Evidence of meeting #38 for Status of Women in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was data.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council on Social Development
The penalties signify the importance of the census, the importance of the tool. They tell Canadians to fill this out. It's in your absolute best interest, just like seat belts and sending your kids to school and all those things.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Okay. We can come to the agreement, then, that we are sending out almost double the number of surveys, and even at a 70% return rate--down from 95% or 98% or whatever it was--the likelihood is that an additional 800,000 surveys will still come in. Would you agree with that math?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council on Social Development
I agree with the math, but as I said at our last chat--
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Cathy McLeod
We'll try not to get into debate. We'll just do quick questions and answers. Thank you.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
We'll use the response rate of 95%. Since we're at the status of women committee, let me ask you this: did women answer those surveys because of the threat of the penalty, or do you think they answered those questions because they thought it was the right thing to do?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council on Social Development
They answered the questions because they understood that it was an incredibly significant tool and that it was mandatory, which signifies that it's important and that it's in their interest to fill it out.
Conservative
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council on Social Development
I believe they understand that there is a threat, and they are filling it out because they understand that the threat means this is very important to them as Canadians.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
If we promote the national survey in such a way that Canadians understand that it's important information for future policy development and so on, would that encourage Canadians to fill it out?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council on Social Development
I believe you can encourage Canadians all you want, but we all know that the statisticians have unequivocally said it needs to be mandatory to render the results we need. We can increase the sample, but we're still going to get the same results.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Okay.
Here is a question that maybe Mr. Norris can answer for me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding from testimony at this committee is that question 33, which I think is an important issue, was removed on the recommendation to cabinet of Statistics Canada. You can correct me if I'm wrong on that, but if you don't mind putting your old hat on for a second, would Stats Canada, in previous times, when it came to the long-form census, recommend to cabinet what questions should be added or subtracted?
Representative, Senior Vice-President and Chief Demographer, Environics Analytics, Marketing Research and Intelligence Association
Well, Statistics Canada does submit to cabinet a request for the census and the content, and it might, in the course of doing that, present certain options.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Okay. Thank you.
I need to follow up, for clarification. There seems to be an indication.... And in my view it's a legitimate issue for this committee to be dealing with question 33, but my understanding was that Stats Canada recommended that it be removed for some statistical reason, and—
Liberal
Liberal
Anita Neville Liberal Winnipeg South Centre, MB
To the best of my knowledge, we have no information that Stats Canada has recommended to the government that question 33 be removed from—
Conservative
Liberal
Anita Neville Liberal Winnipeg South Centre, MB
There is no information that has come to this committee on that matter.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Cathy McLeod
I would suggest that this is a point of debate. Perhaps we could keep questions and answers to the witness, please.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Thank you.
We're clear, in my view, that from having the survey we're going to have more numbers back. We are removing the threat.
So you believe, based on your testimony today, that having a letter from the Prime Minister attached to the front of it, saying that if you don't fill this out you could face fines, will make a difference in the return rate?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council on Social Development
I believe it will tell Canadians that this is the most important survey they're going to fill out in these five years. And they will fill it out, because Canadians have proven that they do. They understand that it's important, and the mandatory nature tells them that it's important; it reinforces it for them.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
One of the questions in the national survey is, even if you do not practise a religion, what do you consider yourself? It asks whether you're Roman Catholic, Anglican, Muslim, and so on and so forth. Do you think it's appropriate that the Government of Canada threaten you with—and I'm not saying “jail time”, because I know that's never going to happen—a fine, that if you don't feel comfortable telling the Government of Canada, whether you even practise a religion or not, what religion you are, it should carry a $500 fine?
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Cathy McLeod
Unfortunately, we're out of time for any answers, but I'm sure we will have more rounds, and perhaps some of the witnesses will want to pick up on that.
Monsieur Ouellet, please.