Survey FAQs
Q. Why does CFIB do so much surveying?
A. Surveying of our members' opinions and experiences provides the mandate and credibility for our lobbying efforts. It forms the basis of our analysis of the impacts of government policies and the development of our recommendations for the future. With surveys, members have direct control in forming the policy positions taken by CFIB.
Q. What types of surveying does CFIB do?
A. CFIB uses a wide range of survey methods, including mail, fax, telephone, web and in-person interviewing.
Q. Who gets to vote?
A. Only members are given the opportunity to vote on issues that determine a policy stance for CFIB.
Q. What happens when a vote is split 50/50?
A. If it looks like there is no clear majority view, then CFIB will not force a strong opinion in either direction, but may seek to gather more information to help government's understand the differing views in the business community.
Q. Are votes from larger, more established members given greater weight than votes from smaller, newer ones?
A. No. Each member has an equal say.
Q. Can members vote more than once?
A. No. Every survey asks for the member's unique ID number. If the same ID shows up more than once in our response database (for example, if a member returns a survey by mail and through the web), then only the latest entry is counted.
Q. Is member-specific data given out or sold to other organizations?
A. No. All member-specific data, including demographic information and survey responses are kept strictly confidential within CFIB. Any data released to governments or the general public is in aggregate form only.
Q. Who tabulates the surveys?
A. To maintain confidentiality, CFIB tabulates all surveys in-house.
Q. Is the data CFIB receives in its surveys "scientific" and representative?
A. Yes. CFIB takes great care to ensure the objectivity and unbiasedness of our questionnaires and surveying methods. Results are regularly benchmarked against research from other organizations, including Statistics Canada, and the findings have always proven to be highly representative of the entire small and medium-sized business sector.
Q. Now that CFIB is conducting more web-based surveys, are the results of lower quality?
A. No. The main reason why other organizations have difficulties with web surveys is that they often cannot control for multiple responses and they may not be sure of the true identity of their respondents. Because CFIB requires member ID sign-in for web-based surveys, we do not have these problems. In addition, our comparisons of web-based and traditional mail-back, telephone, fax or in-person surveying at CFIB reveal virtually no difference in results.
