REcentlymade the mistake of buzzing into the buildng a Stats Cda rep who called me from the building intercom, since I had received a notice that I ahd been chosen to particiapte in a Stats Canada Survey of Household Spending.  I met the rep in the building looby, answered 3 or 4 basic questions, and was asked when they could contact me to arrange an in-home survey, etc. I explained that I was recovering from an 8 months illness, trying to finish up some tax matters, preparing for a June 2014 surgery (and I gave the date), and also trying to prepare for a visit from family members.  The Stats Cda rep said they would contact me later to see if we could arrange a date that was convenient for me, but that they also work within a deadline.  I said it wasn't going to be a good time for me, and that my spending states would be ery atypial because of all my medical related expenses. The rep  left  saying they would try to be in touch later and maybe we could work something out.  Teh rep never once said the survey was voluntary.  I found that out shortly thereafter on the Stats Canada website, This rep has now called at least 10 times, and stopped by another 3 to 5 times (I know about visits to my building because the rep  leaves a message thru the intercom).  The rep even stopped by today and buzzed me twice from downstairs.  And I just had day surgery yesterday.  When I got out of bed this evening, I saw the intercom number on display, and got the message.  Always very polite, but never stops.

Any suggestions how I can put a stop to this.  How can a rep be this persistent when the Stats Canda website says that participation in the survey of household spending is VOLUNTARY??!!

Received a call from the above number. Was told it was a survey and I responded that according to the stats act surveys are optional and hung up the phone. The following day a person from stats can shows up at my home. Again I state according to  the stats act surveys are optional and closed the door. I find an envelope taped to my door with a letter stating the LABOUR FORCE SURVEY is mandatory. Then why isn't it called a labour force census? They want to interview me for 6 months (no  form but an actual interview! and then they may send additional surveys! I have had to get a lawyer and will have to now leave my home of 17 years and go with NO FIXED ADDRESS to escape and cancel my phone number. Good thing I have six months vacation time saved up.

And remind them that section 372(3) of the Criminal Code says as follows: "Every one who, without lawful excuse and with intent to harass any person, makes or causes to be made repeated telephone calls to that person is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction."

they call 3 times per day every day

GOCGDC is Government of Canada Governement du Canada.

I've been getting these calls on my spare cell phone for about 8 months or so now.  I've never answered and they've never left a voice mail.  Some comments here suggest they will send a letter before they start calling, but I've never received one.

Hope no one starts showing up at my door.  ;)

They called about 6 times in the last month at all different times and on the weekend too. I have no answering machine. Turns out it was for a Stats Can survey on preparing for emergencies in Canada. The woman (she sounded very old) was able to provide her name and badge number and the phone number for the advisory service to verify her identity. (I didn't bother doing that so I could just get it over and done with.)

She asked for the name and age of everyone in my house, which I was not happy about giving, but she said we can use a fictitious name (She suggested Mrs. Householder, Son1 and Son2) and approximate age. Wanted to know how many cell phone numbers there are in my house (At the end she said it was so they don't call my family on one of our cell phones for the same survey.)

I took notes while she was talking. Most of the questions were about emergency situations, what kind of emergencies I think could happen and where I would turn to for help or info if any of them happened, if we have smoke detectors, CO2 detectors, fire extinguisher, emergency supply kit, radio, generator, stored water...an emergency exit plan, a place to meet if we were separated, how we would contact eachother, if we have photo copies of important papers, etc. Do I know first aid or CPR. Then she asked how often I voted in elections. I asked her why and she said that they want to know if there is a relation between civic involvement and emergency preparedness. Some questions about if I do volunteer work and if trust my neighbours. If I trust the police, firefighters, paramedics, government, etc. to assist properly in an emergency situation (She worded it differently though, but I don't remember the exact question.) Some questions about how capable I believe I am, and some general health questions. At the end was what she described as more demographic questions: Estimate of household income (which I preferred not to answer), my education, if I was Aboriginal, where i was born, if I can speak both English and French and if I know any other languages.

It took about 20 minutes. The first half of the survey was what i expected and brought up a few questions in my mind. "Have I practiced my emergency exit plan with my kids lately? Do we have a meeting place if we couldn't go home?" The answer to both is NO. So I am going to work on that TODAY. Part of the survey was, in my opinion, irrelevant. She said they won't be calling me back for this survey since I have completed it now.

GOCGDC 1-613-993-8651 on call display. No message left. I called back and phone was answered "coast guard" by a man. I said this number showed on my call display but no reason for coastguard to call me so must have called a wrong.  He said ok.
So???

the message seams okay. I looked it up on stats canada's web site to confirm the callers name and web site and and called the number. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/survey-enquete/participant03-eng.htm for ontario the number is 1-800-387-0714. If you ask the caller they will give you a name and badge number and you can call this number to confirm.

People quoting the Statistics Act saying that only the census is mandatory and surveys are voluntary aren't reading the act correctly. In the way it is written and as "NewtoCanada" perfectly stated on page 14, the government is mandated and has the right and authority to collect information thru surveys and all surveys are deemed mandatory unless otherwise stated. All Stat Can surveys are deemed mandatory unless the person on the phone or the person at your door says otherwise. Stats Can head office decides which surveys are mandatory or not. On the website it lists that the Labor force survey, farm surveys and business surveys are all mandatory.  If it is voluntary then yes you do have the right to refuse and no you won't get fined or put in jail for not doing it but they will most likely continue to call you and try to get you to change your mind because they are mandated to call and collect the information. I know alot of you people don't get this, and I agree the Statistics Act could be worded more clearly so that your average joe would understand it, but yes this is what the act means. Like it or lump it.

Dumbass!

Anyone who contributes their time to them without compensation is the fool, fool.

Chris you are a f****n idiot. You people are the problem with this great country, why don't you go j***off Harper

I have been receiving phone calls from them on my cell phone for 4 months now. Sometimes they leave a message stating they are Stats Canada and request I call back. I called back one Sunday when they called at supper time. The woman who answered asked me if I had been chosen for a survey and I said I didn't know, that's why I was calling. Then she asked when a good time would for them to call back. I told her tomorrow afternoon (Monday). They did not call back then, but a few days later called and didn't leave a message. Now they call all hours, every day. They have called my cell phone a total of 280 times so far but can't manage to call at the time I said was good for me. I have a sick husband and grandchildren to care for. I'm trying to find someone who knows how I can block their numbers.

yes this is true this is my mobile and i pick up every time and know one answers and i have calls between 8am and 945 pm and again i have picked up and Waited every time and KNOW BODY answers very annoying !!!!

Participation in a survey is voluntary. You do not have to participate in any survey. You have the right to say "no, thank you."

The Statistics Act is online, at

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/S-19/FullText.html

[section 7 deals with mandatory census, section 8 with voluntary survey]

The Federal Court has ruled on the distinction between a voluntary survey and a mandatory census: in a case called Native Council of Nova Scotia v. Canada (Attorney General), 2011 FC 72 (CanLII), Judge Zinn made a ruling which distinguished between a census and a survey. The decision is available online, free of charge, at
http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fct/doc/2011/2011fc72/2011fc72.html

As you read the decision, please pay particular attention to paragraphs 8 and 9. In the second of those, underline this:
"The fundamental distinction between the census and a survey is that the former is intended to count everyone and it is mandatory that persons in Canada complete it accurately, whereas surveys are voluntary and typically are only sent to a portion of the Canadian public."

This is a decision of a Federal Court Judge. It is binding on the Federal Government.

Section 264 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to commit criminal harassment. One way the offence can be committed is set out in subsection 264(2)(b), as follows:
"repeatedly communicating with, either directly or indirectly, the other person or anyone known to them"...

The Federal Government does not have carte blanche to invade our privacy, or to harrass us.

Propaganda - Know your rights - Don't let them bully you with their mandatory lies. These are tactics used by Statistics Canada to keep them employed.  This is Canada the Free not Canada the communist.
Statistics Canada, which performs the census on behalf of the Government of Canada, is also empowered to perform surveys.  Section 8 of the Statistics Act provides that ?the Minister [of Industry] may, by order, authorize the obtaining, for a particular purpose, of information other than information for a census of population or agriculture, on a voluntary basis? and where such information is requested there is no offence for those who refuse or neglect to answer, or who wilfully answer falsely, any survey question.  The fundamental distinction between the census and a survey is that the former is intended to count everyone and it is mandatory that persons in Canada complete it accurately, whereas surveys are voluntary and typically are only sent to a portion of the Canadian public.

Because not only are unwanted calls dangerous when you are busy, some of us also pay 50c a minute for them. My phone is for MY use.

What is it you don't understand about that?

In the age of technology, with the environmental concerns and with so many scams out there, it might be nice to have Stats offer an online survey.  No paper, no harassment, we can do the survey when it suits us, we can provide only the information we feel is comfortable and warranted, every household could be sent one to be completed (not just a random sampling of the population "whose household has been selected").  Even if not everyone did complete one, they'd likely get a better % return than they ever will by phone. This is just common Business sense!!
For all those Stats people on this forum.....how do we make this request a reality.

It has been pointed out several times on this web page that a survey, as a matter of law, is not mandatory.
Participation in a survey is VOLUNTARY.
Whether you tell them anything is entirely up to yourself.
Love your Country, but do not trust the government!

Its harassment. People lie on these surveys so they aren't accurate anyway. I cooperated and they said after I completed the  survey that  they will call every month for six months!!!! Then because I cooperated my husband was magically selected for yet another survey, they my son was. Give me a break. I'm done, blocking the numbers to avoid being harassed!

* "you're" so smart

Obviously you aren't the brightest bulb either.

Nonsense. I have received consecutive calls 5 days in a row at 8:19 am, 8:12am, 8:07 am, 8:21am, and 8:02 am. I have the phone records in front of me to prove it. It might sound petty to be complaining about 28 to 11 minutes, but it just goes to show that your premise is b***s***. All of this after I have told them twice that I will not participate. After those five calls I blocked the number and now they are harassing me at 8:00 pm from a different number. I did the health survey once because a woman showed up at my door and told me there was a Statscan survey I had to complete (I live in a rural area and have a P.O. Box so they believed I was ignoring their mail, when I was simply not receiving anything). Only once the woman had rebooked a time with me, showed up, started the interview, and THEN told me it was voluntary. I do not feel comfortable with the tactics in which they are using to trick people into giving them VOLUNTARY information. They intimidate people with the StatsCan label and then slip in the "voluntary" part in during their little pre-speech.

Honestly I would trust a direct sales person before than I would trust any of these people. That isn't saying much.

Stats Can pays by the call and they rotate callers. So most likely its a different body each call and they'll never quit because the Govt has unlimited funds - OUR TAX DOLLARS!

Phone Stats Canada at1.800.263.1136 and request to be removed from the survey, which albeit a nuisance, appears to be a legitimate survey.

I ?am not too sure what to make out of this. I went through this last year with all the phone calls and when I mentioned to friends and family they never heard of it. (Gocgdc) I finally gave in and spent over two hours on the phone with them and I had to do the survey or there would be penalties. They wanted to know my social insurance number as well as my health card number but I refused to give it to them. This year I arrived home to find a bunch of papers wedged into my door. The paper went on to say that they missed me and would be back in a few days. Sure enough the next day a woman stating that she was from Stats Canada and was doing the survey. I told her that I was getting ready for work and could she come back. "No it had to be done now" So I did it, late for work about twenty minutes but what the hell it?s for the government. LOL. But the questions were "what is my rent, how many people live here etc." Nothing about health questions. She mentioned that this is part one of the process and that I will receive a phone call in a few weeks to do the second survey. How much more do they need to know about us that they don?t already know? This time if I do decide to answer their call it?s going to short and sweet. Good luck and have a great day!!

Census is an invasion of privacy. It should not be allowed . I thought our forefathers fought and died for our freedom. I am glad they are not here to see this as it is only the tip of the iceberg. Most people don't realize all the crap government is imposing on us. We should unite and fight for our liberty. It is being taken away from us little by little. This b***s*** has to stop,

GOCGDC stands for the "Government of Canada - Gouvernement du Canada". It is employed by ALL or most of the government's offices.

I just had a call from GOC GDC, phone 705-753-2211, the guy identified himself as a Canadian Agency and told me they are conducting a survey on health care problems and the information will be monitored for clear understanding and it will be shared with Statistics Canada and the Health Organizations.

I gave him my name and postal code and then he proceeded to ask questions about marital status and volunteer work. Sounded legit, except that it did not have anything to do with health, and then the questions repeated themselves and it stopped making sense. After going on for about 5 minutes I asked how long it will
take and I was told another 15 minutes, at what time I quit. Statistics Canada never carries on for so long and the questions are more intelligent. Looks like a scam to me..

I receive calls from this number at all times of the day and evening. IF this truly was the Government calling, they would not just continue to call without a message - or they would contact you by mail. If you answer, my advice would be to not give out any personal information - this is not how the government does things IMHO.