Thank you, Chair.
Canadians who would be watching this would still be amazed that we even have to have this discussion about a census that has worked for many years, that people haven't complained about. I've been a member of Parliament for six and a half years, and nobody has ever complained to me about having to fill out the long-form census. Statistics Canada has helped other countries—including, I believe, China—implement censuses, and those countries look at this and say that it's an unbelievable situation. They don't understand this.
The government keeps coming back to the issue of jail time. Well, here's an idea. Let's have a unanimous recommendation from this committee that all those Canadians languishing in jail right now for not filling out the long-form census should go free. We could have it done by noon. It would be simple and easy, because no one has ever gone to jail for not filling out the census. It's absolutely bizarre. Yet the government says it's intrusive and people don't want to do it. It's quite frustrating.
I'd like to ask Ms. Rothman, if I could, because she was part of the poverty study that this committee did. Very briefly, could you tell us in what ways the cancellation of making the long-form census mandatory is going to hurt the ability of any recommendations that might be implemented from the poverty report we've had—which I'm sure you've seen—from being followed, tracked, and perhaps providing improvements to Canadians?