moved for leave to introduce Bill C-484, an act to amend the Statistics Act and the National Archives of Canada Act (census records).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Perth—Middlesex for his support in seconding my bill. I am pleased to introduce a bill to allow the public release of post-1901 census records.
The intent of the bill is to amend the Statistics Act and the National Archives of Canada Act to allow for the transfer of census records from Statistics Canada to the National Archives of Canada where the records would be released to the public subject to the Privacy Act.
The bill is a reasonable compromise. Canadians would have an opportunity to review the census returns 92 years after the census was taken, providing an individual does not provide a written objection to the release of his or her records within that timeframe.
The bill finds a balance which ensures confidentiality while it maintains access for genealogists, historians and medical researchers.
The census returns are a valuable link to our family heritage, community history and telling about Canada's collective past and present. I join with genealogists worldwide in saying that the only true picture of the lives of our ancestors lies within Canada's census records. I hope hon. members will support it.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)