Cancelling the Census Long Form – Good Information Comes at a Price: Globe and Mail Op-Ed
Published in the Globe and Mail on July 13, 2010
By William Robson
A battle is raging over Canada’s 2011 census. Two weeks ago, the Canada Gazette published the questions all Canadian households must answer next May – the “short form.” Absent from the announcement was the “long form” – which one-fifth of households received in the past – with its more than 50 additional questions on subjects such as ethnic origin, disability, educational status, household work, income and housing. A new voluntary “national household survey” is to replace the long form. The rationale for the change is to reduce the burden of compliance for Canadians, and lessen the government’s intrusion into their personal lives.
Researchers –…
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MP Pensions – Plans Canadians Can Do Without: Globe and Mail Op-Ed
Published in the Globe and Mail on April 19, 2010
By William Robson
MPs’ pensions are again in the news. No wonder: A recent report on their plans over the year to March 31, 2009 – a period when interest rates fell to unprecedented lows, the stock market lost a third of its value, and most Canadians’ retirement dreams took a body blow – showed an 8 per cent increase in their accounts. The truth, however, is weirder, and worse. These accounts are a fiction. Extraordinarily rich and completely unfunded, MPs’ plans are instructive examples of the worst in Canadian pension arrangements.
The spectacular performance suggested in the annual report tabled in Parliament would have been welcome if it had been real.…