefing to Industry Canada on the post-Gazette discussion with the agency's "Statistical Focal Points" is cautiously optimistic. "Overall it went well. They recognize we can't say why the decision, so focused a lot on the impact on the data[level of detail at levels of geography and sub-populations)."June 29 2010 - IC/Statistics Canada postmortem on first wave of media requests

Salibi surfaces again on July 9, 2010, and then again four days later, first with a request for information -- "the actual # of households that received the long form in the last census and the actual # of households that will receive the long form this coming census." (Apparently, he hadn't yet grasped the fact that the NHS is not, in fact, a long form census, but a voluntary survey.) In his second missive to the agency, he wanted to know if it would be possible to "get the NHS questions up on your website sooner then [sic] end of July." July 9, 2010 - IC to StatsCan: Get the NHS on the website ASAP  

A few days later on July 21, Clement's parliamentary secretary, Mike Lake, had his assistant request "a list of people of organizations that StatsCan sells its data to." 

Another Clement staffer, David Pierce -- whose name appears repeatedly in previously posted correspondence -- asks for "10 2006 long-forms and 10 real copies of the NHS," which he apparently needs "by Monday," or July 26th, the day of the minister's much-prepped-for committee appearance, during which Lake took the lead role in questioning Clement on behalf of the government side.
July 22 2010 - Committee prep, MINO requests

For more background - and more files - check out the Census Document Dump archive.

Tags: census document dump, censuswatch, elie salibi, erik waddell, oh if only we had an antony jay or jonathan lynn, yet oddly no mention of the minister's twittering