I'm Rashmi Bhat, vice-president of public affairs for the National Council of Women of Canada.
We're here specifically to speak to the elimination of the long-form census as a mandatory requirement of citizens. The National Council of Women of Canada was disappointed in the decision of the Government of Canada to eliminate the long-form census as a mandatory requirement of citizens, and to changes that particularly apply to the removal of questions related to unpaid work.
Since 1973, it has been our policy to support the recognition of the contribution of unpaid work to a vibrant economy and to society, as cited in the following resolutions:
RESOLVED, That the National Council of Women of Canada request the Government of Canada to seek ways and means of officially recognizing the contribution to the Canadian economy and to Canadian society of the homemaker or family home manager; and further that such classification be included in the Canadian Dictionary of Occupational Titles or whatever other appropriate publication is indicated and be used for the purpose of classification in the Census.
This was adopted in 1973.
RESOLVED, That the National Council of Women request the Government of Canada to give serious consideration to the wording of the questions in the Census to prevent any suggestion of discrimination to any peoples in Canada.
That was adopted in 1974.
RESOLVED, That the National Council of Women of Canada request the Government of Canada immediately to institute household surveys of a substantial size and complexity in order to establish the economic value of housework and volunteer community service for the purpose of inclusion in the Canadian Classification and Dictionary of Occupations;
Adopted, again, in 1974.
RESOLVED that the National Council of Women of Canada request an occupational listing of unpaid caregiver/home manager/homemaker in the NOC/SDOC Dictionaries and further
That the National Council of Women of Canada call upon Statistics Canada in the next census to include
questions on unpaid volunteer work
questions on care of the disabled
expand the number of hours of eldercare be reported in the census question
continue to collect statistics on all unpaid work
develop and provide information on time use surveys
This was adopted in 1996.
It should also be noted that Canada made commitments at the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing and previous world conferences on women, specifically to the question that has now been eliminated from the long-form census for 2011.