At first blush we might expect those applauding the scrapping of the mandatory long census form just don’t want to be bothered filling it out. Who wants to spend personal time doing something for a government agency?
But the governing Conservatives answer that Canadians are saying the long form is too intrusive. Government doesn’t need to meddle. Thus the voluntary longer forms will fill this void for Statistics Canada.
Saying they don’t feel a refusal to fill out the long form should be an offence is one thing – and in fact sounds mighty big of them.
But it would be nice if they offered a better example of what Canadians find intrusive about them – especially considering Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart’s office said Wednesday they only received two complaints over the 2006 form.
But Transport Minister John Baird, in providing an illustration this week said, “I think that government forcing people, threatening to put people in jail if they don’t tell the government how many bathrooms they have is a bit heavy-handed, and a bit ridiculous frankly.”
Seriously? Number of bathrooms?
Such a lame retort suggests what some critics are saying: that the decision was made to appeal to the small-c conservative demographic by getting government out of people’s lives.
Many agencies and non-profit groups are asking for reconsideration saying they rely on these statistics for things as varied as health service provision to private groups planning charitable activities.
In many cases, these are government agencies and departments that claim they can’t perform their roles as accurately without knowing these trends. Our governing party, in ignoring the pleas, is saying less efficiency in the administrative wing is OK by them.
That attitude is at cross-purposes with taxpayers’ interests. Given the outcry, they should reconsider.
