Mr. Speaker, for months the NDP has been objecting to the fact that Statistics Canada contracted out the next census to Lockheed Martin.
Questions in the House resulted in the usual non-answers, but I am pleased to say that as a result of our pursuit of this issue and as a result of the pressure exerted by all those Canadians who contacted Statistics Canada, we learned earlier this week that Lockheed Martin will no longer be doing the next census.
As a result of further pressure later in the week, the remaining role of Lockheed Martin in the mini-census was also identified and then dealt with, that is, eliminated.
I say hats off to the Vive le Canada website and to all those who persuaded Statistics Canada that the integrity of the census was at stake. It is one thing to buy software from a company. It is another thing to have it do what Canadians want done in-house by their own Statistics Canada.
The NDP is pleased to have played a role in changing this policy by working with its extra-parliamentary friends on this issue. Unfortunately, as usual the Liberals never got it and did nothing to help.