Mr. Chair, that committee adopted a report to provide direction. You will recall that the entire committee fought for enumeration in the census.
As my colleague just said, we are not imposing an additional obligation. This is simply a matter of terminology because words are very important. If my colleagues were listening to me, they will understand what I am saying. I completely agree with Mr. Godin. We cannot water this down.
The necessary tools exist. The reality is that if we do not impose the obligation to enumerate rights-holders in the Official Languages Act and we continue to rely on estimates, then all official language minority communities will pay the price. We need to be consistent with what was done in the past. We have a historic opportunity here that will not come around again for another five, 10, 15 or 20 years. We really need to use the right words in the right places.
As my colleague Mr. Lehoux said earlier, we need to call a spade a spade. What we need to do is enumerate the rights-holders, not just estimate how many there are. There is a fundamental difference between those two words, and my colleagues need to understand the importance of that. We cannot water this down. All together, in committee, we ensured that there would be an enumeration in the census. Incidentally, 100% of the population is required to complete the short-form census.
In that regard, I completely agree with Mr. Godin. Everyone needs to think this through before we vote on it.