Letter to the Editor.  Appeared in the Hamilton Spectator November 12, 2014

Long form census

Liberal MP Ted Hsu’s private member’s bill before the House of Commons (Bill C-626) asks the government to reintroduce the mandatory long form census. The replacement of the long form census with the voluntary National Household Survey has had a negative impact on Stats Canada’s ability to provide information to those who rely on it.

When the 2011 numbers were released they came with a warning: ” … estimates are derived from a voluntary survey and are therefore subject to potentially higher nonresponse error than those derived from the 2006 census long form.”

The nonresponse from lower-income households means the official numbers will undercount the working poor in this country. Among other reasons, policy-makers need this data to understand income and poverty trends.

With the data we have now being skewed with a bias toward wealthier and more educated households, we have made it that much harder to provide help to those who need it.

Howard Rabb, Hamilton