Industry committee  I didn't say that those who respond to the voluntary survey will give poorer responses. What I was saying is that the overall result is very likely to be worse.

Industry committee  Because fewer people will have responded, and the ones who will have responded will not necessarily be representative of those who didn't respond. It's well known in the survey literature that certain groups of people—underprivileged mostly, but also people with very high incomes

Industry committee  Because that's the experience everywhere, and Statistics Canada's own planning assumption is a substantial—perhaps overstated, but substantial—deterioration of response rate. The historical response rate to the long form was 94%. The current planning assumption of Statistics Cana

Industry committee  Absolutely.

Industry committee  Absolutely.

Industry committee  I don't have a formal role at all.

Industry committee  I have an office on an emeritus basis--

Industry committee  --unpaid and unremunerated, and I make myself available to advise on technical issues--non-management, non-directional, just purely technical issues--to anybody who wants to pick my brains since I have--

Industry committee  --50-some years of experience.

Industry committee  I think Statistics Canada at this point is doing everything that in my view it can reasonably do to make the census as successful as possible under the circumstances.

Industry committee  Until now, between 1971 and 2006 we had a more complex form of census-taking. Until 1971 everybody got the long form. There was only one census and that was the long form. In 1971 we said the long-form information could be collected from a large sample, one in five, but a sample.

Industry committee  Well, of course we are speculating. One of my main concerns initially about this development was that it wasn't tested and it wasn't discussed. It was just implemented. It required Statistics Canada to implement something. It has never happened in my experience, not in Canada or

Industry committee  It's axiomatic in my mind that it would result in better data if this act is passed for the next census. I agree entirely with Mr. Smith that for 2011 it is too late for this bill. It' has gone too far for it to be reversible. But there is 2016, there is 2021, there is 2026, and

Industry committee  I think everybody agrees that it will be inferior. That was the view of my immediate successor, Munir Sheikh, and Mr. Smith just also said it won't result in comparable data. It won't result in the same quality. So we all agree that it won't. In my mind, the main problem is not

Industry committee  Not while I was there as chief statistician.