The efficiency resulted from conversations that were held with the chief statistician, who, in recognition of the government's desire to reduce expenditures, reviewed what was going on in Statistics Canada and identified areas where expenditures could either be postponed or curtailed. This included things such as microfiching old census data. Some savings may relate to computer upgrades, the view being that a dollar not spent one year is a dollar saved.
The chief statistician put forward a series of measures that amounted to a reduction of about $15 million, which is perhaps about 3% of the agency's budget this year.