What's Missing from the Long Form Census According to Former Statistician

There is a need for an improved Consumer Price Index that updates weights more frequently, has a wider coverage of commodities and does a better job in dealing with quality changes.
from Munir Sheikh, former chief statistician of Canada New Directions for Intelligent Government in Canada

•    Canada does not have an ongoing wealth survey. This is surprising since a number of issues the country faces today require information on wealth holdings at the household level. The debate on the adequacy of pensionsNew Directions for Intelligent Government in Canada

is taking place without the knowledge about personal asset levels of Canadians at the time of their retirement. The impact of the financial and eco- nomic crisis cannot be fully examined without an understanding of changes to household wealth.
•    The Drummond Report, prepared for the Council of Labour Market Ministers, highlighted serious labour market data gaps and urged the government to act expeditiously in view of the weak labour market that exists today following the financial and economic crisis (Drummond, 2009).
•    With globalization, trade data have not kept up. There are weaknesses in data for trade volumes, because of inter-industry and intra-industry trade, and trade prices, particularly import prices.
•    Service sector data, particularly service prices, need improvement.

•  Data on aboriginal populations are particularly weak. This is especially true of populations on reserves where the only source of data for reserves which participate was the census. Even that source is now largely gone
with the cancellation of the long form census.