CEOs and business leaders were asked for their opinions about the Census Long Form controversy. The online questionnaire was constructed before media revealed that almost 200,000 Canadians had broken the law by not completing the survey during its last round. Hence, in this unfolding controversy, we can only report the initial thoughts and opinions of the COMPAS business panel. We do not know if knowledge of the number of census law-breakers would have affected panel opinion.

CEOs and business leaders on the panel are not impressed with any of the three primary protagonists—Statistics Canada itself, its media and other allies protesting the government’s decision to end the Long Form’s mandatory requirement, or the Minister himself.

For almost a decade, COMPAS has been measuring the perceived performance of government departments, politicians, journalists, and various professions on a 100 point, school report card-type scale. With a 57% grade from the business panel, Statistics Canada receives a modest score in the controversy, which cannot be reassuring to a Department with a relatively uncontroversial record of performance by world standards. Panelists say that they are not impressed with Statistics Canada’s history of explaining and justifying the studies it does. In keeping with their lukewarm enthusiasm for the Department, only a bare majority of panel advocates keeping the mandatory character of the Long Form.

Advocates in the controversy fare less well than the Department itself. In part because they are sometimes seen as overstating their case, the opponents of the decision to cancel the mandatory feature of the Long Form census earn a barely passing grade, 52%.

Minister Tony Clement earns the lowest grade, 39%. The good news for the Minister is that a very high share of politicians have earned failing grades in the almost decade that COMPAS has been measuring performance scores. The Minister’s score is not untypical of the performance scores earned during the Jean Chretien period. The bad news is that Clement’s score is appreciably lower than scores earned to this point by the Harper government, the Prime Minister, or individual Harper ministers.

These are the key findings from this past week’s Internet survey of CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel. The weekly business survey is undertaken for Canadian Business magazine under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.

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