Mr. Speaker, the hon. member also sat on the committee hearings.
Nobody has been locked up in jail, but there have been cases where it has had to be impressed upon people to compile and finish their census and that, at the end of the day, a fine was possible. It is unfortunate if some people do not see it as their civic duty to do that.
I would ask the member to look at his own departments in terms of the industry department that test drove this and it failed. It failed miserably. We know that when we send out these voluntary census forms, the response rates range from 10% to 20% and for the mandatory long form census, it is 95% because people know it is something they have to do and there is going to be some type of penalty there if they do not do it.
If my memory serves me correct, one of the statisticians who testified said that they averaged it out and for a couple it will be once in every 50 years that they would have to fill out the long form because of the time period, the life expectancy and so forth. So likely in a lifetime, the long form will have to be filled out one or two times at best.
I say to the member, his own department proved that it would not pass and experts across the country already know that the rates are lower when it is voluntary.