Industry committee  I wasn't there, so I cannot say.

Industry committee  As I said earlier, it's conceivable that if everybody behaves under a voluntary survey exactly as they would under a compulsory survey, we would have comparable results. I haven't seen any such event in my 50 years of practice, and neither, I presume, have the associations who h

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My position is well known, but I would like to reiterate it briefly. First, the census is enormously important, and the national household survey, whatever its name, is part of the census. Why is it so important? Because many of the most significant natio

Status of Women committee  The number who have refused over the years has been infinitesimally small. I don't know what it is. I just don't remember anymore, and I apologize. After every census, it was 100 to 150, something of that order. Of those, a careful selection of who will be prosecuted is made by t

Status of Women committee  I have just two quick points. If something is judged to be invasive, the government shouldn't approve that question for the census. That's a decision of the government. If the government believes some questions are privacy-invasive, let's take them off the long form. That's the

Status of Women committee  With your permission, being a long-term public servant and really, truly, non-political, I would not comment on the political side of the question. But it is quite appropriate for the government to determine the content of the census, and whichever government is in power has and

Status of Women committee  Well, let me just go back. I can comment about the GSS, because actually I was the father of it. I initiated it when I became chief statistician because I found that generally our social statistics were woefully underdeveloped, and in a way the general social survey was really a

Status of Women committee  I cannot, of course, speculate. I wasn't there, and even if I had been there, I wouldn't be allowed to speculate about why the decision was made, so I am in no position. I can make two comments, though, on your question. First, it certainly wasn't to save money, because my und

Status of Women committee  Thank you, and thank you for your compliments. I do indeed have two daughters and three granddaughters, and I'm well-motivated.

Status of Women committee  The question about usability.... As I mentioned in my opening comments, Statistics Canada said--and I absolutely implicitly trust them--that it will meet many user needs. There's no question about that. The trouble is we won't know which ones and to what extent, because bias is u

Status of Women committee  I cannot answer your second question because I really wasn't involved in the discussions leading up to the decision by this government to include or not include some questions.

Status of Women committee  I really don't have any more detailed recollection that occurred. I'm not dodging the question. I really don't dodge questions. I just simply don't remember what was recommended and what was actually the decision. I know what the decision of the government was, but I don't remem

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. It's good to be here. I'm very pleased that I've been invited. I'll be talking about the national household survey. My views on that issue are well known. I just want to say why I've chosen what I have to say. First of all, it is because of the certainty