Mandated Agriculture Census Meets Farmer Dissent, Evasion
This month Statistics Canada will conduct its first mandatory Census of Agriculture since 2016, but some farmers say the government won’t find out much.
Years ago, a farm wife told this reporter how she explicitly told a census taker on the phone: “I’ll tell you the truth this time, but I can’t promise you I will next time. And I know most of my neighbours don’t.”
When the census taker asked why, the woman replied: “Because we tell you we’re growing such-and-such a crop, and then the buyers know. Then they won’t give us a good price for it because they know there’s a lot out there.”