Five years after the Conservatives axed the long-form census, researchers are noticing that important statistical data is being lost.

Daniel Wilson and David Macdonald, doing work for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, told the Toronto Star they are “struggling to reconcile trends” in comparing data used to track child poverty rates in indigenous communities between the 2006 mandatory long-form census and the new — optional — national householder survey.

“The census was a key source of data for many academics, and its loss is clearly hindering our ability to not only do research, but also to inform the development of appropriate public policy concerning our most marginalized populations,” said CAUT president Robin Vose.

CAUT, along with researchers, business groups, economists, public policy advocates, and a host of others who rely on census data for their work, stridently objected to the federal government’s elimination of the mandatory long-form census in 2010 and have since been lobbying for its reinstatement.