The federal government's plan to scrap the mandatory national census could cost the territory more than $1.5 million, delay a multitude of research projects and deprive the region of crucial information for future policy and spending decisions, says Greg Finnegan, director of the Yukon Bureau of Statistics.

"The bottom line is we're not going to have data to do the work we need to do in terms of evidenced-based policy for information on what communities look like,” Finnegan told the Star.

"That means my office will probably have to go out and do a survey of this nature, and I'm estimating that would cost us $1.5 million ... basically, they've offloaded all this research to us.”

And to conduct these surveys to obtain information previously available from Statistics Canada, said Finnegan, would direct his staff away from finishing upwards of 30 other studies.

Three weeks ago, the Conservatives announced Canada's long-form census, conducted every five years and last completed in 2006, would be replaced next year with a voluntary survey.

Information collected from the long-form census administered to 20 per cent of Canadian residences, including 20 per cent of Yukon homes, is routinely sought by the departments of Finance, Education, Health and Social Services and Economic Development, Finnegan said.

"It just goes on and on,” said Finnegan of the utility of StatsCan's information derived from census data.

"Let's say you're figuring how many teachers you should have allocated for a school in the Yukon for 2015 to 2020. You're going to want to know how many kids are in the 0-5 age range ... and these (statistics) by school districts, by community and age groups help you make such projections.”

Federal opposition parties decrying the census change are joined by a host of policy think tanks, non-governmental organizations, newspaper op-eds, the province of Manitoba and even retired Statistics Canada head Ivan Fellegi; a list of dissenting voices that grows larger by the day.

But all have failed to sway the Conservative government or Industry Minister Tony Clement.

Clement insists the decision was made to protect individuals' privacy; however, in the previous 10 years, Canada's privacy commissioner has received just three complaints on the mandatory questionnaire.

The Industry minister also said he asked StatsCan for alternatives to the long form and was presented with three of which the now voluntary National Household Survey (NHS) was chosen.

Beginning in 2011, the NHS will be distributed to 30 per cent of Canadian homes and Clement is confident the longer, yet voluntary survey, will deliver comparable data as the long-form census did.

But Fellegi, a 50-year veteran with StatsCan who served 23 years as Canada's chief statistician, disagrees.

During a CBC radio interview last week, Fellegi said results would be biased because the rich, the poor, new immigrants, people with low education and aboriginals are less likely to respond voluntarily, thus depriving decision makers of optimum information about these groups.

Fellegi also said the change would cost $100 million and elicit data that cannot be compared to information from previous mandatory censuses.

While municipalities across the country have joined the chorus of disapproval for the change to a voluntary census, Whitehorse Mayor Bev Buckway said it is unlikely to cause an issue for city hall.

"It's probably of much more significance in larger areas. That said, the information is used in a number of ways but to our municipalities, we're not looking at a great impact,” Buckway said.

"Probably due to the types of services we offer. We don't work with social services, for example, and we don't provide public housing.”

Premier Dennis Fentie also downplayed the looming federal census change, referring to the matter as the current political football in Ottawa.

"At this stage, I don't think any of us can conclude with any finality what (will happen),” said Fentie.

The Yukon's annual transfer payments – based on population and make up more than 70 per cent of the territory's annual billion-dollar-plus budget – would not be affected, Fentie said.

Bonnie King, an Executive Council Office spokeswoman, said the office would keep abreast of the situation and provide advice to cabinet.

"For now, we're just going to monitor the debate ... and encourage Yukoners to voluntarily participate as (we've done in the past),” said King.

Dr. Terry Weninger, Yukon College's president and a director with the National Statistics Council – an advisory body to the Canada's chief statistician – said the council was not informed ahead of the Conservative government's announcement.

The government's new voluntary approach to information gathering could have serious ramifications, he added.

"The change in methodology is going to cause problems of having reliable trend patterns in all areas where StatsCan is collecting data,” Weninger said, echoing Fellegi's concerns.

"Policy should be based on good information, and the mandatory census has an impeccable reputation for providing that.”

But neither Weninger nor Ian McKinnon, the advisory council's chair, would offer an official position for the council; McKinnon preferring to direct this reporter "to a couple of good articles talking about the impact on municipal governments.”

McKinnon hopes that the Parliamentary Industry, Science and Technology Committee reconvenes and then the National Statistics Council of Canada would present its concerns.

Last week, the federal Liberals and NDP called for the committee to hold an emergency summer session.

In spite of these demands and vocal opposition from nearly every corner of the country, all the public have received are varied versions of the Conservatives' original privacy concern rationale.

The Conservative decision still means all Canadians must complete the basic census form with eight questions about gender, age, marital status and relationships of people in the household while the more robust survey will now be optional.

Respondents to the 2006 mandatory long-form census had to state their education level, employers, work absences and income level, in addition to standard questions about age, sex, marital status, citizenship, race and language of household residents.

Questions about physical or mental disabilities were also asked, as were queries on the amount of time people spent on domestic chores, taking care of seniors or children without pay and monthly heat and electricity bills.