Of course, we have received many comments saying that the long form should be mandatory, but, as I said earlier, we decided it was important to strike a fair balance between the needs of the institutions, provinces, territories and private companies that always want to obtain a great deal of information on our census results, and the protection of Canadians. Actually, it is important that Canadians do not face very severe penalties if they consider that the answers to some questions are of a very personal nature.
I could say to you that obviously we are trying to be fair and reasonable about how best to balance those interests of citizens and of those who would like to have more and more data. If there are other solutions that are arrived at by this committee or by the provinces or by other groups that do not do violence to the principles that we are trying to express, I would certainly take a look at those. I'm not closing the door to any of that. But at the same time, it has to be consistent with the principles that the government has enunciated and that I have described here today.