Mr. Speaker, on Friday the government claimed that this pilot project was also still in design, but it actually was secretly getting the accounts of potentially millions of Canadians from a credit bureau.
Specifically, Conservatives have sponsored a petition calling for the end of this program. In just a few days, it has already received 14,000 signatures. Canadians care about their privacy, even if the government does not.
The chief statistician says that the government cannot ask for consent, because most Canadians will refuse to give it. Is it seriously the position of the government that if it cannot get consent from Canadians to collect this data, it will just do it secretly, behind Canadians' backs?