Cdns will disappear from annals if census not filled properly: genealogists
TORONTO (CP) - It's 2098, and Jane Smith can't find any record of her great-grandfather. He seems to have completely disappeared from Earth in 2006.
Sound like the beginning of a Hollywood movie? It could become reality for some Canadians if this year's census isn't filled out properly, genealogists warn.
The census, which started appearing in mailboxes this week, includes a question seeking permission for Statistics Canada to publicly release information about life today, 92 years later.
It will allow residents to leave a record of how grandpa and grandma lived - including how many hours they spent at work and whether their home was in need of major repairs - explained Linda Dunsmore-Porter, executive director of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society in Regina.
"If you mark 'no', that would basically be the end of your history," she said. "You'll disappear from the annals."
The consent question was added this year to clear up legal ambiguity about the privacy rights of those who fill in the questionnaire, which contains dozens of queries about personal life including same-sex relationships.
Getting the inside scoop on the Canadian way of life has become a more complex task in recent history. There was a time when statisticians merely wanted to know if inhabitants were married or not, and how many muskets and swords they kept in their homes.
With just over 3,200 citizens, leader Jean Talon was able to personally go door-to-door counting the inhabitants of the colony of New France for the country's first-ever census in 1666.
Among his findings were 528 families which included 36 carpenters, eight barrel makers, five bakers and three locksmiths.
Fast-forward 360 years and 33 million people, and Statistics Canada requires an army of about 28,000 workers to administer the census questionnaire to Canada's approximately 12 million households.
By the official Census Day on May 16, the federal agency expects to have close to 97 per cent of questionnaires completed.
"Canadians are amongst the best in the world in terms of understanding the importance of the census and the civic responsibility," said Anil Arora, director general of Statistics Canada's 2006 census program.
"The kind of response rates we get before we have to go knock on doors are the envy of other countries."
Arora said the agency accounts for every questionnaire mailed. It's estimated just three per cent of the population gets missed.
Administered every five years, the census is the government's effort to take a national family portrait of the population.
The information collected will help determine where hospitals, schools and police and fire stations are built. Big business will use the data to determine where big box stores would get the most traffic, and insurance companies base premiums on census data about our national age.
New this year is a move from snail mail to e-mail as the census goes online for the first time. It was tested in a few cities in 2001.
"It's pretty neat. It's pretty sophisticated," said Arora, referring to the state-of-the-art security measures which he says exceed those used by financial institutions.
He said the Net allows for "better quality data" because the software won't allow users to skip sections.
As well, statisticians have put more emphasis on education with new questions about the highest level of education attained and in which province or country was it received.
This will allow Statistics Canada to paint a better picture of the labour force, said Arora.
"Does it make a difference if you got that education in Ontario? What if you got that degree in India?" he said.
Administers say a few other changes - specifically one about allowing Statistics Canada to use data from your recent income tax file - will ease the burden of filling out the forms, which can take anywhere from 40 minutes to five minutes.
Most people will receive an eight-question-long form. But one in five households will be saddled with a weightier volume, clocking 61 questions.
While the census will update many nitty-gritty facts about our day-to-day life - including what languages are spoken at home - we won't learn this time around how many people practice Christianity or Buddhism as the religion question is only asked once every decade.
It was last asked in 2001, when it was memorably co-opted by Star Wars fanatics who urged people to declare themselves followers of the religion of Jedi, the guardians of peace and justice in the movie series. An astonishing 20,000 Canadians did so.
While the Jedis won't be campaigning this time around, the 2006 census isn't without its own headline-grabbing crusades.
An e-mail is being circulated that urges bilingual francophones to play down their English skills when filling out the questionnaire. The campaign advocates that a higher number of unilingual francophones would prevent the federal government from reducing services to French-speaking Canadians.
And in Alberta, Statistics Canada has partnered with Calgary's Mountain Crest Brewing in the hopes of enticing the 18 to 24 demographic to take part in the census by advertising on beer cans.
Results of the census will begin rolling out in January.
Whatever the portrait looks like, Dunsmore-Porter says it will be a vital time-capsule for our descendants.
That's why she and other genealogical societies are urging people to give the federal agency permission to release the information 92 years from now.
Said Dunsmore-Porter: "Your family's history and your friend's history could end in 2006, which would be kind of sad. We need to know."
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On the Net:
www.census2006.ca
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On the Net:
www.census2006.ca
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New to this year's census, which Canadians must fill out by May 16:
-Permission to release your information to the public in 92 years.
-The option of filing the questionnaire online through a secure site.
-The option of skipping the income section by allowing the federal agency to use information available on your income tax file
-A question about where respondents received their highest level of education.
