First, I'd like to distinguish between the census, for which there is a very long history.... Frankly, statistical agencies are very conservative organizations. Given the choice between changing a question over time to reflect changing circumstances and asking the same question twice so you have the same comparability over time, they always go for the comparability, or almost always. With the census, there is a very well-structured, extensive consultation with stakeholders, both with the people who provide the information and with the users.
With regard to individual surveys, there they are fairly extensive. If we were to do an energy-use survey, a lot of it would be from administrative data just explaining what it is. In that case, there are many....
Here's where policy—and not methodology—intervenes. If the government of the day says it has an important issue area that it needs to work on, be it housing prices, the debt of Canadian households, homelessness, or the role of NGOs, it can—and I come to Statistics Canada—say, “This is our policy interest. Design, and you will be funded for, a survey.” This would usually come through a department, through extensive consultations, and on it would go. There is, I think, a good example of where the broad policy interests of a government are distinct. The chief statistician can say, “Here is the way to gather information on that topic”, and they would control....The government would say, “Here's our policy interest area.”