500 Million Questions

The increasing complexities of modern-day problems of planning, administration, and research, have led to a substantial escalation in the demand for census information. More statistics than ever before required of one census will be expected from the 1971 Census. Regional development planning, urban renewal projects, education and manpower programmes, poverty and welfare assistance measures, and marketing research analysis, are some of the fields in which increasing needs of users have been articulated and evaluated during the planning stages for the 1971 Census.

The Census will, in effect, be a stop-action snapshot of Canadians on June 1, 1971. In many ways it will tell us how far we have come. It will also help us to plan where we want to go.

The original legal purpose related to parliamentary representation remains, but the Canadian census of today has far wider uses than to apportion electoral representation. Its importance hinges on its role as an inventory of the people--their numbers and local distribution, age and sex structure, language, ethnic and religious composition, educational attainment, occupational and industrial employment, income levels, housing and agricultural conditions. Of critical significance are the uses made of the census results in the development of plans and the formulation of social and economic policy by government departments and the business community.

Governments, business, universities, individuals--all of us--need good information to make good decisions. The census will provide that kind of information. Uses of census statistics are almost endless. This explains why Canadians have always co-operated so completely in census-taking.

Canadians will find that something is different when the Census of Canada is taken on June 1, 1971.

In the 1971 Census you, or someone in your family, will be your own census-taker. You can study the questionnaire and accompanying instructions on your own time, look up records where necessary, and check with other members of the family before setting down the answers. Or, if you need further help, you can get it on the phone, at a local number listed on the form.

If you live in one of the larger urban areas, you will be asked to mail back the completed questionnaire--in a postpaid envelope provided for this purpose. That will finish your task, unless the census officials find errors or omissions that may make it necessary for them to contact you.

In other areas, the census representative will call to pick up and review the questionnaire.

Thus it will be a self-census for most of us. Only in the remote outlying areas, or where special problems exist, will the traditional door-to-door canvass be made.

Sound simple? We hope it will be--for you.

For Canada as a whole, the task is gigantic. The 1971 Census will be one of the biggest peace-time operations the country has ever seen. It will require about 50,000 workers, specially-made electronic equipment to "read" and process millions of questionnaires, computers to organize and compile the information.

The cost of taking the census will be over $35,000,000. And it's one of the best investments Canadians can make. The pay-off--for everyone--is huge.

The modern census originated in Canada! And we are still regarded abroad as a world leader in many aspects of census-taking.

But the idea of census-taking goes back almost 6,000 years.

The very word "census" comes from a Latin word, "censere", which originally meant "to assess". And in those ancient days, the word was apt, because the primary purpose was to collect taxes.

But in the last few centuries, all that has changed. Censuses today have nothing to do with assessment or taxation. A modern census is the complete listing or cataloguing of a people and many of the things that affect their lives.

Under the British North America Act of 1867, a census was to be taken in' 1871 and "every tenth year thereafter". This decennial census was extended to the territories and to new provinces as they joined Confederation.

In addition to the decennial census, a special agriculture and population census was taken in Manitoba in 1896 and extended to all three Prairie Provinces in 1906 to keep up with the rapid settlement of the West. This "mini" census continued every tenth year up until 1956 when it was extended to the whole country. It has proved invaluable in updating population and agriculture statistics between major census periods and plans indicate it will be continued in 1976.

The 1971 Census will thus mark 100 years of national census-taking in Canada. And it will really be a combination of three censuses--a combined population and housing census; an agriculture census; a merchandising census.

The population and housing census is designed to tell us how many people live in Canada, where they live and the kinds of homes they live in.

Every household will receive a questionnaire. Two out of three will get a short form, requesting basic population data. They will be asked to record the name, birth date, relationship, sex, marital status and mother tongue of each household member and to answer nine housing questions.

A longer questionnaire will go to every third household. In addition to the basic questions, it will ask for further information about housing and such matters as education, employment, migration and income.

This is known as "sampling"--a technique which enables accurate conclusions about a whole society to be drawn from the replies of only some of its members. The degree to which sampling is employed is directly related to the reduction of costs and to the production of more timely results.

The self-census and the sampling method will apply to about 97 per cent of the population. The only exceptions will be those living in remote parts of Canada, where geographical and other problems make it necessary to use traditional methods of door-to-door enumeration. All households in these localities will be asked the full range of census questions.

The farmer has a special responsibility in the census. He is asked not only to account for all the members of his household but also for his livestock, machinery, and other aspects of his business.

It is a big and important job for the farmer. Canadian agriculture has been undergoing rapid change during the past 20 years. And this year farm problems are more urgent and complex than ever.

Census of Merchandising

Census representatives will compile a list of businesses in the retail, wholesale and service trades. Early the following year, each business will be mailed a detailed questionnaire for completion and return. The information required is the kind readily available in business records covering financial activities in 1971. When the data has been compiled and analyzed, it will provide a definite picture of the value and trends of Canada's channel of distribution, from wholesaler to the final user--the Canadian consumer.

The intent and purpose of some census questions occasionally baffle people and cause comment. But there's a good reason for every one.

A favourite eyebrow-raiser is bound to be Question H9 on the 1971 questionnaire. It asks: "At what telephone number can this household be reached?"

Obviously, this is not a statistical question. But, with self-census procedures, where householders complete their own questionnaires and, in urban areas, mail them back to the census office, it sometimes becomes necessary during processing to contact the householder to obtain missing information or clarify answers on the census form. A follow-up telephone call is quick, economical and more convenient to the householder than a personal visit. The telephone number will be retained as part of census information.

There are also questions as to whether plumbing facilities are used by one or more households. This information is important to housing authorities. It helps to indicate the standard of housing and thus assist in identifying areas that require urban renewal or redevelopment.

Census information is so useful that interested individuals and organizations constantly suggest questions that they believe should be included.

There are conflicting pressures on the 1971 Census to keep the list of items on the Population and Housing Questionnaire and on the Agriculture Questionnaire short enough that the operation is feasible in terms of quality, timeliness and cost, and yet still meet as many vital data needs as possible.

Only questions that will yield information useful to many Canadians are included.

Long before each census is taken, working groups and committees intensively discuss the questions to be recommended for inclusion. Representations are made by federal and provincial government agencies, businesses, universities, town planning experts, financial institutions and many others. The final selection, which must be submitted to the Cabinet for ratification and approval, is made on the basis of the usefulness of a question, the cost involved in asking it, the relative difficulty of getting reliable answers, and the amount of effort it will take for the householder to provide the information.

Because of the recent emphasis on manpower training programmes, new questions will be asked in 1971 about the time people devote to vocational and occupational courses. Town planners have long needed statistics relating place of work to place of residence, so this time the address of the place of work will be requested.

Of course, answers to 500 million questions will be input to computer by complicated high speed automatic optical reading devices and the output of the computer will be statistics in the form of magnetic tapes and computer printouts which will be available themselves and which will form the basis of census publications. The computer technology available for processing the 71 census is vastly in excess of the capability available in 1961 or even 1966 and we will be using computers to make census results available quickly, accurately and cheaply. Results will be in a variety of formats designed to serve the needs simple counts of population on paper, through to complicated five way cross classifications on computer tape. In 1961, very few users of census results had computers available to them, whereas, throughout the 1970's large numbers of users will have high power computer processing capability available and we anticipate that computer tape will be a routine form of releasing 1971 census statistics.

I have reserved till the last, the critically important fact that the whole edifice that I have been talking about has as its foundation the good will and co-operation of the Canadian population, which we believe to be warranted because: first, good census statistics will make a major contribution to good government and good private decisions second, the government is as dependent upon individual Canadians for essential information as it is dependent on them for tax dollars. There is no other source, and the citizen's contribution via his answers to census questions is comparable to the contribution he makes via his tax dollars third, the answers he provides are secret and confidential to the Dominion Bureau of Statistics under penalty of law and in accord with 50 years of unblemished administration of the secrecy provisions of the Statistics Act. The information a citizen provides may never be identified as coming from him and the census files of DBS are not available to any other department or agency of any level of government. Answers to census questions are not sent "to Ottawa". They are sent only to DBS which is obliged under law, to not make available to any other agency except with the written permission of the citizen himself. If I may make a comparison, your answers to census questions are no more distinguishable in any of the products of DBS, or otherwise identifiable, than are the tax dollars you pay. Finally, there is a legal obligation to answer census questions. But that legal obligation will rest lightly on Canadians who have through many censuses demonstrated their willingness to co-operate with DBS, which hardly ever enforces its legal authority, but which builds its statistics on the co-operative understanding of the Canadian people.

We have been testing the 1971 census questions and methods through a series of tests which started some five years ago. These comprehensive tests and a dress rehearsal, involving a total of nearly half a million Canadians, demonstrated that the great majority of Canadian householders would accurately complete the census questionnaires left with them, and mail them back or hold them for an enumerator to call as we request.

I am confident that this coming June, Canadian households and families will make their essential contribution to making available good information for good decisions for a better Canada that will be found the results of the 1971 census--by answering 500 million questions.

Canada counts, count yourself in.

The gratitude of the Club was expressed by Mr. Robert L. Armstrong.