I think I should make it clearer as to what I meant. It is probably going to be difficult to try and convince them that we will do our own census and they should use our information. That is not what I meant. What I meant was we could have a community worker prior to census coming. Like an ad, posters, community meetings. Communities in the North are pretty small. Maybe band councils could get involved. Maybe during a drum-dance, somebody could explain census is coming and explain the importance of it.
I remember when census people were coming around my neighbourhood, it was inconvenient. They had to track me down. I had to be there and you had to fill out a really long form. They asked questions that I did not even want to answer.
If it is just another government form coming in the mail and you do not understand the relevance of it or why does it impact me, it is easy for people to throw it in the garbage.
I do not know exactly how it is done in the communities, if they go door to door. I am not saying that NWT people replace census people, but perhaps the NWT people could go with census people as a guide, as a friendly mediator, so they know they are doing it for us. The community people will feel easy with them. Or doing a campaign prior to it. For example, the GNWT census is coming. This is done by the federal government. This will determine how much money we will get for roads, hospitals or whatever. It is really important that everyone of you gets counted and do it in aboriginal languages. Surely this is a very important thing for our financial well-being. That is what I meant, Mr. Chairman.