The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Canadians strongly oppose Statistics Canada's plan to obtain personal banking records, according to a new Nanos Research survey. The Globe's Bill Curry writes that the survey suggests Ottawa is on the wrong side of public opinion in its defence of the plan, with 74 per cent of respondents either opposing, or somewhat opposing, Statscan accessing those records without permission. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet repeatedly defended it this month in the House of Commons in response to criticism from opposition MPs. Statscan has warned in recent years that its traditional survey methods are becoming less reliable owing to declining participation rates. As a result, it is exploring new ways of collecting data by working with private-sector companies. The plan quickly moved from theory to practice in recent weeks when Statscan sent letters to nine Canadian banks informing them it would compel them to hand over the personal banking records of 500,000 Canadian households in January. The nine banks -- BMO, CIBC, Canadian Western Bank, HSBC, Laurentian Bank, National Bank, RBC, Scotiabank and Toronto-Dominion Bank -- were caught by surprise.