To be advised effectively on priorities—on data priorities, on program priorities generally—I need a set of voices that are representative of the stakeholders in the statistical system. To have a committee that is dominated, as the committee has been to some extent in the past, by academics, gives the discussion a flavour that is somewhat biased in terms of certain interests and certain priorities. By bringing in more business members, by bringing in representatives from municipal governments, I get a more balanced view. I hear more views and more voices. The result, therefore, is more balanced in terms of the interests of all Canadians.
