Although Statistics Canada made every effort to conduct a contact-free, paperless census in 2021, it's now relying on thousands of enumerators, such as Nargis Kheraj in New Brunswick, to knock on doors.
This last sweep, which began in May and will run until the end of July, is a final attempt to match or surpass the completion rate in 2016, when 98.4 per cent of Canadian households duly completed their census forms.
Just about every day now, Kheraj is given an updated list that identifies households around Saint John, the town of Rothesay and the village of St. Martins that have been flagged by the computer system for not having completed questionnaires.
That same system, which monitors more than 15 million dwellings across the country, would have already generated multiple mail-out reminders.
"But I'm not here to lecture," Kheraj said. "I'm just here to help them get it done."
For the most part, people are positive, she said, noting that a great ice-breaker is talking about what she sees in the fields and front yards.
"I love flowers. I love vegetables. I always compliment people on their gardens," she said.
Kheraj, 70, who has been retired for nearly a decade, said she was looking for something that might feel like an adventure since her passion for travelling on cruise ships has been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While gathering data, she has also picked up clippings of climbing phlox and promised to exchange pink and gold iris with one resident later in the year.
"I think it's really important for us as we represent the government to make them realize that we are just one of them," she said. "We just have a job to do. We're not out to get them."
'The census is mandatory by law'
Kheraj says she's knocked on as many as 300 doors and can count on one hand the number of people who said they refuse to participate even though they could be fined up to $500.
"Yes, the census is mandatory by law," said Geoff Bowlby, director general of Statistics Canada's 2021 census. "That's because of it's extraordinary importance."
Still, there are stragglers.
Bowlby said New Brunswick has been somewhat slower than other parts of the country to respond to this year's census.
"We're really trying to avoid people using paper questionnaires," he said. "They're expensive for the taxpayer. They're not good for the environment and they slow us down in the processing of the data."
Bowlby said encouraging people to file their census online "may have affected New Brunswick disproportionately with its relatively high rural population. That means that we're doing a bit more door-to-door activity in New Brunswick than we originally hoped or planned."
Census helps determine where money goes
New Brunswick Finance Minister Ernie Steeves says census data is a key component in calculating federal transfer payments to provinces and territories.
"Each unanswered survey will result in less funding to our province," he said in a May 10 news release.
The data is also used to plan critical infrastructure, says demographer Michael Haan, director of the Statistics Canada Research Data Centre at Western University in London, Ont.
"Where are we going to put our schools, where are we going to put our hospitals, our highways and our train systems? That all comes from the census population projections that identify where future growth will be," he said.
"And our Indigenous populations, where are they? How are they doing? Where do they live? Are they moving? All of that comes from the census, too."
Haan said that "it's almost difficult to imagine a piece of Canadian policy or legislation that is not informed, at least partly, from past or current censuses."
Canada's final census push takes place on foot, as enumerators hit the road to find stragglers - CBC.ca
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