Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming to meet with us today.
As you know, the debate about whether it is better to use a long-form or short-form questionnaire, mandatory or voluntary, is not new. As a woman and single mother of two grown-up girls, I was sometimes bothered by some of the questions. But that's just my personal opinion.
I have a letter here, which is not from the governing party, but from people who asked themselves the same question. It is written in English and addressed to the former Minister of Industry, Mr. Bernier. I am going to read you an excerpt:
Dear Minister Bernier:
I have received a few letters of complaint from constituents concerning the length and detail of the 2006 census.
They are primarily concerned with the great detail of personal information they are required to fill out and therefore potential invasion of privacy.
We did not write that. A number of MPs asked themselves those questions.
This summer, when the government decided to have a voluntary census, some people called me because they didn't understand the difference between census and survey. We know that it is possible to get data from surveys. In fact, we often receive surveys at home, and you know as well as I do that we can get data from sources other than a census. For some people, a census is often just a way to find out where you come from and who you are.
I have a question for you. There were questions in the 2006 census that were marked as mandatory or voluntary. For example, if we want to know whether an individual studied a language other than the one spoken at home, is that a mandatory or voluntary question?
Can we tell the difference? Do most people who answer know whether the answers to these questions are mandatory or voluntary? I, Sylvie Boucher, would personally—not as an MP, but as a woman—decline to answer some of the questions, not because I do not want to fill out the census, but because I feel my privacy is being invaded. But I am very comfortable with the new questionnaire. I have a copy of the new 2011 census here. As human beings, we are actually always afraid when something new comes along.
How can we know if these data will be useful or not? To my knowledge, people often feel obligated to answer if it is mandatory. But if it is voluntary, how can we know that people won't answer the questions?