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.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
No, it is the same advisory committee. Our objective is to hold a first meeting in November.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
There may be some constraints or setbacks, but that is our objective.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Earlier, my colleague spoke about a list of members being considered to sit on the advisory committee. Have you sent out any invitations?
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Not yet.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
So no invitations were sent. Is there a list of names?
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
We discussed the matter. Just so you know, that was last week.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
We are preparing a list that will strike the best possible balance, as my colleague said, between the academic milieu, experts on the topic, representatives from the associations, lawyers and other people who have expertise in the field. I cannot say more than that for the moment.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Fine.
Let's go back to recommendation 4 and the tests and consultation process, as well as to finding the best ways to enumerate the rights-holders. What really concerns me is that we want to respect the timeframes and guarantee that we will be very well equipped. You mentioned dates earlier, and you referred to the fall of 2019, winter 2020 and the next census, in 2021.
What bothers me is that we could be receiving the answers late and we may not have time to react in order to determine the right questions to ask in order to do an effective enumeration. I'd like some reassurance, because I continue to be concerned.
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
The timeframes are certainly very tight. We are conducting various tests. There are lots of qualitative tests for which we meet with communities throughout Canada. We hold what we call “discussion groups” or individual interviews. What we call “qualitative tests” are used to help and guide us as to the formulation of the questions we are proposing, that is to say we want to see whether they seem to be well understood.
As for the quantitative tests—they will take place later in 2019—we use our evidence-based statistical methods in order to see which formulation is the best, which one will allow us to measure what we are attempting to measure properly. As Mr. Généreux mentioned earlier, we have to ensure that we have the question that will really target the concept we are attempting to measure. The quantitative tests will allow us to ensure the statistical accuracy of the wordings.
There will be qualitative tests during all of 2018, and quantitative tests up to a certain point in 2019. So we will have a good year to conduct testing; in fact, almost two years.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
When do you think you will have pinned down the questions in 2019?
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
We will have them in the fall of 2019.
Liberal
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
Excuse me, not in the fall. The test will take place during the summer of 2019.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
I am not sure that the fall of 2019 is a good moment.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Madam, I can only say that Statistics Canada is not...
Liberal
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Listen, these are not the first questions Statistics Canada does tests on.
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social and Demographic Statistics, Statistics Canada
We already have questions.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
You have no idea how many questions we have to test for every census in order to ensure their validity; we get requests from all over. This is not the first time we conduct such tests. We do it for every census.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
I understand, but in the past, this escaped anyone's notice, and we did not get an accurate assessment of the number of rights-holders.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
I can only say to you, when you say that it's been 30 years...
Liberal
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
When you say that something escaped us, all I can reply is that this is the first time in two years that people have exerted pressure to get Statistics Canada to collect information in such an explicit way on this topic.
As my colleague said, we understand the requirements and demands. With respect to the timeframe, I can guarantee that Statistics Canada will do everything in its power to see to it that all of the questions that can allow us to enumerate the rights-holders will be tested. I can guarantee it, and we will find the best way of doing so. That is really all we can do.