Religious groups concerned about census reform
OTTAWA, ON—Religious and other minority groups may be underrepresented in the Canadian landscape if the Conservative government goes ahead with plans to scrap the long form census, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC).
This summer federal industry minister Tony Clement announced plans to replace the mandatory long form census with a new, voluntary survey that would be mailed to one-third of Canadians.
But according to Rick Hiemstra, director of the EFC's Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism, results of a voluntary survey may not deliver as reliable data as the old, mandatory long form census did.
"The census is a portrait of Canada," says Hiemstra. "Numbers talk, especially when a non-partisan, respected, independent agency like Statistics Canada is doing the talking.
"The political reality of how money gets allocated is that if you're not visible, you're less likely to have funds allocated to meeting your needs. If you don't show up in the census, there is the risk the government will ignore you when they're developing their social services and programs."
Immigrant and minority groups play an important role in Canadian evangelicalism, Hiemstra says, adding that many such groups may fail to return a voluntary survey, due to issues such as language barriers or historical experiences with persecution.
It will also rob churches of important data that can be used to understand and respond to the needs of their local community.
"With the voluntary [survey], we will have larger and uneven religious undercounting errors introduced, further impairing the historical comparability of the data," says Hiemstra. "Census numbers are one potential measure of influence, and sometimes create influence. If a religious group doesn't show up in StatsCan's numbers, will they have influence in the public square? Or will their influence potentially go unnoticed?"
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