Doing so is essential, in fact. In one of its reports, this committee recommended that Statistics Canada establish an advisory committee to examine the enumeration of rights holders and thus provide a more accurate picture. If such a provision were included in the Official Languages Act, it would certainly be a boon for communities.
It's becoming clear that the data to assess the need for schools in communities is not available. That data would enable the different levels of government to better meet their obligations and build schools where they are needed. In some communities, the information had to be collected through door knocking. Rodrigue Landry was in charge of that initiative at the time. People were hired to go door to door to determine the number of potential students in each community.
Supported by the Statistics Canada data available to us, we are continuing that effort. Although the data are incomplete, we are still able to assess part of the demand. We do it for school boards. They aren't the most visible studies, but they do result in reports. That said, these tools are important to determine the number of schools warranted.
It's unfortunate, though, that the information has to be collected regionally. The data should be available for the entire country in order to capture the full demand. That way, we could better deal with the issue as a whole, not just to build schools, but also to expand existing ones all over the country.