Industry Minister Tony Clement says he will make a few compromises over the 2011 census, but the central decision to scrap the long form will stick.

He's telling a Commons committee that he would include questions on official languages in the mandatory short census form - questions that were about to become part of a new voluntary survey.

And he says the results of that new survey, which replaces the mandatory, long census, will be made available to researchers in 92 years.

But those were the only concessions Clement would make on the decision, which has spurred a backlash from dozens of national organizations and several provinces. Clement says the census decision was a question of balancing the need to collect data and to protect people from an unreasonable intrusion into their personal lives.

He also says the decision was made by the Conservative cabinet, which has the legislative right to decide on census questions.