It's not too late to complete the census.
It turns out Chilliwack is one of the Canadian communities whose return rate is "below the national average," said Kwong Wong, assistant director for 2016 census of population for B.C./Yukon.
"We have many non-responding households in Chilliwack from which we still require a census questionnaire from."
Wong told The Progress that while he couldn't put an exact figure on Chilliwack's return rate, he still had an urgent message for the holdouts: it's not too late to get the census in.
Some people are busy, or didn't get it filled out by the deadline of May 10, which was Census Day, or maybe others are not clear about the value of the data, he said.
"We want to ensure the community receives the most reliable census data possible," Wong said. "That data is crucial in the decision-making process for communities."
They are striving for 100 per cent enumeration.
For anyone concerned about confidentiality, he said they should keep in mind that all the information collected for the census comes under the Statistics Act, which guarantees confidentiality and privacy for respondents.
"We do not share this information with any other department," Wong underlined. "It's used for statistical purposes only."
Filling out the census — either the long or the short form — is mandatory.
There are various ways to go. For those who still have their census letter and secure access code with 16 digits, they can go to www.census.gc.ca and follow the prompts. For anyone who got a paper questionnaire, the access code is on the top right corner of the first page. Or fill in the paper copy and return it in the green envelope.
For those who no longer have the paperwork, simply call the help line, at 1-855-700-2016, to do it over the phone.
Census enumerators may be going door to door this week in Chilliwack, in an effort to convince or assist census holdouts. The enumerators will be wearing photo ID with their names and employee numbers on the tags, Wong added.