Evidence of meeting #61 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was data.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Dan McTeague Liberal Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Except, sir, with all due respect, your own department is saying that it expects a response rate of 50%.
Mr. Fellegi, may we have your opinion on this?
Former Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada, As an Individual
As I said earlier, it's conceivable that if everybody behaves under a voluntary survey exactly as they would under a compulsory survey, we would have comparable results.
I haven't seen any such event in my 50 years of practice, and neither, I presume, have the associations who have taken the position of writing to the minister about it.
Liberal
Dan McTeague Liberal Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
The short seconds I have left, Mr. Chair, I would like to give to Mr. Rota.
Thank you.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
I'll take a very quick one.
Mr. Fellegi, you mentioned 50 years of practice. Did you ever recommend a voluntary census to the government? Or while you were at StatsCan, was that discussed? Over the last number of years, did it come up as something that maybe any government should look at?
Former Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada, As an Individual
Not while I was there as chief statistician.
Former Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada, As an Individual
I wasn't there, so I cannot say.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Mr. McKinnon, maybe you'd like to take a shot at either one of those questions.
I'm curious about where the suggestion would have come from.
Chair, National Statistics Council
In answer to the first half, I'm not aware of StatsCan's having suggested or designed anything like this in the past. Anything else would be pure speculation.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Was the council consulted at all on something like this?
Chair, National Statistics Council
No. The statistics council learned of this at the same time the general public did.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
So basically this has come out of nowhere. Now, I'm kind of trying to rush through here.
How much time is there?
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Very good.
One of the areas.... I'll ask Mr. Smith because I know he's in a precarious situation.
it can't be easy for you, Mr. Smith, I can understand that, but security is something that comes up as a concern over and over again from the minister. Could you explain how information is collected and then put into databases? I understand that it doesn't stay with an individual; it's divided and it stays safe. Is that correct?
Chief Statistician, Statistics Canada
There are multiple channels that will be used to collect the data from the 2011 census or the national household survey. One will be Internet response. People will respond directly over the Internet to Statistics Canada. That's probably the single most secure method of response because there are no intervening hands. The second method is for someone to respond through a paper questionnaire.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
The storage in a database is what we were looking at.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Sweet
Mr. Rota, I'm sorry. I actually was allowing the witness to go over the time just to finish his answer, but we're way over.
Monsieur Bouchard, pour sept minutes.
Bloc
Robert Bouchard Bloc Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses. My first question is for the chief statistician, Mr. Smith.
In your statement, you said that you do not know if the data collected will high quality data. However, I understand that you are taking the necessary steps to collect high quality data.
First, do you believe that the data you will collect through the census will be scientifically based? Second, does the new methodology used have a better or worse scientific basis than the one used in the last census?
Chief Statistician, Statistics Canada
The methodology used for the national household survey is exactly the same as the one used in all voluntary surveys. It is a fully scientific methodology.
Further, as I said earlier, it would not be realistic to expect that the data will be of the same quality as the data we would have collected with a mandatory questionnaire. However...
Bloc
Robert Bouchard Bloc Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC
Are you referring to a mandatory questionnaire such as the one used before the current census? In the last census, it was a mandatory questionnaire.
Chief Statistician, Statistics Canada
Yes, in the last census, it was mandatory. It would not be realistic to expect data of the same quality. However, it would be wrong to say that this data will be of an unacceptable quality and will be unusable.
Bloc
Robert Bouchard Bloc Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC
So, the quality of the data will be lower than that of the data collected with the previous method.
Chief Statistician, Statistics Canada
Yes, it will potentially be of a slightly lower quality.
Robert Bouchard Bloc Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC
All right.
Mr. Fellegi, I was struck by your statement that we cannot expect miracles. I understand that, according to you, we cannot expect miracles from Statistics Canada with the methodology that will be used. However, if Bill C-568 was passed, do you believe that the next census of 2011 would be more or less scientifically based?
Former Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada, As an Individual
It's axiomatic in my mind that it would result in better data if this act is passed for the next census. I agree entirely with Mr. Smith that for 2011 it is too late for this bill. It' has gone too far for it to be reversible. But there is 2016, there is 2021, there is 2026, and all the censuses in the future. They certainly would be better. I'm convinced of that as a professional.