Good governance requires good information.
That statement should be common sense — the more information governments have about a situation, the more likely they will make good decisions.
That is why, for instance, when town staff are faced with zone change applications — particularly complicated ones — they require a great deal of information. Studies about the potential impact on groundwater, traffic, noise, dust and the environment are all required. Many of these studies are also subject to peer review — that is, requiring other experts attest to the validity of the original study.
All of this information, including the opinions of local residents, are considered before town staff are willing to make any recommendations on the application — whether in favour, or against.
These steps are repeated throughout the province, and the country, when it comes to political decision making, which is often why it takes years before new developments ultimately receive approval.
That is why it is so troubling to see the federal Conservatives planning to scrap a vital information-gathering process — the long form of the Canadian census.
To be fair, the proposal is to make it no longer mandatory to fill out the form. However, we all know what that means.
When Canadians no longer have to do something that eats into their free time, they will no longer do it.
We already know that telephone opinion polls are becoming obsolete, because any Canadian with call display knows not to answer any phone call that they don’t recognize.
Most opinion poll companies are now going an entirely different route — they are getting people to fill out polls online, in exchange for various incentives and rewards.
In other words, no one is answering any questionnaire these days for free — they are doing it in hopes of winning money or earning prizes.
So why in the world would we expect the average Canadian to take time out of his busy schedule to fill out a survey that he doesn’t actually have to fill out?
It’s not going to happen.
And in the end, all of us will lose. We will have a government that doesn’t have all the information it needs to make good decisions, we will have various groups that will have less information than they need to effectively make their case for additional funding for such things as daycare, support for local immigrants, or more mental health care beds in a community.
There will also be, in the years to come, less information for those researching the past.
Without accurate and useful census data, our leaders will be like sea captains without the ability to steer their ships.
If we run aground, we will only have ourselves to blame.
- The Elmira Independent