Date and location
April 13, 2026, 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Hybrid meeting
Microsoft Teams
The Ivan P. Fellegi Conference Room, 26th floor, R.H. Coats Building
100 Tunney's Pasture Parkway, Ottawa
Members
- Chantal Bernier, Co-Chair, Global Privacy and Cybersecurity Group, Dentons Canada (Chair)
- André Loranger, Chief Statistician of Canada
- Len Garis, Researcher and Adjunct Professor, University of the Fraser Valley
- Ali Ghorbani, Cyber Security Chair, University of New Brunswick
- Robert Gordon, Executive Director, Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange
- Suzanne L. Morin, Vice President, Chief Privacy and Data Ethics Officer, Sun Life
- Eran Tal, Canada Research Chair in Data Ethics, McGill University
Statistics Canada guests/support
- Beatrice Baribeau
- Martin Beaulieu
- Josée Bégin
- Geoff Bowlby (absent)
- Katy Champagne
- Ryan Chepita
- Lucy Chung
- Pierre Desrochers
- James Falconer
- Shelley Jeglic
- Christiane Laperrière
- Guillaume Maranda
- Patrice Martineau
- Kathleen Mitchell
- Martin Provost
- Nicolas Rahal
- Eric Rancourt
- Jean-François Simard
- Kathryn Stevenson
- Jennifer Withington
- Kari Wolanski
1. Introductions and Opening Remarks
André Loranger, Chief Statistician of Canada
Chantal Bernier, Co-chair, Global Privacy and Cybersecurity Group, Dentons Canada LLP
Mr. Loranger opened the meeting by welcoming members to the tenth meeting of the Advisory Council on Ethics and Modernization of Microdata Access.
Mr. Loranger then provided a brief update on the current situation at Statistics Canada. The year 2026 will be a significant one for the organization, as it reviews its expenditures and staffing levels, conducts a census of the population, launches new programs—including one focused on measuring the adoption of artificial intelligence—and ensures the continuity of existing programs.
Mr. Loranger also highlighted Eric Rancourt's many contributions to the Council and Statistics Canada. This meeting was Mr. Rancourt's last with the Council before his retirement.
Ms. Bernier, for her part, welcomed the Council members and noted the quality of the meeting's agenda.
2. Statistics Canada 2030
Lucy Chung, Assistant Director, Strategic and Integrated Transformation Division, Statistics Canada
Kathryn Stevenson, Director, International Cooperation Division and Strategic and Integrated Transformation Division, Statistics Canada
Ms. Chung and Ms. Stevenson presented Statistics Canada 2030 vision, its key components and objectives, as well as its benefits for the organization and for Canadians. One of the major benefits of the vision is that it facilitates the coordination of the organization's key activities, such as data management, data governance, and data stewardship. It also reinforces the objective of better integrating and reusing existing data, rather than acquiring new data, particularly through surveys.
Council members supported the vision and emphasized the importance, given the current context, of having a clear and focused strategic vision. Council members also made the following recommendations.
- The vision should explicitly include key elements such as innovation and research, transparency, social acceptability, consultation with users, and the definition of the concept of official statistics.
- Statistics Canada should highlight its ability to produce reliable, high-quality data.
- The vision should extend beyond 2030.
Person Registry
Kari Wolanski, Lead, Strategic Horizontal Initiatives, Office of the Assistant Chief Statistician Social, Health and Labour Statistics, Statistics Canada
James Falconer, Chief, Combined Census Research, Census Futures, Statistics Canada
Ms. Wolanski and Mr. Falconer presented an overview of potential models and international trends in statistical person registries. They noted that since 2000, the trend has reversed, with more countries moving away from traditional enumeration through censuses in favor of person registries. They also noted that statistical organizations must, however, balance these efforts with considerations such as ethics, privacy, and social acceptability.
Mr. Falconer noted that in recent years, Statistics Canada has undertaken several initiatives to gauge the social acceptability of a person registry. The results of these initiatives point to clear findings: (1) the Canadian public supports the idea; (2) administrative data linkages should be clearly communicated and justified, and the use of data should be transparent; (3) Canadians trust Statistics Canada to protect their data; and (4) the registry could include data from various levels of government, but not data from private, financial, or social media sources.
Finally, Ms. Wolanski and Mr. Falconer proposed moving forward at a pace that considers social acceptability and Canadians' trust, by demonstrating the necessity for a person registry, by being transparent, by adopting an incremental approach tailored to the Canadian context and by establishing partnerships with various stakeholders, including the provinces and territories and Indigenous Peoples.
Council members supported the recommendations, and the creation of a person registry for Canada. According to Council members, Statistics Canada possesses the credibility, expertise, and safeguards to carry out such a project. The Council also provided the following recommendations.
- Continue to measure and build social acceptability of the project, with a particular focus on transparency and ethical considerations.
- Ensure that such a registry is not used for population surveillance, that there is no bias in the creation or use of data, and that there are no cybersecurity risks.
4. Automated Vetting Initiative
Shelley Jeglic, Director, Data Access Division, Statistics Canada
Ms. Jeglic presented the Automated Vetting Initiative, a project to streamline, standardize, and automate confidentiality vetting for microdata research outputs. Ms. Jeglic also presented the challenges with the current vetting process, highly complex and manual, and described the new approach: simplified rule frameworks, standardized output formats, and the introduction of semi-automated vetting to improve efficiency, consistency, and scalability.
Council members were pleased with the presentation and endorsed the initiative. The Council also made the following recommendation.
- While automation efforts are important, it is essential to ensure that a human is always involved in the processes, particularly to ensure their validity.
5. Roundtable and Closing Remarks
André Loranger, Chief Statistician of Canada
Chantal Bernier, Co-chair, Global Privacy and Cybersecurity Group, Dentons Canada
Mr. Loranger and Ms. Bernier thanked the Council members and participants for the excellent presentations and discussions. Ms. Bernier concluded the meeting by once again expressing her appreciation for the quality of the topics presented and the discussions.
Advisory council action items
Action Item
- Next meeting: Fall 2026.
Recommendations for Statistics Canada
- Statistics Canada 2030
- Explicitly include elements such as innovation, research, transparency, social acceptability, consultation with users, and the definition of the concept of official statistics.
- Highlight Statistics Canada's ability to produce reliable, high-quality data.
- Look beyond 2030.
- Person Registry
- Continue to measure the social acceptability of various initiatives and help strengthen it.
- Ensure the judicious and secure use of a person registry.
- Automated Verification Initiative
- Promote the automation of processes while ensuring that they are supervised by humans.