Michael Adams, President of the Environics Institute, presented his remarks of the cancellation of the mandatory long-form census at the Caledon Institute of Social Policy 20th anniversary celebration. 

Here's an excerpt of his remarks:

The short form, which I presume everyone in this room filled in, unless you wanted to test the government’s tough-on-crime agenda, asks about the number of residents in your home, their relationships to one another, their age and gender, whether they farm, and what languages they speak. Basic population data for the most part.

The long form (formerly mandatory, now the optional National Household Survey) asks a wider range of questions, touching on citizenship and immigration status, income, occupation, child care, housing, and so on.

Long form data has in the past been used by businesses, NGOs, religious groups—and, oh right! governments!—to make plans and evaluate the success of their activities.

You have certainly heard of the United Way’s ―poverty by postal code work. Enabled by long form data, of course.

You can view a complete copy of Mr Adams remarks available here. 

The Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) has  released two reports of general interest. Today the CSLS released a report entitled “The Impact of Redistribution on Income Inequality in Canada and the Provinces, 1981-2010” (PDF). The objective of the study is to provide an overview of trends in income inequality, defined as the Gini coefficient, in Canada and the provinces over the 1981-2010 period and to investigate the impact of redistributive policies – namely, taxes and transfers – on these trends.

The Canadian Government is responsible for protecting the rights of 7 million children and youth. How is it doing its job?

Find out by streaming a special live event between the Government and the UN.

The Canadian Government will discuss its efforts to advance the well-being of children and youth at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on September 26-27.

For additional information on the stream as well as activity on children's rights, visit UNICEF Canada's "Turn Up The Volume", the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children, and the UN Treaty Body Webcast sites.

from Lethbridge News by Kim Siever

One of Canada’s leading demographic experts is reinforcing a report by Statistics Canada (StatsCan) that recommends reintroducing in 2016 the long-form census.

from The First Perspective

Paul Christopher Webster

CMAJ

The federal government is deliberately undermining capacity to generate accurate Aboriginal health data and circulating discredited health data so as to downplay the severity of the Aboriginal health crisis in Canada, critics charge.

Citoyenneté et Immigration Canada désire vous inviter à participer à une consultation en ligne sur la planification des niveaux d’immigration.

Le but de cette consultation est d’obtenir votre rétroaction sur l’immigration au Canada, plus précisément sur le nombre total de nouveaux résidents permanents que le Canada devrait accueillir et sur la façon de répartir ce total global entre les différentes catégories d’immigration.

By Simon Lewchuk | Thursday, July 19th, 2012

On July 25-27, the Council of the Federation (the council of the premiers of Canada’s thirteen provinces and territories) will hold their semi-annual meeting in Halifax, NS.

In advance of the gathering, Dignity for All has sent a letter to the Council's incoming-Chair, NS Premier Darrell Dexter, urging him to put poverty on the agenda. The letter highlights the negative impact of unilateral federal decisions, namely the recent Employment Insurance reforms, on provincial interests & residents' socio-economic well-being and calls for a national, multilateral poverty strategy.