Students support bill to save long-form census

OTTAWA, Aug. 26 /CNW/ - Students call on all Members of Parliament to support a private Member's bill presented today to amend the Statistics Act, mandating Statistics Canada to conduct a mandatory long-form questionnaire during each census.

"Data collected through the mandatory long-form census is essential to making informed decisions at the municipal, provincial and federal level, regarding health care and education planning, immigration settlement policies and public transit infrastructure," said Sandy Hudson, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. "The absence of this data will lead to wasted money and resources because of uninformed decision-making."

At a recent General Meeting of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario, students resolved unanimously to oppose the elimination of the long-form census. Canada's former chief statistician Ivan Fellegi addressed delegates at the meeting, warning that the elimination of the long-form census by the Conservative government not only calls into question the reliability of census data, but also the ability of Statistics Canada to do its job, and the credibility of the agency itself.

"Without the data provided by the long-form census, much of the research conducted at post-secondary education institutions will become impossible," said Dave Molenhuis, National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. "While this bill will prevent future governments from arbitrarily deciding to scrap the long-form census without discussion or debate, Members of Parliament must take action immediately to save the integrity of the 2011 census."

The Canadian Federation of Students is Canada's largest student organisation, uniting more that one-half million students in all ten provinces. The Canadian Federation of Students and its predecessor organisations have represented students in Canada since 1927.

For further information:

Dave Molenhuis, National Chairperson, 613-232-7394

Sandy Hudson, Ontario Chairperson, 416-925-3825