To go back to the day I resigned, there were stories in the media, particularly in The Globe and Mail, which had a headline on page 4 that said the chief statistician supports what the government is planning to do.
As I think I said earlier, my job was to give the best possible advice to the government. It is the government's right to make a decision as to what policies should be implemented. While we may have a different view from the government, it is my responsibility to implement that decision. So whatever the decision of the government was, Statistics Canada was going to implement that decision to the best of their ability.
The minister spoke about a need for balance. The minister has every right to want that balance. The issue for us is the quality of our data. Even there, the government has to acknowledge, as the minister did, that they are the ones who make decisions, not the public servants.
The reason I stepped aside is because of some media stories that Statistics Canada was not just implementing the decision of the government but was actually recommending that to the government.