Evidence of meeting #73 for Official Languages in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was questions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
You just need to be careful about when the questions will be ready. There is something of a parallel timeline to keep in mind.
You mentioned earlier that, in light of the responses obtained in statistical tests, you realized that people may have poor comprehension, either of the French or the English. I don't think that illiteracy or comprehension issues are new.
4:05 p.m.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
That's right.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
I also don't think that a statistical test can change all that much over the years, but people should still have a better education in 2017-2018 than in 1960. How affected do you think we are by that problem?
4:05 p.m.
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
That is what we are assessing by conducting tests. We are making sure to have the simplest and most concise questions possible that enable us to measure what we need to measure. When we say that we are building on all our science, that is what we are doing.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Okay. That aspect of the problem has always been there.
4:05 p.m.
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
Yes, exactly.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Unfortunately, that is currently still the case. People still have problems. That is not new.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
Thank you very much.
Members will now have four minutes for their questions and comments.
Mr. Vandal, go ahead.
October 3rd, 2017 / 4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
I want to begin by thanking you for your presentation.
I will share some good and some bad news we received this morning from my province. The Division scolaire franco-manitobaine, or DSFM, says that enrolment for this year is at 5,591 students. That is an increase of 2%, which is good news. Schools in urban areas are experiencing strong growth, while enrolment numbers in some schools in rural communities are dropping. This issue is very important for our small villages, such as Saint-Georges, Saint-Jean-Baptiste and St-Pierre-Jolys. A number of those small villages lack Internet access.
Ms. Denis, you said that you receive 70% of your responses for the enumeration over the Internet.
Is that right?
4:10 p.m.
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
Yes. We receive the rest of the responses through a paper questionnaire—
4:10 p.m.
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
—or through telephone interviews.
4:10 p.m.
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
So it's a mixed mode of data collection.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
That may be a problem in small villages. I just wanted to let you know.
4:10 p.m.
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
Yes.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
We need good schools. Unfortunately, since those people don't always have Internet access, the message may not reach them.
4:10 p.m.
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
Yes.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
I would like to come back to the theme raised by Ms. Lapointe.
You talked about the questions that were being asked.
Are there any surveys?
4:10 p.m.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
In general, wording is proposed for questions. We meet with focus groups to ensure that the questions are understood and to see how they are interpreted. As mentioned earlier, the way people understand a question depends on how the question is worded. Qualitative testing and focus groups help us ensure that people have understood the objective and the wording of a question. Afterwards, we administer a quantitative survey in various regions of Canada.
4:10 p.m.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
The sample is large. If the sample consisted of a hundred or a few hundred people, the results may be different than if it consisted of several thousand people. The qualitative testing, which is conducted with tens of thousands of individuals, helps us ensure that the questions are understood and that the results are consistent.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
4:10 p.m.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
We are already starting to look at the wording of questions. In 2018, we will conduct qualitative testing. As my colleague said, this is an ongoing process.
4:10 p.m.
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
That's right.