Evidence of meeting #4 for Official Languages in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was question.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
All I can do is what the act allows me to do as chief statistician. That's the process we follow for every census.
Liberal
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
We will provide advice, but according to the act, the decision is up to—
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
What is your advice? That's what we want to know. I have six minutes. What is your advice?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
As you know, the advice I provide is not really something I can share with you.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
What were the results of the short-form and long-form questionnaire testing you conducted this summer? Did it yield good results?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
As I said, we are in the process of finalizing the test results, and we will be releasing the details of those results shortly. It's a transparent process. You will be able to review the information.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
I understand, but will you be sharing that information before or after you make your recommendations to the government?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
We share some of the analysis with the government. That will inform the analysis that the government carries out. As I said, at Statistics Canada, we are ready to collect information from Canadians on a very important issue. This isn't the first time Statistics Canada is collecting data. We've been in the business for 50 years.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Thank you. We're in a hurry because we don't have much time.
You've been testing questions on rights holders. I'll ask you a direct question and I'd like a direct and honest answer. I know that you can provide one, Mr. Arora, because this issue is important to you.
Do the test results that you obtained using the short form, which counted rights holders according to the charter, comply with the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in the Mahe case, a matter familiar to you?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
I already described the process, the law, the responsibility of Statistics Canada. We'll follow the law. You're—
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Okay. We're the law. We're the legislator. We're asking you whether you've received the test results for a short form and a long form. Based on what you've heard and seen so far, do the results of the short form meet the criteria required by the Supreme Court in the Mahe case, yes or no?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
As I said, we've carried out the tests. We'll finalize the results and we'll provide our best advice according to statistical science. We're ready to collect and share the data.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
You've said the same thing three times. You're telling me that you don't know the test result. Is that right?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
We're in the process of finalizing the test results. We're testing the content for the sole purpose of providing advice to cabinet so that it can make a decision based on the needs of our country.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Mr. Arora, rights holders are important to you. Do you acknowledge that you and your department are keeping your cards close to your chest and that you're hiding information from us? When you share your suggestions with the government, it will be a done deal for the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Can you at least acknowledge this?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
We're ready to proceed with the collection and to include the questions in the census, pursuant to the law and based on the cabinet decision and the law that you created. Statistics Canada is ready to carry out the work to give Canadians the best and highest quality data that meets the needs of rights holders.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Are there any issues with the answers that you obtained in the short form? Were there any minor things that bothered you?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
We tested the questions in the short form and the long form. The results will be released for both questionnaires.
Statistics Canada truly meets the needs of users. That's our sole reason for existing. There are a number of requests, requests that are always changing in our country. In the current system, there are many requests, there are fixed resources, there's the burden—
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Are there many constitutional requests, concerning rights holders, under the charter?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
I'm sure that cabinet will follow the law when making its decision.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg
Thank you, Mr. Arora.
Mr. Arseneault's time is up.
Mr. Beaulieu, you have the floor.
Bloc
Mario Beaulieu Bloc La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC
The organizations that we met with told us that they needed Statistics Canada to assess the issue of rights holders by region, using the short form. They told us that this would require two additional questions.
Have you assessed this?