John Manley

[Statistics Canada, March 26th, 1996]

-by taking a rather challenging written test. Only those who are qualified will be selected to perform the task.

[Statistics Canada, March 26th, 1996]

-by Statistics Canada and they will have been qualified-

[Statistics Canada, March 26th, 1996]

At the end of the day there will be one list of people hired. They will be selected-

[Statistics Canada, March 26th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I have already answered this question.

[Statistics Canada, March 26th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, to be perfectly clear on this, the lists of names submitted for the position of census commissioner have come from a number of sources.

With respect to the Liberal Party, of 2,199 names referred for census commissioner across the country, only 569 were actually recommended, fewer positions than there are. Obviously names come in from a variety of other sources in order that the census is well performed.

Certainly political sources have been used in order to obtain names of people for testing. Those sources have been, in each riding, first of all suggested by the member of Parliament of whichever party. The success rate for all parties is well below half, including overall the governing party.

There is also a recruiting process to select census representatives. There are over 35,000 of these people being hired to work on the census across Canada. They will be subject to testing. If the member has any names that he would like to submit for those positions, I would be happy to receive them and we will see that they are in.

[Statistics Canada, March 26th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, if the Leader of the Opposition would like to take it up with some of my colleagues, he is welcome to do so. If he asks them he will know that additional names have been sought by Statistics Canada other than those submitted by political parties in all parts of the country. This has been necessary in order to ensure that census commissioners are those who are the best qualified.

Those who have been named have had to pass what is a rather difficult test of their skills. Very often, names submitted by the representatives or by the contact persons named by members of Parliament have been inadequate in number to fill the jobs. Therefore, they have been recruited from Canada Employment Centres, ads in newspapers and virtually any other source. They rebut them. They were all subject to the same testing procedure. If the member finds that unfair, I fail to understand it.

[Statistics Canada, March 26th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member knows since he also received an invitation to name a contact person in his riding, that contact person is a source of names for the appointment of census commissioners. The same invitation was provided to all members of Parliament. Experience has shown that it is not adequate to generate all of the names required because the people whose names are submitted must submit themselves to testing, both written as well as interviews.

As the names have come in, in fact, I have noticed that in the ridings represented by the party of the hon. Leader of the Opposition, 134 of the recommendations were accepted out of 754 referrals, a proportion which is not dissimilar to the experience of others. I must say it is somewhat better than some of my colleagues have experienced.

[Science And Technology, March 14th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, it is also needed for the strategy. What we need is to find better ways of spending funds that are very hard to come by in the present financial climate.

I must also point out to this hon. member that in the defence sector, as he is well aware, since this government was elected virtually all funding under the DIPP fund has been earmarked for civilian applications. Second, I would remind him that it is essential for companies to make the changes necessary for access to new markets. Most companies, even in Quebec, have already done so. Even in Quebec, even in Montreal, where I spoke this morning to the Chamber of Commerce, they are prepared to find other business, in sectors outside defence, in order to receive assistance from Technology Partnerships Canada.

[Science And Technology, March 14th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, this is an area the member has worked very hard and constructively on for the last two years.

The way we have structured this fund will certainly not enable me to say today that any funds are dedicated to any particular companies, nor that a certain proportion of the funds is dedicated to a certain industrial sector. We are doing some very different things in structuring this fund.

For example, we will be creating a private sector advisory committee which will essentially play a role of enabling us to exercise some technology foresight in areas in which the government ought to be putting its resources. It will also provide us with a review mechanism on how the fund is being allocated among sectors; where is the greatest technology advantage for Canada.

I am sure the honourable member would agree that if we could have more money for this fund we could find some very good ways to spend it.

However, resources are tight and it is necessary to be very focused and strategic in the way resources are allocated. We will endeavour to do that. In doing so I can assure him there are two key red book commitments being fulfilled with this fund: to see to it that we do have a program for defence conversion and that we meet our requirements in order to fund environmental technology.

[Science And Technology, March 14th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, this is a very important question. The issue of the advice the government receives on science issues has been controversial.

The former government cancelled the Science Council of Canada, which produced advice and wrote reports on science. The council the honourable member refers to, NABST, also was very good at writing reports. Some would say one of the things that science policy in Canada was very good at is writing reports.

What we have proposed to do instead of focusing on writing reports is to create a very small council of the very best science minds in Canada who, instead of devoting their effort to writing reports, will be devoting their efforts to meeting with ministers on the economic development policy committee as well as providing advice directly to the Prime Minister so that those who make decisions are closely informed by the people who have the greatest stake in the outcome and can form therefore the best possible policy.

This is an approach that is not oriented to writing reports. It is oriented instead to changing behaviour and changing the practice of government. I think the test will be in whether that proves to be the case. I invite the honourable member with the rest of the science community, which I am sure will continue to make sure we

hear its opinions through all the media available, to make sure we actually do see a change in behaviour as we shape the new science policy for Canada.