Official Languages committee  Forgive me, but I didn't understand your question.

Official Languages committee  In Canada, we have a census that consists of two questionnaires: a short one and a long-form questionnaire. It is mandatory to complete one or the other of the two questionnaires. That is the very definition of a census. Asking a sample of households to complete a long-form questionnaire is a feature of our census.

Official Languages committee  That's our intent with the questions that we've tested. It is to make sure that we get the quality of information and the numbers that we need for very small regions, to make sure that we have a good sense of the number of rights holders. Obviously, that's our intent. That's what that module was built, designed and tested to do.

Official Languages committee  I'm speaking in general here because that's the heart of this debate. The question that's being asked is: Can we give good quality information at low levels of geography from the one in four sample part of the survey? There are so many programs already in Canada that use that information to make important decisions.

Official Languages committee  It was obviously made optional—

Official Languages committee  It was under that—

Official Languages committee  Obviously, there was a decrease—

Official Languages committee  Also, that language question was removed at the point from the long to the short one because it was no longer mandatory.

Official Languages committee  First of all, I'm really pleased to see that the questions, the way they are written, will reduce the burden on the people answering them while still providing high-quality data. So I thank Mr. Samson. Second, as I said, there's a process we have to follow. We have already done our qualitative and quantitative reviews.

Official Languages committee  We respect the process. The only thing I can tell you is that we're ready. If this is the decision, it will be the first time these five questions will be in the census questionnaire. They will increase the quality and accuracy of the data as never before. That's not the only thing Statistics Canada will do.

Official Languages committee  No. We will take the kernel of our analysis. As I've said, we're still in the process of finalizing the report. We will certainly be inputting our bottom-line results as part of the decision for cabinet to make.

Official Languages committee  We do what we do best, which is statistics. Our recommendations are based on sound statistical methodology, something that we've been using for decades. Our recommendation is always going to be based on whether this set of questions will respond to the needs of users and whether it will give good quality data that meets the users' needs.

Official Languages committee  I think it's a really good question, because it really is dependent on a number of factors. Statistical sampling is a very solid method—I speak in general here—to get at a particular aspect that we're trying to study. I'll just give you one example. We do the unemployment rate every single month, if I may—

Official Languages committee  We conduct surveys all the time. I was explaining to you that every month we survey millions of households regarding the level of unemployment. The science and the statistics help us to obtain high-quality data through surveys. We don't need to carry out a census. We don't carry out the census every month.

Official Languages committee  First, there are several requirements—