Industry committee  Here in the middle of the country, the real centre of Canada—

Industry committee  —bone-cracking winters and killer mosquitoes...we've got it all.

Industry committee  It's an important point that goes back to the role of the current National Statistics Council. I'm one of two members on it from Manitoba. We had a few fights break out between Manitoba's statistical agency and Statistics Canada over whether there was an undercount of population.

Industry committee  Maybe I could offer a perspective. I was twice chair of boards of crown corporations in Manitoba, appointed by different governments and advertised to be a non-partisan board chair. I had colleagues on those boards of directors who came from political backgrounds, but they had ap

Industry committee  I can go first, if you like. I agree with you that our system of responsible government is based on the prime minister and ministers of the crown being required to explain and defend what they've done in public and to be held accountable ultimately through elections, before the

Industry committee  Yes, I'll reflect briefly on my time on the National Statistics Council. The first time I was appointed, the official letter to join the council came from the minister. On subsequent renewals, it came from the chief statistician. So it seemed to shift back and forth between the m

Industry committee  It would be a great loss if there wasn't a larger body with some representational role. I think it's a false dichotomy to say it's absolutely either-or. It could be a kind of hybrid model. But that takes you into the range of 20 to 25 people, as I suggest. As Munir Sheikh and pre

Industry committee  Yes, and then there are specialized ones on a sort of functional basis. What does the mining industry need, or resource industries, more broadly? There's a wide array of those. It's not like the chief statistician and his executive team is without advice in terms of segments of C

Industry committee  Some members of the current council, the National Statistics Council, are not so much extensive users of statistical data. They're people like me. They are more process and administrative people. Those kinds of people are useful as well, as the chief statistician deals with the P

Industry committee  I make a distinction between external trust in the agency and its products, among the principal users, the organizations that rely upon it, but also Canadians in general. There was a bit of damage to the image and reputation of Statistics Canada in the outside world as a result o

Industry committee  We go back to the fact that Statistics Canada is what's called a statutory agency; it's different from a regular department of government. The head of Statistics Canada is expected to embody both the expertise and the values systems that are needed in a national statistics system

Industry committee  That's a pretty good list. I think that's Ivan Fellegi's list. I think that's a pretty good list. I'm not sure, but perhaps a former chief statistician from a provincial level might be an idea for an addition to the list, or someone with quite specialized knowledge. Statistics ha

Industry committee  Thank you very much, and thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee to offer some thoughts on Bill C-36. I've served on the National Statistics Council since 1996, but my remarks today are very much my own opinions. I prepared and submitted a brief to the commi

Electoral Reform committee  I have probably said enough to bore people completely on legitimacy.

Electoral Reform committee  I don't think there's much to add to that. It's a judgment call. My view is that voting is very important. It should be seen as a civic duty, and I think we can ingrain that attitude into the political culture more than we have now. I just don't think we're at a point where we sh