I think you're exactly right to note that people sort of want it all.
On this point, I think the committee should be really careful with how it interprets a lot of the data we currently have on citizens' preferences with regard to government data collection and use, because most of these surveys don't actually present the realistic trade-offs to citizens.
You'll find countless surveys that suggest that Canadians are very uncomfortable with certain types of data being collected, used in certain ways and combined with other datasets. There's a line around whether people would want government to collect data and then use it for purposes other than what it was originally collected for. Of course people reply “no” when the situation is presented like that.
We need to move to surveys and studies that, instead, say that data may be used for purposes other than that for which it was collected “if it means that wait times are shorter at hospitals” or “if it means that you could be made aware of all the tax benefits you're not claiming right now that could save you thousands of dollars per year”.
We have to put forward that value proposition, because right now most of our data only asks citizens if, essentially, they want to be surveilled and have their data abused. Everyone's going to say no to that. That's not what we're talking about here. These are really important trade-offs in the efficiency of government and the quality of the services it provides, with questions around data use, some of which are privacy-related but many more of which get into questions of broader governance issues.
I think it's important to be careful with how you're interpreting the data from those surveys because they're actually not very helpful. They would suggest to you that we should not move forward with many of the reforms that we're putting on the table because they essentially say that citizens care only about privacy, and I'm not sure that those surveys actually capture the real trade-off.