That's astounding. I would have thought the government would have had a far better argument to make.
Let me turn to you, Madam Sheutiapik and Ms. Cooper. I have read your brief--compliments of my colleague Carolyn Bennett, who has a little bit more experience in this area--and I am concerned about the comment that you have made here with respect to your group, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. You've said in here that your “long-term goal of closing the gaps in health, education and economic development between Inuit and other Canadians” is a priority, and that the long-form census is “one of the key tools we use to assess the conditions in which Inuit live and to propose evidence-based social policy measures to address the scope of our social disparities”. You further say, “The ill-conceived cabinet decision to repeal the mandatory long-form census in favour of a voluntary survey in 2011 has a severe impact on our ability to close those gaps.”
That's a pretty solid statement of condemnation of what Mr. Clement and others are trying to do. I take it that there are more than 50 Inuit who are interested in this. Can you explain and expand on why you object to this?