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Tuesday & Wednesday Census Media Roundup

July 28, 2010 in canada, Census, federal government, government, policy, politics by Tracey | Permalink

Graphic By http://www.socialsignal.com/Yesterday’s CPAC watching, and that thing called a job, means that I got a bit behind on my Census media round-ups.  Mia culpa!

Also, you will have noted that I post the articles as I find them, meaning they are not in any kind of chronological order or in any order of importance.  I may have missed one or two, and maybe a link is off.  If that is the case, just let me know and I will add and fix. Also, I am finding it hard to keep up. I must say reading the #census twitter feeds every morning is making me cross eyed!  Bref!  Please send stuff to help me keep the list up to date!

enjoy this loooooooog list.

3 important resources:

  1. Great francophone media Reviews & Roundups: pabsta aka Pier-Andre Bouchard St-Amant. He also maintains a fabulous list of ceux qui Appuis au questionnaire long obligatoire
  2. Another great insiders source: Canadian Association of Public Data Users (CAPDU)
  3. Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD): Long Form Census Tool Kit

Les manchettes / les clips:

Monday Census Media Roundup

July 27, 2010 in canada, Census, federal government, government, policy, politics by Tracey | 2 comments

Graphic By http://www.socialsignal.com/Hamilton Spectator: Local agencies support long-form census

The Chronicle Herald: Countering misinformation about the census

Le Devoir: Retrait du formulaire long du recensement – Les discussions se poursuivent: De l’autre côté de l’Atlantique, plusieurs pays ont aboli le recensement

New York Times: Lessons of the Census

Post Media: Statistics council suggests compromise to end census battle

Globe and Mail:  MPs grill Tony Clement, top statisticians over census changes

BI Professional: Why Data Quality Matters

CBC news: Stop the census presses! This just in from the National Statistics Council…

The Hook: Seniors’ group attacks voluntary census with a voluntary poll

The Toronto Star: Government-appointed advisory group says Canadians need full census info: National Statistics Council joins census debate the day before former StatsCan boss to speak out on why he quit

Globe and Mail: Three cheers for a hidden agenda!

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: All the latest on the census long-form debacle

Globe and Mail: Race is on to find compromise on census
Industry Minister Tony Clement testifies at 9 a.m. (ET) on Tuesday before the House of  Commons industry committee on the Conservatives’ decision to do away with the long-form census. With time running out, statistics council puts forth deal that aims to salvage mandatory survey and allay privacy concerns

Rabble.ca:  Lies, damned lies, and the census

Samara: Philosophy lives! (the census edition)

The Toronto Star: Walkom: The census kerfuffle isn’t about the census; it’s about Stephen Harper

The Record: Census cynicism? Worries raised over response rates for 2011 census and survey

Canadian Press: Will Canadians fill out the census and the survey?

Toronto Star: Government-appointed advisory group says Canadians need full census info National Statistics Council joins census debate the day before former StatsCan boss to speak out on why he quit

CBC:  UPDATED – CensusWatch: The Statistical Society of Canada, the Fraser Institute and Don Drummond? Now it’s a party!

Globe and Mail: Why did top statistician take so long to resign over census?

David Eaves: It was never about privacy…

National Post: Stephen Taylor: The beginning of the end of the Canadian welfare state

Globe and Mail: Harper’s census push months in the making
Prime Minister Stephen Harper waves to the crowd at a Calgary Stampede breakfast in on July 10, 2010. Scrapping the mandatory long form stems from libertarian convictions, insiders say.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami: Media Advisory Inuit to Address House of Commons Committee on Census Long Form

Globe and Mail: Retirees wary of Tory census move

National Statistical Council of Canada: Press Release

Post Media News:  Statistics council suggests compromise to end census battle

Canadian Census Compromise and New Chief

July 26, 2010 in canada, Census, federal government, government, openmovement, policy, politics by Tracey | 3 comments

Here is a proposal that is on the table by the National Statistics Council of Canada:

The issue of the long form census has to be settled first. The outlines for a compromise solution were contained in a statement, issued yesterday, by the National Statistics Council. I fully endorse their ideas: :

  1. Restore the compulsory long form or make the equivalent National Household Survey compulsory;
  2. Repeal from the Statistics Act any mention of jail as a penalty for not completing the long form or an equivalent compulsory National Household Survey.
  3. For all future censuses introduce a series of explicit tests that would determine whether a proposed census question passes an appropriate balance between critical need for information and privacy.
  4. Instruct Statistics Canada to run tests, in time for recommendations about the 2016 census, concerning the possible impacts of a voluntary long form census.

a separate source is recommending the following regarding the appointment of a New Chief Statistician:

A new Chief Statistician has to be found with impeccable credentials and high credibility. Furthermore, the process should be, and should be seen as being totally transparent.[ It is] suggest[ed] the appointment of a search committee of eminent persons (such as the chair of the National Statistics Council, President of the Statistical Society of Canada, Chief Justice of Canada, President of the Royal Society of Canada, retired clerks of the Privy Council or others of similar credibility and profile). The committee would submit to the government a short list from which the Chief Statistician would be selected. It is utterly essential that in the midst of this crisis the next Chief Statistician be a person who is, and who was selected by a process, that is visibly above partisan fray.

Weekend Census Media Roundup

July 26, 2010 in canada, Census, federal government, government, openmovement, policy, politics by Tracey | Permalink

NJN Network: Scrapped mandatory census cuts even deeper for disability advocacy group – Disability advocacy groups have major challenge ahead following cuts to the census and StatsCan’s disability survey

The Hill Times: Census uproar impacts ‘broader narrative’ of PM’s relationship with public service. Some say the issue will remind voters of a string of incidents in which the government has interfered with the federal public service.

Cyberpresse: Quand Stephen Harper aimait le recensement

Hill Times: Shine a light census blow-back

Globe and Mail: Scrapped mandatory census cuts even deeper for disability advocacy group Disability advocacy groups have major challenge ahead following cuts to the census and StatsCan’s disability survey

Globe and Mail: Why the census matters just about everywhere

Globe and Mail: Flaherty defends Tory census plan Finance Minister says Canadians will fill in voluntary census for ‘the good of the country’

Yahoo News: Political firestorm rages over Canadian census

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Why a Mandatory Census is Necessary

Toronto Star: Why the long census matters

105 Creations: Why we need to keep the long-form Census.

Le Devoir: Recensement – Ottawa doit faire marche arrière
Seul le quart des Canadiens jugent que le gouvernement Harper doit maintenir sa décision de retirer le formulaire long obligatoire

Globe and Mail: Harper’s census push months in the making Scrapping the mandatory long form stems from libertarian convictions, insiders say

Right of Centre: My Census Email to Peter Braid (CPC – KW)

CBC: Clement to face MPs on census

Vancouver Sun: Six things you should know about the Tories’ census change

Macleans: What time do you leave for work? Ottawa’s never actually asked

Why the Census Matters UIA and Jewish Federation. This is a great summary of the Issues. I am not in favour of the make due approach that is discussed, however, the speaker does qualify the statement with the fact that analysis can be done but not longitudinally. Meaning the new baseline for social analysis in Canada would become 2011 – we start over at ground zero.

US Data.gov

May 21, 2009 in Access, policy, Uncategorized by Tracey | Permalink

This is a beautiful thing!

I have spent the last few days dialing for data for a variety of projects. I have called the Feds, the Province of Ontario, Public Health, the City of Ottawa, school boards, MPPs, school trustees, and any number of organizations. No one knows where the data I am looking for are. They assure me they exists however. I have been playing telephone tag, sending emails from government websites and I am being told that the “New Government” does not like to share! Exasperated, at the end of the day, I find the dream tool that gets citizens closer to their public data. We just need the Canadian version!. I know we can – Yes we can!

US Government Data

US Government Data

The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Although the initial launch of Data.gov provides a limited portion of the rich variety of Federal datasets presently available, we invite you to actively participate in shaping the future of Data.gov by suggesting additional datasets and site enhancements to provide seamless access and use of your Federal data. Visit today with us, but come back often. With your help, Data.gov will continue to grow and change in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

Open Vancouver City

May 20, 2009 in academia, Access, canada, datasets, geo, government, infrastructure, open access, policy, tools by Tracey | Permalink

The City of Vancouver will soon vote on a Motion to have:

  • Open Standards
  • Open Source
  • Open Data

    • CBC News: Vancouver mulls making itself an ‘open city’, by Emily Chung

    Via: Digital Copyright Canada

    Canadian federal court orders the release of mine pollutant data

    April 27, 2009 in campaigns, canada, datasets, federal government, government, infrastructure, policy, politics, resources, science by Tracey | 3 comments

    It is quite surprising that this was not the norm, to manage the public good!

    the Federal Court of Canada released late yesterday that it will force the federal government to stop withholding data on one of Canada’s largest sources of pollution – millions of tonnes of toxic mine tailings and waste rock from mining operations throughout the country.

    The Federal Court sided with the groups and issued an Order demanding that the federal government immediately begin publicly reporting mining pollution data from 2006 onward to the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI). The strongly worded decision describes the government’s pace as “glacial” and chastises the government for turning a “blind eye” to the issue and dragging its feet for “more than 16 years”.

    I look forward to reading the court order. According to Ecojustice (Formerly the Sierra Legal Defence Fund) the ruling includes the following strong wording:

    * It calls the federal government’s pace “glacial”[paragraph 145];
    * It says the government’s approach has been simply to turn a “blind eye”[207];
    * It notes that the frustration felt by advocates trying to uncover this information “after more than 16 years of consultation” is “perfectly understandable” [124];
    * It states that not reporting “denies the Canadian public its rights to know how it is threatened by a major source of pollution”[127];
    * It highlights that the minister has chosen not to publish the pollution data “in deference to” the mining industry[220];
    * It used unusually simple language even I understand when it said that the government was simply “wrong”[177].

    The advocates were: Justin Duncan and Marlene Cashin and their dedicated clients at Great Lakes United and Mining Watch Canada who launched the case in 2007.

    It is uncertain how these data will be released. Currently, these types of pollutant data are released on the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) which is:

    The National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) is Canada’s legislated, publicly accessible inventory of pollutant releases (to air, water and land), disposals and transfers for recycling. (Mining Watch)

    The NPRI is fairly usable & accessible, includes georeferencing and some mapping services. I tried to use their library and it was however not working!

    The Mining Association of Canada wants to read the ruling “carefully” to assess how Environment Canada should release these data. I find this confusing, since I thought the Government got to decide how these data are to be released and what is to be included, and that decision was based on ensuring the public good and the public right to know. The fight is not yet quite over. It will be important to ensure the data are not watered down for public consumption.

    It is another wonderful example of creating an infrastructure – NPRI + law – to distribute public data. This also teaches us something about gouvernementalité, and who the government thinks with, in this case the mineral and mining industry and not citizens. Citizens should not have to lobby for 16 years and expend incredible resources to get the courts to get the government to ensure the public good!

    Articles:

  • Court orders pollution data from mining made public, By Juliet O’Neill, Canwest News ServiceApril 24, 2009
  • Environment Canada forced to reveal full extent of pollution from mines
    Court ruling considered major victory for green organizations    , MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT, Saturday’s Globe and Mail, April 24, 2009
  • Great Lakes United Press Release, Court victory forces Canada to report pollution data for mines, April 24, 2009 – 11:16am — Brent Gibson

    • Mining Watch Press Release: Court Victory Forces Canada to Report Pollution Data for Mines, Friday April 24, 2009 11:31 AM

    Transparency Camp

    March 5, 2009 in conference, government, policy, R&D, tools by Hugh | Permalink

    From Jon Udell:

    I spent last weekend in DC at Transparency Camp, which turned out to be one of the best cultural mashups I’ve attended in a long time. If we can get federal policy wonks and Silicon Valley tech geeks working together in the right ways, there’s good reason to hope that our government can become not just more transparent, but also more effective, more collaborative, more democratic. [more…]

    Towards a Data Sharing Culture: Recommendations for Leadership from Academic Health Centers

    November 14, 2008 in academia, Access, health, open access, policy, science by Tracey | Permalink

    This paper includes an awesome table (p.003) which outlines attributes related to research data sharing in academic health centres.  The table includes determinants of data access from the perspective of data storage, controls on access to data, and who determines access permissions.

    The paper also includes 7 recommendations for Academic Health Centres (AHC) to encourage data sharing which I think can be modified to suit other contexts:

    1. Commit to sharing data as openly as possible, given privacy constraints.  Streamline institutional review boards, technology transfer, and information technology policies and procedures accordingly.
    2. Recognize data sharing contributions in hiring and promotion decisions, perhaps as a bonus to a publication’s impact factor.  Use concrete metrics when available. [I like that they understand the incentive structures of this group]
    3. Educate trainees and current investigators on responsible data sharing and reuse practices through class work, mentorship, and professional development.  Promote a framework for deciding upon appropriate data sharing mechanisms.
    4. Encourage data sharing practices as part of publication policies.  Lobby for explicit and enforceable policies in journal and conference instructions, to both authors and peer reviewers.
    5. Encourage data sharing plans as part of funding policies.  Lobby for appropriate data sharing requirements by funders, and recommend that they assess a proposal’s data sharing plans as part of its scientific contributions.
    6. Fund the cost of data sharing, support for repositories, adoption of sharing infrastructure and metrics, and research into best practices through federal grants and AHC funds.
    7. Publish experiences in data sharing to facilitate the exchange of best practices.

    I have not looked at this literature in a while, but my sense is the discourse is moving away from problems to providing solutions.  Most importantly in the case of this paper, they are culture shifting since, in a sense they a pushing toward an open access ideology by creating an environment conducive to sharing by hiring the right people, providing the appropriate incentives, marketing successes, changing publication practices, educating and promoting open access within.  This is most interesting as this is the medical profession, a bastion of commerce and privacy concerns that is moving to open access faster than our Statistical Agency in Canada!

    The full paper is available for free in myriad formats!

    Piwowar HA, Becich MJ, Bilofsky H, Crowley RS, on behalf of the caBIG Data Sharing and Intellectual Capital Workspace (2008), Towards a Data Sharing Culture: Recommendations for Leadership from Academic Health Centers. PLoS Med 5(9): e183

    The publisher, PLoS Medicine:

    PLoS Medicine believes that medical research is an international public resource. The journal provides an open-access venue for important, peer-reviewed advances in all disciplines. With the ultimate aim of improving human health, we encourage research and comment that address the global burden of disease.

    PLoS Medicine (eISSN 1549-1676; ISSN-1549-1277) is an open-access, peer-reviewed medical journal published monthly online by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), a nonprofit organization. The inaugural issue was published on 19 October 2004.

    This is Civic Access – FCM Quality of Life Reporting System

    June 4, 2008 in canada, canadian projects, datasets, policy, politics, resources by Tracey | Permalink

    I was looking for some cross city comparison data yesterday and recalled the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Quality of Life Reporting System (QoLRS).

    Conçu par la FCM, le Système de rapports sur la qualité de vie mesure, surveille et fait état de la qualité de vie dans les villes canadiennes en utilisant les données provenant de diverses sources nationales et municipales. / Developed by FCM, the Quality of Life Reporting System (QOLRS) measures, monitors and reports on the quality of life in Canadian urban municipalities using data from a variety of national and municipal sources.

    Regroupant initialement 16 municipalités à ses débuts en 1999, le SRQDV compte maintenant 22 municipalités, dont certains des plus grands centres urbains du Canada et beaucoup de municipalités de banlieue qui les entourent. / Starting with 16 municipalities in 1999, the QOLRS has grown to include 22 municipalities, comprising some of Canada’s largest urban centres and many of the suburban municipalities surrounding them.

    The FCM’s QoLRS site includes all the documentation, data, metadata and methodologies related to the development of their indicators and the system they have developed.

    :: Reports
    :: Annexes
    :: Indicators

    Their data are most impressive.  You can download a spreadsheet of the data for each indicator for 1991, 1996, 2001 and I expect 2006 QoLRS will be coming soon.   Each variable was also adjusted to the current geographies of amalgamated cities which makes cross comparison across time and space possible (see the guide to geographies).  This was not easy to do at the time. Each spreadsheet includes the data source, the variable, and a tab that provides the metadata.  Which means that you can verify what was done, reuse those data or if you had some money & loads of time you could purchase & acquire the data pertaining to your city and add to the indicator system.  Unfortunately the FCM had to purchase these datasets and it cost them many many thousands of dollars.

    There are 11 themes and 72 indicators over 3 census periods for 20 cities (Sudbury, Regina, Winnipeg, Niagara, CMQ, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Hamilton, Halifax, Windsor, Toronto, Kingston, London, Ottawa, Vancouver, Waterloo, Halton, Calgary, Peel, York).  Datasets come from:

    • Statistics Canada
    • Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation
    • Environment Canada
    • the 22 cities themselves
    • Elections Canada
    • Audit Bureau of Circulation
    • Tax Filer Data
    • Human Resources and Development Services Canada,
    • FCM Special Surveys
    • Industry Canada
    • Anielsky Management (Ecological Footprint)
    • Canadian Centre for Justice

    Putting something like this together is no small feat, so please go check out what is available, play with the data a little, and if you cannot find data for your city, call up your local councilor and ask them to become a member of the QoLRS team!  Also let the FCM know they are doing a good job, as this is one way for us Canadians to see what is going on in our cities overtime.

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