Five years after the federal government scrapped the mandatory, long-form census, business leaders and policy makers are still urging its return, pinning their hopes on a private member’s bill making its way through Parliament. Roger Martin, a former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and the current academic director of the Martin Prosperity Institute, is one of those pushing for the revival of the long census. He argues that, without the more detailed census data, policy makers are essentially flying without a radar, unsure of whether government programs are working now, and with no way of effectively planning for the future. “The real problem is… we now don’t have nearly the same capability to try public policy things… and figure out did that work or not? And that’s just sad, it’s really sad,” Martin told CTV’s Canada AM on Monday, February 2.

Watch the video at CTV’s Canada AM.