ONPHA Urges You to Support the Reinstatement of the Mandatory Census Long Form

As you may have heard, the Federal Government has made a decision to eliminate the mandatory Census long form questionnaire. It has been replaced by the voluntary National Household Survey.

The census long form is a critical source of data on housing, diversity, employment, income, education and other characteristics of Canadians.  The data collected through the long form provides decision makers, researchers and community organizations with comparable data that is used to inform policy and program development, service delivery planning and research -  making it mandatory ensures that the most complete and accurate data is available.

In a recent letter, the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA) cautioned that the voluntary nature of the National Houshold Survey will introduce response bias, making the data collected unreliable. CHRA goes on to warn that "the people who use affordable and supportive housing programs are often those with low-incomes, recent immigrants, Aboriginal Canadians and other vulnerable groups, people who tend to respond less to a voluntary survey. This means that these people will be undercounted, thus skewing information needed by decision-makers to plan, assess, and provide affordable housing."  Without this essential source of knowledge, Canada´s most vulnerable citizens will lose visibility.

A broad range of groups, from the business community to academics and community-based researchers are calling on the government to reinstate the mandatory census long form. ONPHA has added its voice to this group and called for a re-examination of this issue in a recent letter to Tony Clement, Minister of Industry Canada.

Like many other organizations, ONPHA's research and advocacy work will be affected by this change in the long form.  Key reports such as the ONPHA and CHF Canada-Ontario Region's Where's Home study, which has a heavy reliance on census data, will be negatively impacted.  Furthermore, the ability of governments at all levels to plan and deliver appropriate services will also be negatively affected.

That is why we are joining with other sector and community organizations and asking you to consider signing this petition urging the reinstatement of the mandatory long-form.

We will keep our membership updated on this important issue. Thank you.