Business concerned over census changes

[CHIMO]

When consultant Linda Pickard advises small businesses on their five-year strategies, the first place she turns is Statistic Canada’s reservoir of data from the long-form census.

Ms. Pickard combs through StatsCan’s databases in search of population trends, local economic indicators, ethnic make-up and education levels – important pieces of market information in planning a company’s expansion.

For Ms. Pickard’s clients, and for hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs across Canada, the census is both a direct and indirect source of reliable information, and helps to form a road map for where they want to go. Now, the small and medium-sized businesses who lack the marketing muscle to conduct their own private surveys stand to be among those most affected by the plan to drop the mandatory long-form census.

Alternatives to the census are more costly, more time-consuming and will result in poorer information, says Ms. Pickard, whose firm, Pickard & Laws, is based in Mississauga, Ont. “The picture of life in Canada will be fragmented,” she said. With a voluntary survey, her company “won’t be able to provide the same level of service and quality of information as we’ve been able to do over many years.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-business/grow/business-concerned-over-census-changes/article1653800/

If the business are so concerned, then they can make that concern evident by contributing to a party that doesn't rule by divide and conquer and a party that rules for only nuts.

All they have to do is contribute, get a tax refund and see things happen.

[EmilyKent]

1. Finally! Business was thought to be the key.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100720/national/tories_census_business

Maybe now it will change.

[CHIMO]

2. Small Business

Doesn't count on this issue yet.

The business in your article is big business.

Wallmart and the big banks. They haven't indicated a preference.

Small business can make a difference if they would make a $1,000.00 contribution to an opposition party. And they could tell their friends and employees.

If there were 10,000 companies and they each made a $1,000.00 contribution. Then the Conservatives would be toast. You would see the MP's defecting left and right.

[EmilyKent]

3. It's a start.

[Toilet]

4. Well that figures.

Business wants information for free.

There are many ways businesses can get that information. By creating their own alternatives.

Oh....but that's to costly.

Sorry. The gov owes them nothing.

[Spazito]

5. LOL, you DO know, don't you this proposed 'change' by the neocons...

is going to cost you MORE of your hard-earned taxes than the old method did but, hey, if stevie boy and his cabal proposes it, I suspect you are a-okay with it.

[BolivarianHero]

6. You're an idiot...

This information belongs in the commons for individuals, academics, businesses, and policy makers to access a they see fit. Your name mirrors the quality of your arguments. I don't think it's even fair or good for the public interest for Walmart to know more about us than either the government, the academy, or the small store down the street.

[daleo]

7. Actually businesses have to pay for detailed census data

As do universities, though universities get a flat rate (under the data liberation initiative).

There is nothing wrong with taxpayers getting access to data that they paid for via their taxes, though. It strengthens democracy and helps level the playing field between big business and small business. That's good for competition, which is the driving force in a successful capitalist economy.

Surely conservatives still believe in democracy and competition.

[CHIMO]

8. No more free ride on census data,

The Harper government's decision to abandon the mandatory long-form census has found a supporter in the laissez-faire champions at the Fraser Institute.

Senior economist Niels Veldhuis says the chorus of criticism that's opposing the census change are groups that have been benefiting from relatively cheaply-obtained data gleaned from the mandatory long-form questionnaire.

He said opponents of the change – from researchers to academics to economists – have been getting a free ride until now.

“These are all heavy users of the data. ... They're rightly a vested interest group but they're getting this data much more cheaply than they should be getting it because the government is using forced extraction,” he said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/no-more-free-ride-on-census-data-fraser-institute-says/article1642790/

Sounds familiar. Some keep on trying to sit beside Mr. Puffy.