OTTAWA - The Prime Minister's Office is denying statements from one of its own MPs and insisting that there are no plans to get rid of the short-form census.
PMO chief spokesman Dimitri Soudas said the short census will remain intact -- mandatory for every household in the country.
He contradicted comments made Wednesday by Rick Dykstra, the re-elected MP from St. Catharines, Ont.
Dykstra told local media that the census forms arriving in mailboxes across the country this week would be the last.
He said now that the federal government has gotten rid of the mandatory long-form census, the next step is to scrap the shorter version as well.
The decision to do away with the mandatory long form led to a bitter political fight.
But Dykstra said the short-form census faces the same fate.
"We've already changed the long-form census so that it is not mandatory and that is, frankly, the road we are going with the short-form census as well," Dykstra told the St. Catharines Standard.
"I frankly don't think this is the sort of thing a person should be penalized to do."
His constituency office referred reporters' phone calls to the PMO on Thursday, where his comments were denied.
"The census provides essential information and it will remain mandatory," Soudas said.
"The short-form census will remain as is."
The Harper government provoked widespread outrage a year ago when it cancelled the mandatory long form and replaced it with a voluntary questionnaire.
Social scientists, provincial governments, a wide array of interest groups and businesses denounced the move, saying it would undercut policy on many fronts, as well as Canadians' understanding of their country.
The short, 10-question form collects basic demographic information, such as age, sex, residence and marital status. The information is crucial in determining transfer payments as well as in developing social and economic policies.
People who don't answer the questions could face fines or even jail, although that has never happened.
The long form went further, asking about one household in five to answer questions about ethnicity, living conditions, time usage and family structure.
Statistics Canada is constitutionally required to conduct the short form census every 10 years. By convention, it counts heads every five years.
