EXTRACTS FROM HANSARD
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PROCEEDINGS OF CANADA'S HOUSE OF COMMONS
The following extract has been taken from Hansard Records of Canada's House of Commons:
36th Parliament, 2nd Session
EDITED HANSARD • NUMBER 106
Friday, June 2, 2000
ROUTINE PROCEEDINGS
STATISTICS ACT
Mr. Murray Calder (Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey, Lib.): moved for leave to introduce
Bill C-484, an act to amend the Statistics Act and the National Archives of Canada Act (census
records).
He said: Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Perth—Middlesex for his support in
seconding my bill. I am pleased to introduce a bill to allow the public release of post-1901
census records.
The intent of the bill is to amend the Statistics Act and the National Archives of Canada Act to
allow for the transfer of census records from Statistics Canada to the National Archives of
Canada where the records would be released to the public subject to the Privacy Act.
The bill is a reasonable compromise. Canadians would have an opportunity to review the census
returns 92 years after the census was taken, providing an individual does not provide a written
objection to the release of his or her records within that timeframe.
The bill finds a balance which ensures confidentiality while it maintains access for genealogists,
historians and medical researchers.
The census returns are a valuable link to our family heritage, community history and telling about Canada's collective past and present. I join with genealogists worldwide in saying that the only true picture of the lives of our ancestors lies within Canada's census records. I hope hon. members will support it.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
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