Canadian Census takers can file survey online
CP
OTTAWA[!-- /dateline --] -- Census forms start dropping into mailboxes this week, with some new options, including Internet filing and a chance to help out the historians of the year 2098. The census, which takes a snapshot of the country every five years, is turning to the wired world to make it easier to respond.
"Canadians are expecting a secure and efficient online application and so, believe it or not, involving 13 million dwellings across the country, we're going to embark upon providing that option," says Anil Arora, manager of the census for Statistics Canada.
Every census form will contain a unique access code, allowing for Internet filing.
"As long as their computer security is up to par, all they have to do is enter that Internet access code and off they go," he says. "They don't have to worry about shuffling paper and going to the mailbox."
The forms will also allow people to check off a box giving permission for public release of their personal data after 92 years.
The information from those who agree will be transferred to Library and Archives Canada in 2098, where it will be freely available.
This new provision, which rises from a law passed last year, will give the scholars of the future a treasure trove of data to sift through.
"It's an invaluable tool," says Henry Yu, a historian from the University of British Columbia.
"There's all kinds of information that you could never know. The census is detailed. It goes across the board, to every neighbourhood, every region."
Historians lobbied hard to get the law changed to give eventual access to the census data and Yu said it will pay off for researchers looking back at the Canada of 2006.
"One of the things I'm interested in seeing is how many people check that box."
As usual, the census will try to find every single person in Canada on census day, May 16, as well as diplomats and soldiers abroad and sailors at sea or in port aboard Canadian-registered ships.
The census will reach into homes, hotels, hostels, prisons, jails and even campgrounds.
"The census provides a statistical snapshot of our country and its people," Statistics Canada says.
The agency said the results are used, among other things, to calculate transfer payments to the provinces and territories, to allocate seats in the Commons and to plan for public services, from health care to training programs.
The Internet filing option will be handy for everyone involved, Arora says. Ordinary people will be able to file quickly online, and his agency is also better off.
"We're getting the data back quicker," he says. "The application itself has some built-in edits so it can do a little better job of helping people navigate through the questionnaire and we get better quality data and we get it faster and we get it in electronic form."
Most households will get a bare-bones, eight-question form. One in five will get a longer form with 61 questions.
The long form includes a number of questions on income and taxation, but people can fast-forward through that by checking a box to let Statistics Canada retrieve the information from Revenue Canada.
Most forms will arrive by mail, although about 30 per cent will be delivered by an enumerator.
The census provides reams of data, allowing the agency to fill in a mosaic of who lives where, where they come from, how much they earn, the state of repair of their houses and much more.
Arora underlines that census data is kept confidential. It is handled only by census employees who are sworn to confidentiality. Police and security agencies are barred from seeing personal information.
The first census in Canada was conducted in 1666 by Jean Talon, the intendant of New France. It listed 3,215 people, excluding aboriginals and soldiers.
The latest census will survey more than 32 million people. It's expected to cost $566.9 million over their eight years it will take to collect, collate and analyze the data.
The 2000 census cost $429.5 million.
