scilly

We got our "notification" today. It gives a special number assigned to you, instructions on how to access it on the computer, and a phone number if you wish a paper copy.

OH grabbed it and promptly went on the computer before I'd even seen it.

Eventually he had to come and ask me a reply to a question ....................

turns out we got the long form ................ 25% will get the long form, 75% the short form.

May I suggest that you do not try to do it on an iPad ........... many questions have several sections to them and a larger screen would make that easier!

Among new questions on both the short form and the long form are gender assigned at birth and gender used now.

The long form has the same 17 questions as the short form and about 30 or so extra questions.

On the long form, there was one series of questions that wanted some detail on eyesight, hearing, physical ability (movement), and "other health problems expected to last 6 months vs longer. Suggestions for that last included depression, anxiety, other mental health problems.

Another series of questions wanted to know about work, on May 11 2021, since January 2021, on May 11 2020, in 2020 ......... including being laid off, furloughed, expecting to go back, looking for work.

One question asked when was the last time you had been paid for work or self-employment. There wasn't a category for Retired, only before 2000

It took us about 45 minutes to fill in ..........

......... one warning, if you get the long form, they do want information on annual cost of gas, electricity, plus water and municipal services (if paid separately), estimated annual cost of city taxes, and how much you expect to get if you sell your house.

I didn't find that too difficult as we have equal payment plans for gas and electricity, so all I had to do was find my cheque book to check the amount and then multiply by 12. The estimated annual city tax bill was a little more complicated as we had to decide how much to add to what we paid last year.

printer

Yeah what a pain in the ass. I logged in on i phone as it said it wouldn't take long.........ha is all i can say. Some ridiculous questions that to be honest you could just answer anyway you wanted and stupid stuff like how many hours have you worked in the week up to May 8th?? Hang on its only May 3rd now. More stuff about how many weeks you worked and how much travel time to work for each family member, it didn't take account of the fact that you may travel to alternate job sites so one day is 5 mins and next is 60 mins.

BristolUK

Got ours this morning - unless delivered late yesterday.
Just done it - obviously the long form. Took a fair bit longer than I remember a long one before.

That % completion bar isn't especially accurate...at least time wise it wasn't.
At around 55% I decided to make a cup of coffee but then I finished it all before I'd drunk a third of the cup.

It seems the % is based on questions to go, but previous answers mean some questions are not asked, while others may not apply to each person. So the second 'half' goes quicker.

caretaker

I took about 20 minutes, not too bad but some questions were skipped. It's by no means the worst form I've had to complete, and not as awkward as some surveys I've conducted.

scrubbedexpat091

Are you getting the info in the mail?

I didn't even realize there was a census this year.

caretaker

The card containing my 16 digit access code landed in the mail yesterday, and the form is online at census.gc.ca

scilly

The official date of the Census is May 11, which is why they can ask the question how many hours worked in the week ending May 8th.

I wonder if they realised how many people would fill it in early?!!

BristolUK

They'll send us all another one and tell us to do it again.

Or they'll just start data input from the 11th and not notice.

Were there questions about income previously?

beckiwoo

Did it this morning.

However we will get one for the townhome as well. Despite the fact the main residence at the moment is the apartment, do we still need to do the one at our new place?

scrubbedexpat091

We got it in todays mail, took 5 minutes maybe less, short form. I am not sure we ever had to fill out a long form, sounds more interesting, the short form is really very basic. No income questions, no work related questions etc, just basically name, birthdate, gender at birth, gender now, relationship status, and a few questions on language and what language education was done in.

scilly

The short form has only 17 questions.

If you get Question 18, it is the long form, and there are around 40 questions on it.

The income comes in among questions re working on May 11 2021, from January to May 11 2021, on May 11 2020, in 2020 ............... in among the questions for how long you'd been working, laid off, furloughed, expected to go back to work or not, been looking for work, how you got to work, etc.

We only got as far as having to answer the questions asking when was the last time you looked for work, and when was the last time you were in paid employment or self-employed.

Needless to say, "before 2000" was of no interest to them


I liked the fact that they asked about gender at birth and gender now ........ although I do wonder if anyone will complain about it!

I earlier read on their site that they did some sample tests of the census last year, and changes were made based on the responses back from the people in the test sample, including to that gender question.

I do a lot of family history, and the censuses of a country are so important in tracing ancestors!

scilly

beckiwoo ...... go to the gc.ca site, they have responses to all kinds of questions, or there is a phone number on there that you can call (and hope to get an answer, knowing civil servants!).

Is the townhouse finished and ready for occupation? Has it got a street number?

dbd33

On the face of it the question doesn't seem to allow for people having their bits stuck back on and so misses the vacillatingly transgendered.

I hope the question is intended to establish the fact that the number of people changing sex is vanishingly small and so there is no need for everyone's business correspondence to specify preferred pronouns. That practice irks me because I assume that, if a person has switched, they likely just want to be known by their new identity and not have to announce themselves as being a bit out of sorts, (or needing a sort out of bits) so he or she will do, depending on the person's destination gender. "Albert Higgins, preferred pronouns She/Her/Hers", is ridiculous whether or not the person used to be Alberta Higgins.

"Preferred pronoun They" has no place in work correspondence. If the person is that chronically indecisively imagine his or her agony in choosing milk or cream in coffee. Definitively unemployable.

Danny B

I agree, having to scroll through the list of available genders in 2021 would take forever

scrubbedexpat091

Looks like there are 3 forms in total one can get.

We got Form 2A

https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-r.../index-eng.cfm