Former statistics chief questions Liberal promise of more independence

Before Shared Services Canada took over, that job would have been done in-house, he said, and “there wasn’t the need for 50 meetings with 20,000 people in them”.

OTTAWA-Bank of Canada Gov. Stephen Poloz said the central bank requires a contingency plan for economic data because the quality of information gathered by Canada’s statistics agency is at risk due to aging technology, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Smith said in his email that Shared Services Canada now holds an effective veto over numerous agency’s decisions, including the collection, analysis and dissemination of data.

Smith said he had done all he could to have this situation addressed, “but to no effect”.

Smith says in the email he can’t support federal initiatives to centralize IT services that effectively compromise the independence of Statistics Canada, which the federal government purports to protect.

“I do not wish to preside over the decline of … a world-leading statistical office”, stated Smith.

NDP public services critic Erin Weir called Smith’s resignation a troubling development. Ian McKinnon said it simply came down to a question of the agency’s independence.

“Most recently, his work was key in delivering our government’s commitment to reinstating the long form census”.

Mr. Weir said there are comparisons to be drawn between the problems at Shared Services and the Phoenix Payroll System, which was rolled out in February as a single, automated system for paying federal employees but has been fraught with problems.

“We are working closely with Statistics Canada towards the reinforcement of the independence of this eminent institution which plays an essential role in providing Canadians with accurate and reliable statistical data”, Bains said in a statement.

The minister made no specific reference to Smith’s complaints.

Among the issues with Statistics Canada was a new system to disseminate results from this year’s census, which was facing delays earlier this year and requests to upgrade its data centre that Shared Services Canada has not invested in.

Shared Services Canada has regularly come under fire from departments who are frustrated at having to hand over control of their systems to another government department. Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, who is responsible for Statistics Canada, also said the government was committed to giving the agency the independence the Grits promised during last year’s election campaign.

Shared Services was created by the previous government five years ago in an initiative meant to save money by centralizing IT services.

This is the second chief statistician to quit over the matter of independence.

The June report said Statistics Canada needed to be more agile because it was facing huge challenges in a world of big data: demands for up-to-the-minute information that businesses and planners rely on, declining response rates on traditional surveys, and meeting the government’s need for statistics in new policy fields. “And if we can do that as enterprise-wide solution, why not do it as an enterprise-wide solution?” she said.

“I believe it is the professional duty of a national statistician to resign if the independence of the national statistical office.is compromised”, Smith wrote.