Several CountMeOut viewers have reported to us that Census Reps at their doorsteps are first trying to get them to answer the census questions verbally, while the rep completes the census form on the spot. Remember that you are not required to answer verbally. You have the option of completing the form yourself and mailing it in.

As a fallback strategy, many Census Reps are giving the impression that at this point, completed census forms must be handed over to them personally, and not mailed in.

This is not correct. You are under no obligation to submit your return via the Census Rep, just as you are not obligated to submit your return online (which we discourage).

If you have lost your original census form, some Census Reps are handing out a replacement blank forms, without a mailing envelope, but rather with a pick-up envelope or no envelope, and announcing that they will return in a few days to pick up your completed form..

You are perfectly entitled to advise the Census Rep that you choose to mail in your return rather than give it to him/her. This option also allows you to apply some of the other minimum cooperation techniques to your census return, as outlined on this website.

When you are ready to mail in your census return, you can do so postage-free simply by ensuring that your return is addressed to: Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, House of Commons, Ottawa Canada K1A 0A6. Since Bernier is the minister in charge of Statistics Canada, you might also include a short note to the Minister objecting to the contracting out of the Census software and data processing hardware to Lockheed Martin (Canada).

[Update 26 June 2006]

Talk about pushy census reps! A CountMeOut.ca viewer reports to us that her neighbours informed her that when a census rep called while our viewer was away from home, the census rep circled her home, and actually peered into the windows! In our view, the tactics being adopted by some census reps border on harassment.

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