Freeing Census Data vs Linux Access

Posted by Cory Horner on May 17, 2006; 6:14am
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/Freeing-Census-Data-vs-Linux-Access-tp602.html

There seems to be a little bit of confusion here... 2 different
discussions regarding the Census happening simultaneously.

1) Making Census data more freely available
2) Census 2006 on-line submission form for Linux users

We're effectively beating a dead horse on the Linux issue... People
complained, StatsCan initially denied their claims were relevant, but
soon gave in.  Horray!  Threads about 1) seem to keep getting hijacked
by 2)...  The petition proposed is related to 1)... not 2) !

The issue actually under discussion is getting the *results* from the
2006 Census out to the public -- not the generic "the population of
nunavut is x", but the raw anonymized data, with which an unknown wealth
of knowledge exists but sits unused due to the $1000 per mini-set price
tag.

Glancing at the Statistics Act, it seems the StatsCan policy on cost
recovery has no basis in the legislation.  I'd like to see us aim to get
a new section (3f) added to the act, which would add a responsibility
for StatsCan to disseminate all data freely.

Cory.