Census    Historical census records

Town Hall Meetings

Background
Access to individual census returns for the census questionnaires for the 1906 and 1911 censuses has been the topic of public debate in the last few years. Genealogists, historians and others have argued that the records have significant value as a source of information about Canada’s past. Supporting the call for release of the data is the fact that individual-level census data from earlier censuses have been released without public criticism. Others have argued that Canadians received a promise of confidentiality at the time they completed their census questionnaires and this promise should be honoured.

Purpose  
In order to gain the input from Canadians on access to individual census questionnaires, Environics Research Group has been asked to hold a series of Town Hall Meetings with all interested Canadians across the country between December 14^th and February 4^th. One day after each meeting, there will be two focus group sessions, each with between 10 and 12 Canadians who have been randomly chosen to participate.

Format of Town Hall Meetings  
The Town Hall meetings will consist of an introduction, a short presentation by the chair, then a series of fifteen minute presentations by attendees on a first-come-first serve basis. After each submission, there will be five minutes allotted for questioning. There will be simultaneous translation during each submission and submissions can be made in either of Canada’s two official languages.

These Town Hall Meetings are being held in order to obtain input from Canadians. All of the information from these meetings will be taken into account in decision making.

Written submissions are not required. The sessions will be audiotaped.

Promotional Advertisements  
Ads will be placed in the local newspapers before each town hall takes place in each location. There will also be an ad placed in the Globe and Mail and La Presse during the week of the 17^th of December that will contain the date, time and location for each town hall meeting in each location, as well as the contact information for potential attendees. The dates, locations and times of the town hall meetings are listed below.

Dates, Locations and Times of Town Hall Meetings