Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to this motion. More than a year ago, the president of the historical and genealogical society of my area, Mrs. Ouellet, made some representations to ensure that this information would be made public.
I have asked myself some questions about the protection of personal information. I am particularly sensitive to this whole issue since the Department of Human Resources Development accidentally sent me some incorrect information about myself. I think there is a distinction to be made between historical information collected through the 1911 census and protected ever since then and the privacy issue.
I believe the motion put forward will help us reach a greater consensus in the House to let the government know how important it is to make a decision as soon as possible and to take into account all the various points of view.
From what I gather from the arguments I have heard in support of this motion, it seems that the report submitted to the minister was quite favourable. I hope this means that the government is considering providing access to this information in an appropriate way.
The Minister of Industry, who is responsible for this issue, will have to complete his work quickly, because he has had this report in hand for some time now. He can make it public at the same time that he announces the government's position.
As for the House, it would be interesting to say to all those history buffs, to all our historians, to all those who would find it useful, such as genealogists, that, yes, they can use the information collected via this census.
Some said that in other countries, the data remain unavailable for 90 or 100 years. In the present case, it is close to 90 years. I believe we have all the arguments in favour of public access to this information, so that it can be used for historical purposes and so that this anomaly be corrected. In the subsequent censuses, there were no provisions concerning the period after which the information would be made available.
I would be very happy if we could allow people in our historical and genealogical societies to do their job so that they can respond to requests made to them in that regard and if we could settle this issue once and for all.
I have been was in favour of the motion from the start. This is my personal position, and I will probably support the amendment as well because I think it will create a larger consensus in the House to send a clear message to the government. The time has come for the government to act responsibly, make up its mind and state its position.