Thank you very much. I just wanted to take a moment to speak in favour of the motion.
One of the things we've been discussing even in the context of our study of SCISA has been a necessity test. It was very interesting to hear that as part of the government's survey, Canadians have to submit information having to do with their level of income, for instance, and a bunch of other things that I don't think are obviously necessary to the government getting their opinion on what kind of voting system we would like to have.
I think there are some interesting questions that bear even on issues that we're discussing in the context of our study. It might be helpful to get the point of view of the minister to better understand why she believes this information is necessary.
Also, it would be good to get a better idea of what they are going to do with that information. When the minister has been asked questions about why the government would want that kind of demographic information on respondents, her answers, frankly, have been quite evasive in the House. She says, you know, it's not a requirement that you provide that information in order to complete the survey. Presumably Canadians are filling out that survey not because they care to know whether Vox Pop Labs thinks they are an innovator or a guardian but because they want their preference to be registered. Although she has refused to say, it does say on the website that if you don't provide that information, then your preferences and the information that's actually germane to democratic reform—if anything really is out of that survey—isn't counted.
I think having her come here with more time might allow us to get a better answer from her as to whether or not it serves any purpose at all, other than to get that opinion on whether you fit into whatever categories the company that designed the survey came up with. I think filling out that survey if you're not prepared to provide that information would be very useful.
In our last study that has been referred to today on the Privacy Act, we talked about government exploring ways to see the Privacy Act apply to minister's offices. I think this MyDemocracy.ca survey is a great example of why Canadians might want the Privacy Act to apply to ministers' offices, because one wonders really what the point of collecting that information is, if it isn't ultimately for some kind of profiling or outreach. I don't see that profiling people is useful to government with respect to their preferences about democratic reform. I can imagine how it would be useful to the Liberal Party of Canada. Therefore, I think getting some more precise answers from the Minister of Democratic Institutions as to why it's important to government to have that information would be very good.
For all those reasons, Mr. Chair, I do support this motion.