Mr. Speaker, I recently learned about another negative consequence of the Conservative government's decision to scrap the long form census used by Statistics Canada.
The Comité de gestion de la taxe scolaire de l'île de Montréal uses the information compiled by Statistics Canada every five years from the long form, five-year census to produce its poverty map.
This poverty index is used to take a contextual approach rather than an individual approach, and therefore helps avoid the stigmatization and branding of children from underprivileged areas. Furthermore, this poverty index helps determine the annual allocation of funds to the various school boards for remedial measures in underprivileged areas.
The Conservative government does not always seem to realize just how much its decision to scrap the census will affect all levels of Quebec and Canadian society.