The Census - the Long Form - All Citizens Count

Good information is the basis for good decisions and good government. Sadly, the current Conservative Government in Canada does not think this way. They want to end the mandatory long form in the Canadian census. Making it voluntary makes no sense. It will cost more (current estimates about $30 million more). It will produce data which are not accurate.

This morning I joined a group organized by Anita Neville to discuss this situation. Many people and groups across Canada are calling for a reinstatement of the long form. It needs to happen. The information gathered through the census is vital for municipalities, for provinces, for the federal government and for citizens and for citizens groups.

Several who were present commented on the importance of the accurate data provided by the long form of the census - for services to those with disabilities, for the provision of services by municipalities, and for planning by church groups, as well as in the provinsion of services by provinces and the federal government.

Not having the data provided by the long form of the census will make it very difficult to achieve best practices and to do benchmarking to look at the results of programs or the actions of governments.

Not having the accurate data provided by the long form of the census will add significant costs to municipalities, to provinces, to many orgnizations and to many businesses. Interestingly, one person commented that when an entrepreneur came to the government for assistance, one of the items he was asked to provide was information readily available through Statistics Canada. Without the long form of the census, obtaining this information would have been much more costly. Indeed, one of the responsibilities of the federal government should be good information on what is happening in Canada. By having the long form of the census and by having (up to this point), one of the best national statistics gathering organizations in the world, Statistics Canada has been a boon to all Canadians. The decision to stop using the mandatory long form of the census needs to be reversed.

The accountability of the federal, provincial and muncipal governments, and the accountabilityof many organizations in our society depends on good data provided by the long form of the census.

All citizens count. If the long form were not mandatory, many who are now counted would not be counted. Canada is a great country because we as Canadians care about all our citizens.

Waterlogged farms in Manitoba, too much rain and water management that is not good enough

In the last few weeks, I have had the opportunity to visit many parts of Manitoba. What stands out in what I have seen is the devastating effects of too much rain and insufficient attention to water management in many agricultural areas of our province.

There are parts of Manitoba (between McCreary and Ste. Rose du Lac is one example of many] where fields were not seeded. And it is not just an isolated field here and there, it is field after field after field (as in the top two photos). Altogether, I understand about two million acres in Manitoba were not able to be seeded because of the wet conditions, or were seeded and then flooded out. This is a lot of acres.

When I was in Dauphin recently, farmers there told me that this year was the worst for wet weather in living memory. One farmer who had been farming for 67 years said he had never seen anything as bad as this in the Dauphin area. As one farmer told me "it is ugly".

There are many parts of Manitoba which are affected, and in areas like the Interlake, and near Eddystone which have been affected several years in a row, farmers are particularly hard hit because crop safety net programs work best for single year disasters and do poorly when there are multiple year disasters. For more on the Interlake see my blog of Nov 20, 2009.

Farmers need help there is no question about this.

But there is more that needs to be done.

For at least ten years, climate change models have been forecasting that Manitoba will have increased wet weather in the spring (April to early July) and increased dry weather later in the summer and early fall. This is the sort of pattern we have been seeing. For more than ten years I have been calling for major improvements to water management in Manitoba (both in improvements in water storage and in improved drainage). It is shameful that the NDP have not paid the needed attention to this.

Indeed, the province should be starting by ensuring that all provincial drains, including the ditches along provincial highways are not clogged with cattails and that culverts are clear. A bad example of poor provincial government management is along highway 12 in southeastern Manitoba (third photo from the top). But there are many more around the province. And the situation in the Interlake around Arborg should have had much better drainage long ago. Altogether the provincial government gets very poor marks for water management when it comes to ensuring farmers are better protected. We need better water management so that we can deal much better with the kind of wet conditions we have seen in recent years. One estimate I have been given is that three quarters of the problems might have been significantly mitigated by improved water management infrastructure. That would have made a big difference to farmers in Manitoba, and it would have meant much less expenditure in emergency payouts for flooded farmers. Liberals vow to do much better than the NDP, and that is one reason we need a Liberal government in this province - to prevent the problems ahead of time, instead of having to pay out large amounts of public money because of a failure to plan well.

I should note, it is not just a problem at the provincial level. Some municipalities are letting their residents down. The second photo from the bottom shows a clogged municipal ditch in the R.M. of Brokenhead. The bottom photo, if you look carefully, shows a beaver dam across the drainage ditch beside a road in south-east Manitoba. The beaver dam is causing flooding across the road and causing a lot of damage to the crops in the adjacent field. There are many municipalities which do an excellent job, but those which are letting farmers down need to get to work and do better.

Folklorama 2010

Naomi and I were at Folklorama last night, at the DOTC First Nations Pavilion, the canadien-francais pavilion, the Chilean Pavilion and the Sudanese Pavilion. Some photos from the Sudanese and First Nations pavilions are shown above.

Manitoba Festivals - Altona, Sagkeeng, Misipawistik Cree Nation, Swan River and Dauphin

The last ten days I have spent time in various parts of the province attending festivals and meeting people. The photos above are a sample.

Top photo - with Joe Braun at the Farmers' Market at the Altona Sunflower Festival

Second photo - with former Chief Garry Swampy and the Arts and Drama float at Sagkeeng First Nation.

Third photo - Participating in the Grand Entry at Misipawistik Cree Nation (Grand Rapids)

Fourth photo - greeting people at the Pow Wow - after receiving a Star Blanket

Fifth photo - With members of the Down on the Farm group and their float in Swan River

Sixth photo - Watching dancers at Dauphin's Ukranian Festival

Seventh photo - In the Dauphin Ukranian Festival parade

Eighth photo - Dauphin, through their Communities in Bloom Committee headed by Patti Eilers, have done a superb job of improving the flower gardens in Dauphin and the look of Dauphin itself - congratulations to all who helped.