Immigration: Liberal Mp

Voluntary Survey Dept: "Most of the questions that appeared on the 2006 census long-form have appeared on many censuses," Maxime Bernier wrote in a letter dated Aug. 21, 2006, as minister responsible for Statistics Canada, according to Vancouver Sun. The letter was sent to Liberal MP Bryon Wilfert, in response to concerns raised about the "length and detail" of the questionnaire. The government announced in the summer it would scrap the mandatory long-form questionnaire and replace it with a voluntary survey to respond to concerns about the intrusiveness of the questions. But Bernier said in 2006 the questions were carefully selected to ensure collection of the best data and one of the biggest opponents of the long-form census within the Harper government actually defended the mandatory survey as an "essential" tool for Canadian society when he was industry minister, according to a newly released letter. "These questions continue to be essential for providing the information needed by governments, businesses, researchers and individual Canadians to shed light on issues of concern to all of us -- employment, education, training, transportation, housing, immigration, income support, pensions for seniors, transfer payments, aboriginal issues and many more." As reported in the news.
@t bryon wilfert, mandatory survey