Return Of Long Form Census

segnosaur · February 18, 2015

I have done some work on the municipal level and many of the statistics on which we base support decisions have been based on that data. It is no longer available.

Just out of curiosity, what exactly were the decisions that they required data from the long term census form, and how would it affect the lives of real Canadians?

And keep in mind:

- The city would still be getting data from the short form census, so you'd at least have population counts

- The data that you had been getting from the long form census would already have been several years out of date (due to the time needed to tabulate the results)

- You still get some data from the National household survey, which might not be as accurate as the long-form census, but provides much of the same data

While I don't necessarily think that cancelling the census was a good idea, I also have a hard time getting worked up over the issue. So, tell me, how will my life be better just because your municipal government knows how many bathrooms I have in my house.

overthere · February 18, 2015

no person, other than a person employed or deemed to be employed under this Act, and sworn under section 6, shall be permitted to examine any identifiable individual return made for the purposes of this Act; and

Every speck of information you provide in the census- excepting your name and specific address- is packaged and sold many times by Statistics Canada to anybody who will pay for it.

Planned expenditures for the year ending March 31, 2014 Expended during the quarter ended June 30, 2013 Year to date used at quarter-end in thousands of dollars Expenditures (01) Personnel 419,449 130,031 130,031 (02) Transportation and communications 26,173 2,391 2,391 (03) Information 2,656 69 69 (04) Professional and special services 33,940 1,851 1,851 (05) Rentals 9,224 2,248 2,248 (06) Repair and maintenance 11,951 33 33 (07) Utilities, materials and supplies 12,355 468 468 (08) Acquisition of land, building and works - - - (09) Acquisition of machinery and equipment 4,586 2,199 2,199 (10) Transfer payments - - - (12) Other subsidies and payments 175 5 5 Total gross budgetary expenditures 520,509 139,295 139,295 Less revenues netted against expenditures Revenues 120,000 15,063 15,063 Total revenues netted against expenditures 120,000 15,063 15,063 Total net budgetary expenditures 400,509 124,232 124,232

Stats Can budget 2013-2014, Note the planned revenue of $120M . Now where do you think that comes from? They've sold demographic info about us for decades. Corps and marketing companies use it to tailor all sorts of advertising to all of us. I have no issue with them selling on info, as long as they have no problem with me limiting info about myself. So far its worked out for both of us.

Info is from StatsCan website

Edited February 18, 2015 by overthere

jacee · February 19, 2015

Stats Can budget 2013-2014, Note the planned revenue of $120M . Now where do you think that comes from?

They've sold demographic info about us for decades. Corps and marketing companies use it to tailor all sorts of advertising to all of us. I have no issue with them selling on info, as long as they have no problem with me limiting info about myself. So far its worked out for both of us.

Info is from StatsCan website

Yes census data (minus individual identifiers) is sold, most often in collated form for each census area. Many institutions and agencies buy it to help with service planning, and I'm sure it is used for marketing too.

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overthere · February 19, 2015

Yes census data (minus individual identifiers) is sold, most often in collated form for each census area. Many institutions and agencies buy it to help with service planning, and I'm sure it is used for marketing too.

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It is sold mainly by postal code or groups of codes.

And most definitely used for marketing of many things.

cybercoma · February 19, 2015

It is sold mainly by postal code or groups of codes.

And most definitely used for marketing of many things.

Statistics Canada also does research for private firms too.

The thing is your personal information is never identifiable. They are legally not allowed to release information that could be used to pinpoint individuals.

I've gone through the process. I know the gatekeepers and the hoops researchers need to jump through to get data released sometimes. Statistics Canada "selling your data" doesn't mean what is implied by saying that. The implication being that now some company knows everything there is to know about "overthere" in "location, location."

overthere · February 21, 2015

Statistics Canada also does research for private firms too.

The thing is your personal information is never identifiable. They are legally not allowed to release information that could be used to pinpoint individuals.

I've gone through the process. I know the gatekeepers and the hoops researchers need to jump through to get data released sometimes. Statistics Canada "selling your data" doesn't mean what is implied by saying that. The implication being that now some company knows everything there is to know about "overthere" in "location, location."

They sell everything except your name and street address. I did note that exemption, right from the beginning. And of course postal codes cover only a small location, so they know more or less where you live within a couple hundred meters radius.

I won't mock you for being wrong or unaware about the $120m.

I recall a promo a few years ago done by a group of local car dealerships.

In the mail households received a tube that contained a car key and an invitation to make an appointment to come down to three dealerships. You had to take a vehicle for a test drive and listen to a sales spiel . Then you were allowed to try to use your key to start a display vehicle. I checked around and learned that the promo was geared to demographics based on Stats Can info. Different neighbourhoods got different invitiations to different dealers, based on their different demogrpahics as purchased from Stats Canada. One of the vehicles was a Chrysler minivan, areas with moderate incomes and plots of kids got those invitiations. The idea was to match products with the right people. and get them into a vehicle they needed and could afford for a few minutes.

They were grouped like that as well- Minivan, Pontiac and Toyota together. Jaguar, Lincoln and Acura in another. We joked that winning the Jaguar should be for somebody with lots of money and no brain. Not sure how they could figure that from Stats Can info.

-TSS- · March 2, 2015

I must say I'm a bit surprised that in supposedly developed countries such as Britain they still carry out censuses by delivering forms to the population to fill out. It goes without saying that the results of such censuses are totally inaccurate especially in a country like Britain where many people want to remain below the radar so to speak.