The Honourable Tony Clement

Minister Responsible for Statistics Canada

Munir Sheikh, Chief Statistician Statistics Canada

Dear Sirs:

We are writing to you on behalf of the Canadian Association for Business Economics (CABE). As the executive of CABE, with the support of a majority of the Board, we wish to express our concerns about the planned changes to the Census of Population.  We are particularly concerned about the loss of the compulsory census long form.  Our concerns relate to three issues: data quality, cost and process.

Data quality is a prime requirement of all analysis.  Achieving an extremely high response rate to those questions normally covered in the long form is vital for policy and business analysis.   Decisions are made regularly by business and government about the location of resources and new initiatives based on the data in the long form.  In our professional work, we are continually requested to analyze questions with a very fine level of geographic detail.  Policy analysis and implementation at the regional and local level will be seriously impinged by the lack of accurate socio-economic data.  The very high response rate from the census because of its compulsory nature allowed us to be comfortable with the quality of the information. A survey with variable and highly subjective response rates does not provide the same assurance.  More importantly, the samples for specific business surveys are often developed with reference to the detailed information obtained through the long form census.  In addition, the introduction of the new voluntary National Household Survey (NHS) will represent a permanent break in the data, because the new data collected from the NHS will not be directly comparable to the more accurate data that had been collected from the long form of previous censuses. This will limit our ability to accurately track important long-term socio-economic trends.

As noted, our second concern is cost.  This has three dimensions.  Firstly, achieving adequate quality and an appropriate response rate from a survey will be very challenging and will almost certainly involve more resources than retaining the compulsory long form of past censuses.  Secondly, the costs of maintaining existing programs in business and government will be increased because of the need to fund new data sources.  Thirdly, high quality regional data at the municipal level will be seriously compromised, if not lost entirely in many parts of the country.  This will require the development of alternative data sources with an enormous analytical and resource cost as well as a loss in comparability.

We also have a concern about process.  As a professional association, we are quite concerned that the decision to drop the long form was made without serious consultation with the broad population of data users in the demographic and economics communities. As organizations, CABE and its various chapters have strong ties to the government and its data gathering agencies.  We have provided a forum for Statistics Canada and other federal departments (including the Bank of Canada) to review and present studies and data. As professional organizations, we feel that we have improved the dialogue between government and the private sector which, in turn, has improved the quality of the public data. The lack of consultation over this significant change to the Census is an unfortunate departure from this mutually beneficial partnership.  We strongly urge the government to reverse its decision to eliminate the Census long form.

If you have any questions, you can reach our board through the CABE web site at www.cabe.ca.  Mr. Jacobson can be reached at 416-868-1141 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Mr. Alexander can be reached at +1 (416) 982-8064 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Sincerely,

CABE successfully piloted a first-of-its-kind mentoring program during the 2007-8 program year. According to a survey of participants, most believe they were well matched, and felt comfortable raising various issues. They discussed a combination of analytical/economic and workplace issues, but mostly workplace issues. Below are some comments from participants:

• I would recommend it. I feel that I met someone that I would feel comfortable in contacting again in the future. It was good to discuss economic issues with someone senior and knowledgeable. These discussions often gave me other perspectives/views of the positions I previously had.
• I would recommend it. As a mentor, I have played a part in introducing one of our members to government, and broadening their knowledge.
• I think the CABE mentoring program is a very valuable initiative and I congratulate those who conceived it. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to share perspectives with a leader in the field.

In its simplest form, mentoring is about sharing knowledge and guiding individuals to make their best possible decisions. It is time well spent. Other organizations are taking note. The National Association for Business Economics (NABE), CABE's sister organization in the United States, is implementing a mentoring program based on the CABE model.

We are now launching the 2010-11 mentoring program and inviting members to submit applications to become a mentor or mentee by September 30th. Potential new members, of whom you are in contact, are also encouraged to apply. Once in the program, participants will be expected to meet for about a year, usually on a monthly basis. At the end of the year, the participants will themselves decide how best to proceed. To learn more about the mentoring program, please consult the CABE Mentoring Program Brochure and Guide, or visit www.cabe.ca.

 Guide to the CABE Mentoring Program - 2010

Greg Haymes
National Coordinator
CABE Mentoring Program