The public trust of such private and personal information is better placed with qualified and experienced Statistics Canada employees who for decades have been committed to their oath of confidentiality under ‘Statistics Canada Act, rather than contracting out such jobs to private corporations for pre-census testing.
Canadians have a right to know why our government has compromised ordinary persons like you and me. The media and government opposition need to grill the government regarding: who is the benefactor of such a deal? Has the stock in this US based company increased in value as a result of this $85,000,000 contract for US services? What would have been the economic ‘spin off’s” to the Canadians if such a development project were ‘made in Canada’ rather than in the US and fronted their Canadian division? The public must have a more forthright response from government as to why the US and not Canada as a means to meat Statistics Canada end.
Unless the Canadian government pulls this Census ‘national free trade deal’ from the US, it will join past miss-judgments, such as the printing of Canada Post’s postage by a US corporation. How many Canadian tax dollars flow south annually in producing Canadian stamps? If this stamp contract were fulfilled in Canada, how many Canadian jobs would have been created and how many workers would have spent their wages as consumers and taxpayers in Canada?
Not having the technology to produce both the Canadian census and Canadian stamps is a shameful excuse and will haunt the next generation unless government invests more into advanced education and Canadian company incentives towards technology innovation. Will the Canadian government also contract US companies to compile and process our Revenue Canada Income Tax returns, print our money or why not just have the same currencies. What about the next federal election? Will a US firm be contracted to count and process Canadian election ballots. There are no limits to how the North American Free Trade Agreement will continue to chip away at our Canadian sovereignty, jobs and technology advancement. Government must come clean on these issues with Canadians, as perception would have it, they are and continue to sell our identity.
I live by the ocean in Nanaimo, BC and near the US Naval base at Nanoose Bay. Sadly, I have seen an increasing number of US War ships pointing their bows into my neighbourhood, while they practice killing people. The multimillion dollar Canadian Post contract for stamp printing, last weeks reported $85,000,000 Statistics Canada census contract to a US subsidiary Lockheed Martin has added to what feels like, yet another US assault on our Sovereignty.
Randi Kocher
President, PSAC Local 20140
BC & Yukon Statistics SSO Canada Field Interviewers
Nanaimo, BC
Note: writing letters to the ...
Stumble It!
---
Dave Ruston
Note: sent a shortened version to the Globe as they have a 200 word limit. But couldn\'t resist sending the entire letter to the Herald.
Dear Editor
I am totally outraged at the article in the Globe and Mail, October 14,2003, and subsequent article in the Toronto Star, with regard to our Canadian Census contract being given to Lockheed-Martin a United States defence contractor. I can’t believe that our government under Mr.Rock’s department would ever think of putting Canadians’ private information or our national security information into the hands of a foreign power.
What I have not heard reported in the news is the uproar by Canadians over this news. This is a story Canadians need to hear, for some idea of the magnitude you might check out the website which reflects some Canadian voices, www.vivelecanada.ca I for one would like to know what the Government of Canada is going to do about this situation which amounts to divulging private information to a foreign power. Canadian\'s are bound by law to complete the census. If this is a representation of the next Liberal government I can clearly see that the next election will not see the Liberal party in power. If this is what we get with NAFTA and WTO (as Mr. Rock is quoted as saying) then they have a moral responsibility to take Canada out of that loop. So far as I can see, it has not amounted to any benefits to Canada and this is just another example. A spokesperson for Minister Goodale is quoted in the Toronto Star write-up October 15,2003
\'A spokesperson for Public Works Minister Ralph Goodale, whose department handles federal government procurement, said the contract was awarded in keeping with normal practices. He rejected the notion that it could be altered, citing Canada\'s obligations under the North American Free Trade Agreement and international treaties. Ottawa could be sued for many millions of dollars, the spokesperson said.
\"You run a competition and a company or consortium wins the competition. You can\'t just sort of decide, `Oh, by the way, we don\'t like them.\'\"
These statements are ridiculous to me, I can\'t believe they would even consider this company in the first place. (Why is STATSCAN not doing this census, why isn’t it an internal contract?) It isn\'t a matter of , \'Oh, by the way, we don\'t like them.\" It is a matter that they shouldn\'t be in the running, they are an American defence company, and this is our national and personal private information. He states this is in keeping with normal practices, well I think it is time that those practices be rescinded. If this is their attempt to comfort the Canadian people about what is normal from the Liberal Government than they have failed, terribly failed.
It would seem that this is information Canada ought to be protecting with the utmost care and caution. He says, \' It may not easily be changed\', however, it does need to be changed, easy or not! The easy way may not be the right way? I understand that, the U.S. government has a little thing called the Patriot Act which gives the FBI the right to take information from any company, including Lockheed-Martin and the company is forbidden to say the information was taken. How’s that for security? As a Canadian taxpayer and citizen this government is answerable to us, the people and not the U.S. government. But it is my understanding that Lockheed-Martin a U.S. based company’s slogan is, ’We never forget who we are working for’. Comfort for Canadian’s, I think not! I have written to various members of government including Mr.Goodale and Mr.Rock, I have yet to hear back from them and await their explanation of this incident. Perplexed and totally in disbelief.
M. A. Whelan
Canadian