Ahead of the 2011 census, the Conservative government announced that the long-form questionnaire would no longer be mandatory. This decision was made by the June 17, 2010
Order in Council, created by the Minister of Industry, defining the questions for the 2011 census as including only the short-form questions. This was published in the
Canada Gazette on June 26, 2010; however, a news release was not issued by Minister of Industry Tony Clement until July 13, 2010. This release stated in part "The government will retain the mandatory short form that will collect basic demographic information. To meet the need for additional information, and to respect the privacy wishes of Canadians, the government has introduced the voluntary National Household Survey." On July 30, 2010, Statistics Canada published a description of the National Household Survey, intended to be sent to about 4.5 million households. Industry minister
Tony Clement stated that the change to voluntary forms was made because of privacy-related complaints, though he acknowledged that the decision was made without consulting organizations and governments that work closely with Statistics Canada. Clement had previously said that this change was made on the advice of Statistics Canada. The move was criticized by a number of organizations and individuals and was the subject of some satirical articles.
Ivan Fellegi, the former
Chief Statistician of Canada, originally appointed in 1985 by the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, said that he would have quit his job if the government had taken this change during his tenure. He claims that those who are most vulnerable (such as the poor, new immigrants, and Aboriginal peoples) are least likely to respond to a voluntary form, which weakens information about those demographic groups.
Munir Sheikh, Fellegi's successor as Chief Statistician appointed by Conservative Prime Minister
Stephen Harper on February 15, 2008, resigned on July 21, 2010, in protest of the Conservative government's change in policy. In a public letter, Sheikh wrote that he could not legally comment on what advice he had given the government regarding the census, but he did comment against the government's decision, writing: The
National Citizens Coalition and the
Fraser Institute supported the change. There were groups against the change from all parts of the political spectrum, and including the
Federation of Canadian Municipalities;
Atlantic Provinces Economic Council;
City of Toronto government;
National Statistics Council;
Canadian Jewish Congress;
Evangelical Fellowship of Canada;
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops;
Canadian Medical Association;
Statistical Society of Canada; the
American Statistical Association;
Registered Nurses Association of Ontario;
Canadian Conference of the Arts; and the governments of Ontario,
Quebec,
New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and
Manitoba. On July 19, 2010, representatives from several institutions signed a letter expressing their disapproval of the change and their desire to speak to Clement to find another solution. The organizations represented were: • Canadian Association for Business Economics •
Canadian Nurses Association •
Caledon Institute of Social Policy •
Canadian Institute of Planners •
Institute for Research on Public Policy • Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants • Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada •
Canadian Labour Congress •
Canada West Foundation •
United Way of Canada • Glendon School of Public and International Affairs • National Specialty Society for Community Medicine •
Environics Analytics • The
University of Toronto School of Public Policy and Governance and
Rotman School of Management •
Nanos Research •
Canadian Public Health Association •
Canadian Association of University Teachers • Canadian Council on Social Development •
Canadian Economic Association •
Toronto Board of Trade A House of Commons
industry committee special hearing on July 27, 2010, heard that during the previous census, out of approximately 12 million forms, 166 complaints were known to be received directly or indirectly. In response, the government announced plans to introduce legislation to remove the threat of jail time for anyone refusing to fill out any mandatory government surveys. Some groups have argued that the decision was motivated by a wish to destroy a useful tool for social advocacy, by making it harder to identify and count disadvantaged groups. However, the Conservative government maintains that its reasoning for the cancellation is that they do not believe it is appropriate to force Canadians to divulge detailed personal information under threat of prosecution. On October 20, 2010, Statistics Canada predicted that a voluntary long-form would result in a decline of total respondents from 94% to 50%. Consequently, they expect a "substantial risk of non-response bias" and plan to "[adapt their] data collection and other procedures to mitigate as much as possible against these risks." The response rate also led them to predict an increased risk of
sampling errors, because only 16% of the Canadian population would be surveyed, as opposed to 19% under a mandatory long-form similar to the one in 2006. The government announced in August 2010 that it would spend
$30 million on a campaign aimed at increasing the response rate to the voluntary form, but information released by Statistics Canada in December 2010 revealed that half of this money would be required for tasks unrelated to the promotional campaign. Criticism of the National Household Survey re-emerged in 2013 following the release of the first set of results from the survey. ==Reforms since 2011==