Region objects to cancelling long form census

Regional Planning Commissioner Rob Horne says it is really important data they receive, and should the census be scrapped as the federal government plans, it will leave a lot of negative impacts.

It would impinge on growth of forecasting child care, senior services planning, and issues around cultural diversity, he says.

Horne says the short of it is that they need to understand what our community characteristics are and how they change over time.

And this could create a significant issue to be able to track and understand our community.

Horne also states, from what they understand, the information is not being collected, instead there is a voluntary survey.

The question that really comes into play is how reliable is that information going to be, he says.

Some of the associated penalties that if you didn't fill out the census would be removed; Horne believes that some level of obligation is a good idea.

Horne is hopeful that the federal government will look at the consistent responses that have been received in favour of keeping the long form, and give some hard thought on the implications before they come up with their final decision.