Yes, absolutely. Thank you for the question.
Statistics Canada does have programs to allow access to researchers, to allow access to microdata files. In all cases, even with what we call public use microdata files, additional licensing restrictions apply. For this reason we can't apply a true open licence. We do apply some of the principles of open data. For example, these data files are made available free of charge.
The extra licensing restrictions prevent the merging of files. You've heard a lot about the open data community, about the concept of data mash-ups and merging and linking data sources. That's the one thing that we can't allow with our microdata files in order to protect the confidentiality of Canadians. So it's a question of the additional licensing restrictions that prevent us from considering these files as truly open.