Canada’s chief statistician has abruptly resigned over concerns about the independence of Statistics Canada.
In a letter, Wayne Smith said the issue was related to ongoing frustration with Shared Services Canada, which is the federal IT agency.
Smith says their independence has been at risk since the previous Conservative government required Statistics Canada to transfer their infrastructure over to Shared Services Canada.
He says there is no accountability with SSC to provide the services Statistics Canada needs to carry out their mandate.
As a result Smith says a progressive degradation of their support has had significant consequences to their effectiveness.
He also raised the spectre of privacy concerns, saying SSC does not adhere to the same level of privacy as Statistics Canada does.
Smith resigned in protest after failing to convince the current Liberal government to correct the situation.
Minister of Innovation Navdeep Bains thanked Smith for his service and announced Anil Arora will be taking over the top job starting Monday.
Resignation Letter of former Chief Statistician Wayne R. Smith
