The Canadian Marketing Association has added its voice to a growing chorus of groups calling on Ottawa to reverse plans to change “long form census” procedures in 2011.
In an open letter to Minister of Industry Tony Clement, CMA president and CEO John Gustavson, said the group’s 800 member organizations support maintaining the long form census next year. “The long form is a valuable source of information to marketers when making key business decisions, including what products and services to market to whom and to where,” he wrote. “This information, by neighbourhood and postal code, supports the growth of the Canadian economy, jobs, and its tax base.”
Stephen Harper’s Conservative cabinet recently decided to cut the 35-year-old mandatory long census form next year in favour of a voluntary survey. The government has said the decision was based on an unspecified number of complaints about the coercive and intrusive nature of the census process. Those refusing to complete the form faced prosecution and fines.
However the CMA claims the change could have the opposite effect, at least as far as advertising is concerned.
“With respect to the suggestion that the long form is intrusive, this information enables marketers to reach consumers more effectively and reduce considerably the amount of communication an individual receives,” wrote Gustavson. “I would therefore respectfully suggest that the long form census does, in fact, limit intrusion into individuals’ lives by reducing irrelevant marketing and market surveys that would otherwise be sent to consumers.”
Since the proposed change came, a steady stream of press releases and announcements have questioned the change.
The Statistical Society of Canada wrote to Industry Minister Tony Clement on Friday “in the interests of maintaining the high quality of information” for which Statistics Canada is famous.
“We view it as surprising that decisions are made limiting the ability of experts at Statistics Canada to carry out a mandate for the benefit of Canadian policy makers, educators, small business and science without consulting these same experts,” said the letter.
“We respectfully submit that, in the interests of both cost and retention of the Canadian reputation for the quality of statistical information, the decision to replace the long form by a voluntary survey be revisited, reinformed and reversed.”
