Carta del Congreso Hispano Canadiense a Estadísticas Canada

Mr. Anil Arora
Director General of the Census Program Branch
Statistics Canada
4th Floor, Section D-8 arorani@statcan.ca
Tunney’s Pasture
Ottawa, On, K1A 0T6

Dear Mr. Arora,

RE: Request for Canada based on the 2006 revised Census numbers.

We want to express our appreciation for the efforts made by Statistics Canada to increase awareness and the participation of Hispanics in Canada in its Census 2006 information and data gathering process. To this end, a coalition headed by the Canadian Hispanic Congress (CHC) integrated with members of Hispanic organizations and media worked closely with Fulvio Martinez and Jim McKibbin, Sr. Communications Officer, and Manager Communications, Statistics Canada Central Region, respectively.

As you are aware, when the results of the 2001 Census were presented during the press conference called for that purpose, representatives of the Canadian Hispanic Congress (CHC) were surprised by the low numbers attributed to the Hispanic community of Canada. The Founding President of the CHC asked Dr. Doug Norris, then Director General of the Census Program Branch and he agreed to review those numbers based on the criteria that was subsequently provided to him by the CHC and further developed by officers of Statistics Canada.

Such revision resulted in a 2004 Profile of the Hispanic community in Canada which identified 520,260 Hispanics in Canada, instead of the 218,000 reported in the Census 2001, more than double the originally reported number. This, we were told, did not include those under fifteen years of age, those who did not self identify in a manner that could allow one to ascertain that they were Hispanics, nor did it include those who did not fill out the questionnaires or participated in the Census taking process.

Thus, we were very disappointed on December 4th, 2007 when we attended the press conference called to present the first, partial, report of the numbers that emanated from the 2006 Census, whereby, under the “Detailed Mother Tongue (186) for the Population of Canada, 2006 Census – 20% Sample data” it shows Spanish as 345,350. This is a far reduced number from that reported in the reviewed/re-tabulated 2004 Profile of the Hispanic community in Canada and the close to or more than one million Spanish speaking people/Hispanics that the CHC and members of the coalition believe to be the real numbers.

It was for this reason that during the press conference the Founding President of the CHC spoke with you and requested that your department review the data gathered under the criteria used for the revision of the 2001 Census numbers and you kindly agreed to do so. Thus, this letter is to request that the revision be undertaken as soon as possible.

We ask that, at the very least, the revision be based on the criteria last used by Statistics Canada. However, we encourage you to find new and more appropriate measures. The Hispanic community of Canada is still considered a new and emerging community and we are further concerned about the discrepancy that exists in the gathering of data between two very important federal agencies, to wit:

 “The department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)’s administrative records differ from Census data in that they are collected each year, whereas Census data are self-reported and reflect the number of immigrants who landed in Canada in a particular year at the time of the Census. Overall the CIC data is generally somewhat higher than the Census. For example, according to CIC, between 1991 and 2000 a total of 106,535 people landed in Canada from Hispanic countries whereas, in the 2001 Census, 88,830 people reported being born in a Hispanic speaking country. Differences between the two data sources vary from country to country and in some cases (e.g. Mexico) the Census shows higher numbers. The differences between the Census and CIC data may be due to a variety of factors including mortality and outmigration of immigrants before the 2001 Census, reporting of immigrant status (for example people in Canada on temporary visas might report themselves as landed immigrants), and reporting of period of immigration (in the Census people might report when they first came to Canada rather than their date of landed immigrant status).

There is also some under-coverage of persons by the Census. Overall under-coverage is estimated to be about 3% but it is likely somewhat higher for recent immigrants.” 1 Thus the added importance that the numbers gathered, reported and published by Statistics Canada be as real as possible.

We take this opportunity to invite you to release the results of the 2008 profile of the Hispanic community based on the 2006 Census during a jointly held press conference. Further information could also be delivered by you and your officials during events held by member organizations as well as disseminated through our community’s print and electronic media. Hopefully this can be done before the end of the year, and no later than November, 2008.

Furthermore, we request that the numbers that result from the revision be reflected on Stats Canada’s official publications. Last time the results were only given to us, as a community, and it was up to us to disseminate the correct information. But as you know, most public and private corporations and agencies who seek information locally, nationally and internationally, will base their research and decisions on the official information that is published by Statistics Canada and not on the information that is provided by the community and its organizations, regardless of the source. Also, the reach of our efforts to publish the revised/more realistic numbers is greatly inferior to the reach of Statistics Canada.

You and all the officers of Statistics Canada understand the importance and the implications of the numbers Statistics Canada gathers and publish therefore you must also understand how important it is for our community to have those numbers be as real and correct as possible. We are happy and eager to assist you and your officers in whatever way we can to ensure greater accuracy and the success of this process.

We look forward to your prompt and positive reply and wish you well in your endeavors.
Yours very truly,

Vilma Filici
President
Canadian Hispanic Congress

Publicado 18 de Abril 2008