The fallout from the Conservative government's decision to axe the mandatory long form census, which led Canada's chief statistician to resign in protest, is affecting morale in a "major way" within Statistics Canada, say sources close to the department.

On July 21 the head of Statistics Canada, Munir Sheikh, resigned his post, and when he appeared before the House of Commons Industry Committee on July 27 he said it was the perception in the media, possibly caused by comments made by Industry Minister Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.), that he was in support of the Harper government's decision to scrap the mandatory long form census that caused him to quit.

"The fact that in the media and in the public that there was this perception that Statistics Canada was supporting a decision that no statistician would, it really casts doubt on the integrity of that agency, and I as head of that agency cannot survive in that job," he told the committee on Tuesday.

Mr. Sheikh's predecessor, former chief statistician Ivan Fellegi, who was among the first voices to speak out against the government's decision, and who also testified before the committee last week, said his contacts within the department tell him that the controversy is taking its toll on morale.

"People are trying to go about doing their work, of course, they are loyal civil servants, but it's definitely affecting morale in a major way, and not just the census issue as such but the resignation of the chief statistician," Mr. Fellegi told The Hill Times in an interview.

Statistics Canada, respected internationally, was rated the sixth-best place to work in the federal government in a 2008 ranking compiled for The Hill Times of 54 federal agencies and departments, according to the level of employee engagement.

There are approximately 6,000 people employed at Statistics Canada comprised of various jobs, such as methodologists, sociologists, economists, systems programmers, and administrative support. This year, MediaCorp Canada recognized StatsCan as one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, the National Capital Region's Top 25 Employers, and Canada's Best Diversity Employer.

Mr. Fellegi said the federal agency is "in crisis," and while he hopes StatsCan's reputation was safeguarded by Mr. Sheikh's public clarification that he did not support the government's decision, he fears the controversy could leave doubts about the integrity of the data collected by the department.

"There is a long tradition in the history of the department of an arm's length relationship, and that relationship is crucial to the successful functioning of the bureau because very few people can verify the accuracy of the information and the objectivity of the information directly for themselves. They either trust the provider or the information is not much use," he said.

Mr. Fellegi said he left the committee meeting last week feeling unsettled because far too much attention was paid to finding out what happened in the lead-up to the decision to axe the mandatory long form census, with not enough focus on what lays ahead for StatsCan. He said it's crucial that the federal government publicly affirm that StatsCan is an arm's-length agency, and launch a transparent and independent process to find the next chief statistician. But he said that in order to get a "first rate" person for the job, the issue of the mandatory long form census must be resolved first.

The National Statistics Council, a government-appointed advisory panel to the chief statistician, has urged the government to reverse its decision, and has proposed a compromise to keep the mandatory survey, but remove the threat of jail time for those who don't fill it out, a solution that Mr. Fellegi said he hopes the government considers.

Armine Yalnizyan, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said StatsCan is at a "crossroads" and the future integrity of the agency and its international reputation depend on what the government does next, including how it chooses the next chief statistician, how it resolves the long form census question, and its approach to data collection going forward.

Ms. Yalnizyan said she believes the Harper government's strategy is to discredit the agency, and official data, and to try to foster a perception among Canadians that they can't trust the government with their personal information. She said her contacts within the department have been muzzled, and that there's a great deal of uncertainty among StatsCan employees.

"Welcome to Soviet Canada," she said. "Everybody is in lockdown mode, everybody is scared, nobody knows what's going to happen next. Everybody is aware that the decision is at a crossroads now whether the reputation of the agency and the calibre of its work will be independent as it was in the past. Everyone is just holding their breath, and nobody is talking officially."

She pointed out that the mandatory long form census is not the first data collection tool to be scaled back under the Harper government. The mandatory Workplace and Employee Survey, which collected information about job vacancies, benefits, and was the only regular source of information on private pensions, was discontinued in 2009. The Survey of Financial Security, which tracked distribution of assets and debt across income groups, age groups, family types, and regions in Canada, was last done in 2005 and there are no plans to run it again. Finally, the annual Survey of Household Spending, which collects information about spending patterns of Canadian households, such as how much wealthy Canadians are spending on medical and energy costs compared to poor families, is set to change its methodology to save costs, and therefore will produce less detailed data.

But Mr. Fellegi, who retired as the head of StatsCan in 2008, said the cuts were made because of budgetary considerations and according to the department's discretion. He said he regretted the cuts, but the surveys were chosen according to what would cause the least amount of damage to the agency's information gathering capacity.

The revelation that Mr. Clement ignored the advice of the chief statistician sends a bad message to other public servants, who may now be questioning their roles in the government, said Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada.

"When the public service provides expert advice, and then the politicians make a decision for apparently ideological reasons it makes all public servants ask, 'What's the use?'" he said.

Mr. Corbett also questioned who made the decision to remove Mr. Sheikh's letter of resignation from StatsCan's website shortly after it was posted, and said that Wayne Wouters, the clerk of the Privy Council, should be lobbying from within to protect the integrity of the agency, and the public service as a whole.

"His role as the highest ranking public servant in the land is to make sure the integrity of the public service is upheld," he said. "I haven't had any discussions with him but I would hope that he has strong feelings about guarding the integrity of the public service when he speaks to the Prime Minister and the minister about the selection of the next chief statistician. It has to be someone who knows the business."

The controversy over the mandatory long form census first erupted on June 26, when the government announced it would make the questionnaire, which is sent to 20 per cent of Canadian households every 10 years, a voluntary survey sent to one-third of Canadian households.

Mr. Clement said the reason for the change was some MPs had received complaints from citizens that the 40-page questionnaire, which asks questions about ethnicity, education, employment, and commuting times, was "intrusive," and described the mandatory nature of the survey as "state coercion." Currently, the penalty for not filling out the survey is a fine of up to $500, or up to three months in jail, although no one has ever been imprisoned for failing to fill out the census.

Statistical experts and a diverse range of organizations have come out against the change, saying they use the information collected in the long form census to get a detailed picture of the Canadian public that helps them formulate policy positions. Critics say making the survey optional would make the data unreliable because certain groups, such as aboriginals, immigrants, and low-income Canadians, don't tend to respond unless they have to, and that by changing the format it would make it impossible to compare new data with information collected under the mandatory system.

The minister has said the change would cost taxpayers $35-million, but critics say it's likely it would end up costing substantially more because the population has grown since the 2001 census.

hmacleod@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times