Short Online Census...opinions?

LAMO · by **LAMO** on Tue May 03, 2011 2:30 pm

So I had to call the number, cause for some reason they sent 3 census forms to my single family home ( Apt 1, Apt 2, Bsmt) and give them all the same personal information that was needed on the Census form just to get it straightened out :roll:

This form is a JOKE. The only information our Government needs is our names, ages, marital status ( which does not include SINGLE, but rather " never married") and whether or not we are foreigners or diplomats??

No wonder the Statistician was so upset with Harper :shock:

What do you think? should the People of Canada have the right to decide if the long form is no longer needed, or if some of the information should be removed?

kapoohhh · by **kapoohhh** on Tue May 03, 2011 3:09 pm

Complete waste of paper sent out in the mail and all the time spent on setting up the web questions and such.
I was expecting way more questions.

brymommy · by **brymommy** on Tue May 03, 2011 3:10 pm

I thought it was a bit of a joke... I remember the long form I filled out before and thought that was much better...

Not to mention how to answer if my 2 year old can speak in fluent english sentences... It would depend on what you asked her :lol:

Oh and having to say that my 5 and 2 year old have "never been married" :-k

Where's the "too young" option...

And I also had to call... They sent us a form for the house and one for the basement as well... which to their credit sometimes *is* used as another dwelling

But it's currently part of our house... It was longer waiting on hold than filling out the Census online or the conversation I had with them...

I think if they are going to do a Census it should be the longer.

by **Guest** on Tue May 03, 2011 4:33 pm

I just filled it out and am wondering why they bother? I always search census info for all sorts of stuff. However, they didn't even ask income levels or anything.

In fact EVERYTHING they asked for they already had just by the Income Tax and CCTB. Seems kind of pointless to me.

five-seven-five · by **five-seven-five** on Tue May 03, 2011 5:21 pm

Historians and genealogists are weeping at the thought of the new census.

knittingmama · by **knittingmama** on Tue May 03, 2011 7:10 pm

they've sure changed census forms over the years. We answered the online version - they wanted to know how many hours we worked between May 1 and May 7th (DH called them because we both work at unusual jobs that don't have set hours, plus it's not May 7th yet, so how would we know). I told him to make an educated guess but he wanted to call them instead. Why do they need to know how long it takes you to get to work in the mornings? I found there were some questions that really have very little relevance to a census.

kapoohhh · by **kapoohhh** on Tue May 03, 2011 7:53 pm

Must be different versions of the online census....
I did it and they never asked us how many hours we worked.

by T on Tue May 03, 2011 8:02 pm

Knitting Momma got the long form! As for the numbers of hours worked up to May 7th, since technically you're supposed to fill it out on May 10th, it would make sense then.

And even though a different gov't dept may have the info (ie:from doing your taxes), the depts can not share that info due to privacy regulations.

vixx · by **vixx** on Wed May 04, 2011 9:22 am

I think that everyone is forgetting the reason that the census is taken. It is for federal funding for communities. The federal govt needs to know about al aspects of the community

marty · by **marty** on Wed May 04, 2011 10:52 am

I got the long form version as well. We got a notice sent for the basement but am just putting "return to sender" with a note on it saying that nobody lives in the basement. I'm not wasting my time on the phone fixing their mistake.

MyCaliBaby · by **MyCaliBaby** on Wed May 04, 2011 11:21 am

We never received a census. Should we go online to fill it out?

brymommy · by **brymommy** on Wed May 04, 2011 11:52 am

vixx wrote:I think that everyone is forgetting the reason that the census is taken. It is for federal funding for communities. The federal govt needs to know about al aspects of the community

I don't think anyone is complaining about having to DO the Census... I know I am not. It was more that we all think it should have been longer and more detailed.

I like the idea of the Census and what it can do for us... but the 10 or so questions I answered were not well thought out and seemed to not be of much use.

I would rather spend an hour or two and properly fill out a long Census form than the 5-10 minutes to took to give my name, birthday and language... That seemed pointless :-k

mumeee99 · by **mumeee99** on Wed May 04, 2011 1:04 pm

Once I filled out the original census form online it told me I'd be chosen to fill out the household form which was much longer. I wish it included more information, if the Census is used to help create/keep social programs, etc how does that little information help anyone???

mumeee99 · by **mumeee99** on Wed May 04, 2011 1:06 pm

brymommy wrote:
vixx wrote:I think that everyone is forgetting the reason that the census is taken. It is for federal funding for communities. The federal govt needs to know about al aspects of the community

I don't think anyone is complaining about having to DO the Census... I know I am not. It was more that we all think it should have been longer and more detailed.

I like the idea of the Census and what it can do for us... but the 10 or so questions I answered were not well thought out and seemed to not be of much use.

I would rather spend an hour or two and properly fill out a long Census form than the 5-10 minutes to took to give my name, birthday and language... That seemed pointless

SHMILY · by **SHMILY** on Wed May 04, 2011 1:14 pm

marty wrote:I got the long form version as well. We got a notice sent for the basement but am just putting "return to sender" with a note on it saying that nobody lives in the basement. I'm not wasting my time on the phone fixing their mistake.

We got one for our basement even though we don't rent it out too and I was thinking I'd have to call them - But your idea sounds WAY better! Good idea - Hope it works!