Does Stats Canada pester you for agriculture info?

Just wondering. I know we're required to answer their questions by law but it's really starting to bug me because......

1. They're getting paid for their time while I'm not. I usually charge consultation fees for my business but they refuse to pay.
2. I'm not sure how secure it is to give personal information over the phone. How do I know that it's not a scammer? They tell you to call back to a certain number but any criminal can subscribe to a 1-800 number and pass themselves off as Stats Can.
3. They argue that the information is used to help the government provide assistance programs for farmers. Well Minister Ritz is on record as saying that he won't support the Risk Management Program in Ontario. Why should I co-operate with a government that refuses to support farmers?
4. I don't think that Stats Can info is very accurate if they expect you to know exact numbers off the top of your head. I can't remember how many acres of this or how many acres of that where planted. Or exactly how many animals were born or died or how many you expect to have. I suppose that I could give them ball park numbers, but if everyone does this, how can their reports be accurate?
5. I don't know why they keep bugging me. Why can't they ask some other farmer for a change?

I guess I'm just getting old and cranky but I really don't think it's any of their business. Does anyone know how to get off their call list? I tried the National "do not call" list but it doesn't seem to be working.

I really don't think it's any of their business.



I totally agree. Also about the accuracy and security. My grandparents keep getting these calls as well. It's a pain and a waste of time.

I feel like they are stalking us!
We get phone calls continuously. We manage this ranch, I have spoken to them a number of times to say they must contact the owner to get the information they want. Each week it is a new person stalking us. We are never around through the day to answer the phone, yet they keep leaving messages. Each time I talk to a new person and have to go through the whole explaining again. I have done this 5 times now. When will it end? Don't they have a system to make notes on so somebody new doesn't start calling us again? Got a new message 2 days ago. I don't even want to answer the phone anymore.
Now I am really nervous after clucky's post saying it could be anyone!

I had a phone call from somebody asking to clarify information on the Agriculture census form. I told him to send it to me in the mail. I wasn't about to give information to anyone over the phone.

How do you know the calls you all are getting are actually from Canada Census?

Rule is - Don't volunteer any information unless you initiate the call. It is even possible to falsify caller ID display information.

Best to simply "hang up".

I totally agree. If it's them they can and should (perhaps they do) send something in the mail. They don't phone you for the form information so why should it be any different. I would never provide such info on the phone.

I spoke to the 5th, yes 5th person today from Stats Canada saying I would not give information about the ranch and they would have to contact the owner. I gave his mailing address but would not give his phone number to them. I was told that they would not contact him by mail, only over the phone and to get him to call them or they would keep bothering us. Can you believe it?! I feel this is a massive invasion!
Each person I talk to has a different story and says they will sort it out, until the calls start again! Wow!

We keep getting the census and we're barely more than a hobby farm. After a while, it does start to feel like you're being spied on. I've called and asked them about it and they say that the recipients are drawn randomly each year but there are getting to be fewer farms for them to draw from. Then why not reduce your censuses?

Anyway, I won't be wasting any more time on them. The form was filled out this year and we filed online. Next time, I'll just use it again.

I was told that they would not contact him by mail, only over the phone and to get him to call them or they would keep bothering us.

But this is my point.....they're getting paid to do this. Isn't this a massive waste of our tax dollars??

they say that the recipients are drawn randomly each year but there are getting to be fewer farms for them to draw from.

That's crap too. We get called every year.

The first thing the census person told me what that the conversation was being recorded.

Then he asked me to tell him who I was and my address. This is when I cut him off and told him to use the mail. After all the form came in the mail with my name and address on the envelope and form.

Turned out the information he wanted clarification of was:
1. My "farm number" or GST / HST number. I don't have one. My operation is a "hobby farm" and I don't do enough taxable business to justify the paperwork.

2. How many acres I had planted in wheat, corn, flax, sunflowers, etc. etc. etc. and how many acres were planted for a hay crop.
Mine is a poultry operation. Period! I have pasture that is grazed by my llamas but it is wild not planted.

Back in the 1980's auditors for Revenue Canada got their wings clipped for confrontational an aggressive phone calls to persons overdue with their taxes. Maybe the same has to happen to Census Canada employees? If they were frequently hassling me I'd be contacting my MP.

Used to be that government officials and employees were called "public servants". We are the public that generates the income to pay their salaries and therefore are due respect or our "servants", not hassles and harassment.

Well its not Stats Canada calling us, but every week like clockwork we get a phone call from a supposed "travel agency" loudly proclaiming we’ve won a cruise by sounding a ship horn directly in my ear. The catch is they need a credit card number to “hold” our cabin and the rest of the getaway will be “free.” Yeah, right. I’ve gone from amused, to annoyed, to royally ticked off. I’d like to take their damn horn and stick it where the ship can’t sail…

Flicker Chick wrote:Well its not Stats Canada calling us, but every week like clockwork we get a phone call from a supposed "travel agency" loudly proclaiming we’ve won a cruise by sounding a ship horn directly in my ear. The catch is they need a credit card number to “hold” our cabin and the rest of the getaway will be “free.” Yeah, right. I’ve gone from amused, to annoyed, to royally ticked off. I’d like to take their damn horn and stick it where the ship can’t sail…

I am getting that call too. When I pick up the phone if there is any sort of pause at all before anyone says anything I just hang up now. I am over all the telemarketing that happens now!!!!

clucky wrote:

they say that the recipients are drawn randomly each year but there are getting to be fewer farms for them to draw from.

That's crap too. We get called every year.

I didn't say I believed it, just that is what they told me. I don't think it was coincidence that I didn't get it the year after I phoned but now it has resumed.

I've worked for Stats Can on Census and the NHS.
One of the things I had to do as an enumerator was to call people back on their forms for one reason or another. Hanging up doesn't make us go away. We will just keep calling you back because our superiors will tell us to whether we like it or not.

If Stats Can calls you asking for you to verify information, simply tell them that you do not wish to over the phone. The enumerator can try to pressure you but it is perfectly legal and acceptable to ask that either they send you what they want answered in the mail OR that an enumerator come out to you to take the information personally. I know there were several respondants that I did just that. Called and when they told me it had to be done face to face I gladly went to them. It's more money for me so of course I'm glad to oblidge

Often when one enumerator can't get the information wanted by Stats Can it will passed on to another enumerator to see if they can get the info. Stats Can stops only if they either get the info OR tolerance for a given area is met.

.

Well I can tell you my tolerance for this given area has BEEN MET!

I didn't mean that you were crap. You're certainly not. I was referring to the statement that you were told - and I'm glad that you didn't believe it either. I just fly off the handle on this topic. I'm so sick of answering government questions and filling in government forms and not getting any further ahead. (i.e. I spent an entire day with much frustration on the Ontario Student Assistance Program website getting my son registered for a scholarship. He got the notice in the mail today that he was awarded $100. Big deal! That should help a lot with the $20,000 price tag for his university costs.) Sorry - I'm on my soap box again.

Thank you toy barons for your explanation. I'm sure it can't be easy working in an office where people hang up on you all the time. I just feel that there must be a less invasive way to get more accurate information.

I too would like an explanation for the phrase "tolerance for a given area is met".

No need to apologize. I just thought that I should clarify.

reneggaide wrote:"-tolerance for a given area is met'

What exactly does this phrase mean? Im very curious about this.

I was told that if enough forms are answered in a given area of collection when a census is concluded, it is considered that tolerance is met.

In English that means, as an example, if 10 homes are sent census forms and only 8 homes send them back, then when census closes it is said that tolerance is met. The 2 forms not recieved may or may not be called back.

Anyone can be a Stats Can enumerator. I applied for the job after seeing a flyer at my local rural post office. You have to go through a written test, then an interview and if selected you then go for training where you take an oath of privacy that the information you will collect is confidental. This oath is for life.

In my case, I was selected for my rural area and trained locally. I was given what is called a List/Leave area which is for rural enumeration. It means traveling within an area for door to door delivery/enumerating. It meant up to 10 hour days during census week driving rural roads door to door. After census week, there is a wait period to allow the forms to come back.

For rural areas, everything is done from each enumerator's home. Assignments are received each day. In my case, I never worked in any office. All phone calls were done from home. If I called someone who didn't want to do anything over the phone, then I had to go to their home at their convience and do what I needed to do there.

Enumerators are only consider temporary government employees with no benefits. So when I was told to work over May long weekend to conduct census, I didn't get paid time and a half.

For the most part, people are nice. I think I had only a couple of people that were not. Much of how it goes has to do with the enumerator.

Enumerators are only consider temporary government employees with no benefits. So when I was told to work over May long weekend to conduct census, I didn't get paid time and a half.

Thank you toybarons. That explains the evening and long weekend calls that we get. However, this only makes us more suspicious of the calls since everyone believes that government employees don't work evenings and weekends. I still think that the agriculture census could be accomplished more efficiently and accurately if forms were sent to farmers.

I got the Agriculture Census Form in the mail. I was a person "clarifying information" that telephoned me. Call display (caller ID) showed letters that could stand for an abbreviation of a government census office. I was suspicious when first of all he told me the conversation would be recorded and then asked me to tell him my full name, address, etc. He should have had that information on the form in front of him.

As an aside - One of the questions on the form asked "Does your operation produce manure?" I can't think of any farm animal that doesn't! I think the intent of the question may have been "Do you sell manure?"

clucky wrote:

Enumerators are only consider temporary government employees with no benefits. So when I was told to work over May long weekend to conduct census, I didn't get paid time and a half.

Thank you toybarons. That explains the evening and long weekend calls that we get. However, this only makes us more suspicious of the calls since everyone believes that government employees don't work evenings and weekends. I still think that the agriculture census could be accomplished more efficiently and accurately if forms were sent to farmers.

You are welcome

I can't comment on the agriculture census. Though it is done at the same time as the people census, it is a seperate part within Stats Can that does it. I know while I was out in the field I had farmers talking to me asking me questions about it. All I could do was tell them that I couldn't help as I knew nothing about it other than to call the number on the form.

I must admit, from what I was told by some cattle farmers, some of the questions were intersting. Like the manure one. Must be a math equation? x=how much crap per cow over y maybe?