OTTAWA –The government-appointed council that advises Statistics Canada says Industry Minister Tony Clement is wasting $30 million on a new census that will fail to provide worthwhile information needed by governments, communities, social agencies and others.

In a stinging statement Thursday, the National Statistics Council said Clement’s latest change in the census on language questions only proves that the government’s plan to make the longer, 40-page census voluntary won’t lead to credible results.

Attempting to head off a court showdown with a francophone group, Clement announced Wednesday he is adding questions on what language people speak to the short, 10-question census that must be filled out by every household.

Until Wednesday, questions on language use were going to be asked only on the longer, 40-page census that traditionally has gone to one-in-five households. For the first time, Clement is making this questionnaire—now called the National Household Survey—voluntary.

The francophone group went to court to seek an injunction against Clement’s plan on the grounds that the voluntary 40-page survey would not produce credible data on Canadians’ language use, thus imperiling linguistic rights.

Commenting on the decision to put language questions on the shorter, mandatory census, the council said, “The new approach to language use recognizes that the voluntary National Household Survey will not meet the requirements” for accurate data. Such reliable data “can only be provided through a mandatory” survey, the council said.

The council also criticizes Clement’s plan to spend $30 million on advertising to urge Canadians to complete the voluntary survey. “The cost of changing the long-form part of the census into a survey is substantial – $30 million or more – while yielding less accurate or usable information,” the council said.

The council also takes a poke at Clement for suggesting that users of census data should pay for their own surveys if they think the information generated by the voluntary 40-page survey isn’t credible.

“The Council rejected recent suggestions that small-area data users such as public health planners, voluntary associations, towns and transportation planners should pay for their own surveys rather than rely on the census—this is not possible,” the advisory body said in a press release. The council said such surveys would be too small to produce usable information.

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