VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Community organizations are applauding
Statistics Canada which opened up its database for free earlier this week.
Adam Vasilevich, chair of the
Vancouver Public Space Network, points out many non-profit groups are already trying to make ends meet on limited budgets, while making good use of the data.
He gives the organization's 'manifesto of suggestions' as an example. "Council actually took a lot of that information and made it into policy," explains Vasilevich. "We would use these stats, really inform that [document] and make sure we put these policy improvements in place with really strong data."
And he stresses the importance of getting access to that data directly, rather than through other organizations. "I see the advantage of this is we can really look at the raw data and make our own assumptions versus getting it from someone else who has already sifted through it and is giving their impression of the data."
It also means less time, effort and money compared to getting the statistics elsewhere. He does wish there was a long form census available, but some free data is better than none at all.