EXTRACTS FROM HANSARD -- PROCEEDINGS OF CANADA'S SENATE :

Debates of the Senate (Hansard)
2nd Session, 36th Parliament,
Volume 138, Issue 29
Thursday, February 17, 2000
The Honourable Rose-Marie Losier-C ool, Speaker pro tempore



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Statistics Act National Archives of Canada Act

Bill to Amend-Second Reading-Debate Adjourned

Hon. Lorna Milne moved the second reading of Bill S-15, to amend the Statistics Act and the National Archives of Canada Act (census records).

She said: Honourable senators, the purpose of Bill S-15 is to allow for the public release of post-1901 census records. The bill is intended to make reasonable and workable amendments to both the Statistics Act and the National Archives of Canada Act to allow for the transfer of the census records from Statistics Canada to the National Archives of Canada where the records will be released to the public, subject to the Privacy Act.

I believe that Bill S-15 achieves an acceptable compromise of the concerns and goals expressed to me by the various interest groups involved - Statistics Canada, the National Archives of Canada, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, genealogists, historians, medical researchers and the Canadian public.

There has been considerable debate surrounding the supposed promise of confidentiality that the Chief Statistician is presently honouring, the intentions of the government of the day, and the legal interpretations taken from all of this.

As the debate is encumbered with several diametric positions, I have undertaken to propose Bill S-15, which recognizes all the arguments and offers a solution to the debate, allowing Statistics Canada to uphold their promise of secrecy while deeming consent to have been given to the National Archivist to permit access by the public to utilize these vital research tools.

Honourable senators, I was first made aware of the situation in the summer of 1998 by a group of genealogists from the Upper Ottawa Valley. As someone who has used census records extensively for family research purposes, I can tell you from firsthand experience the imperative need for the census records from the 20th century to be released to the Canadian public. I ask honourable senators to reflect upon Canada during that time. Think about what the country has experienced since 1901 - the vast mass immigrations and migrations; the settlement of the western provinces; the wars; the change from an agricultural society and a natural-resource-based society to an industrial society; the altered economic conditions. That is what I thought about, when my roots from the Upper Ottawa Valley alerted me to the fact that a piece of Canadiana, the 1906 Western Census and subsequent census records, would never be seen by Canadians.

Clause 1 of the bill makes amendments to the Statistics Act by adding a new section after section 21. Under this new section, Statistics Canada would conserve the records while they are in the care of the department.

In addition to ensuring the conservation of these records, the bill requires the Chief Statistician to obtain the consent of the National Archivist of Canada before administering the destruction or disposal of any census records, including individual census returns, and ensures that this can only be carried out once all of the information has been transferred onto another recording medium. This proposed section also details when the transfer from Statistics Canada to the National Archives of Canada should occur, first, for population censuses taken under section 19 and agricultural censuses taken under section 20, and, second, all the population and agricultural census data taken prior to 1971.

Bill S-15 recommends 30 calendar years following when the census was taken but leaves the window open for the transfer to take place sooner if the two departments are in agreement.

For the pre-1971 records, the transfer is to occur before the expiration of two years after this section comes into force or at an earlier time agreed upon by the two departments. This is consistent with section 6 of the National Archives of Canada Act.

The solution I referenced earlier comes through changes the bill makes to the National Archives of Canada Act. It reaffirms that the census records will be transferred to the National Archives, as was clearly stated in the original bill but has been treated by Statistics Canada as an optional move.

Once the records are transferred to the care and control of the National Archivist, the Chief Statistician will no longer be responsible for the records. The information contained in the records and the release of the census records would then fall solely under the responsibility of the National Archives of Canada and the National Archivist.

Bill S-15 amends section 7 of the National Archives of Canada Act. Under Bill S-15, section 7.1 would recognize the permanent historic and archival importance of census records and thus the necessity to ensure the security of the permanence of these records through specifically prohibiting the transfer, destruction or disposal of the records unless all of the information is saved on an alternative recording medium.

Section 7.2 would recognize the promise of confidentiality. Once the records are in the control of the National Archivist, prior to 92 years after the census has been taken, the archivist could only disclose the information in the records to the Chief Statistician of Canada and persons authorized by order of the Chief Statistician under subsection 17(2) of the Statistics Act or as authorized by this section. After the 92 calendar years have elapsed since the census was originally taken, the National Archivist would provide public access to the records of the census. This does not touch any provision already providing access to the information under the Statistics Act prior to 92 years since the taking of the census. The access provided by the National Archivist after 92 calendar years would be subject to such reasonable terms and conditions as the archivist may establish that are consistent with the purposes of the National Archives of Canada Act.

The last addition Bill S-15 makes to the National Archives of Canada Act would implement an objection process whereby the National Archivist accepts written objections from individuals who wish the information they submitted in the course of a census to remain confidential. The archivist will receive these written objections in the final year before the information would otherwise be released. Bill S-15 sets a number of requirements for those written objections. In addition to when it should be submitted, the objection must contain sufficient information for the archivist to locate the information and, in the opinion of the National Archivist, the disclosure of the personal information would constitute an unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the person to whom it relates. Upon satisfying these requirements, the archivist would not disclose the personal information referred to in the objection.

When 92 calendar years since the census was taken have elapsed, the archivist will make public all census records of individuals recorded in the census who have not made a valid objection to the archivist, who would, therefore, be deemed to have given irrevocable consent to public access to this information in the census.

Honourable senators, I have had numerous consultations, both verbal and written, on this piece of legislation with the Chief Statistician, the National Archivist, the Privacy Commissioner and others to try to arrive at a workable solution that would give genealogists and other researchers the access they require to these records, while making some concessions to the officials whose jobs are to protect the integrity of their departments. The bill before you has evolved from numerous drafts, countless discussions and extensive research. There is a considerable voice from the Canadian public that wants continued public access to these records, as they have always had. I am trying to represent that voice while appreciating the concerns of others. I know some of you here in this chamber share those concerns. It is my hope that this bill will be recognized as a legitimate and thoughtful approach to recognizing and protecting the rights of confidentiality, as promised in the 1906 regulations, while granting family and academic historians the access to these vital records that document 20th century Canada as no other source does. It will extend to all Canadians equally the same right to explore their personal history, as is presently enjoyed by the citizens of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Honourable senators, I request leave to table over 500 electronically transmitted letters of support, e-mail, that cannot be recognized as petitions under our present rules and regulations. In substance, these e-mails are petitions to Parliament from residents of Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland that I have received over the course of the past 12 months. The non-Canadian electronic petitions in this bundle of over 500 come from foreigners who are researching their Canadian family ties.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

On motion of Senator LeBreton, debate adjourned.