Evidence of meeting #32 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was data.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Welcome, Mr. Arora.
I'll ask you a few questions about the recent census, which had an extremely impressive participation rate of almost 98%. I want to know what made the census so successful. How does the participation rate compare with the rates in other countries?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
Thank you for the question.
It's absolutely true that the response rate in 2016 was unprecedented. It was very impressive. It's difficult for me to analyze the factors that resulted in such an impressive and significant response rate because I wasn't there at that time.
However, I can speculate a bit about the factors that resulted in the response rate. First, it's the methodology that was established in 2016.
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
Exactly. It's the methodology and the associated tools. For example, there is the methodology of using the mail services, of starting with a qualified workforce and of having good facilities.
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
Exactly.
Canadians were given options.
November 2nd, 2016 / 4:30 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
You provided several ways of responding. As a result, they could choose their preferred method. This had an impact.
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
Some psychology was also used to encourage Canadians to respond. Areas where the response rate had been low before were targeted, and a bit more information was provided after the first step.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
After the first step, you again followed up in areas where the response rate was a bit low.
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
Yes.
The communication strategy was fairly solid. The factors were therefore the methodology, a good communication plan, and the methods and options provided to Canadians.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
I found that quite impressive.
One of the reasons provided by the previous government for cancelling the long-form census was that Canadians were not agreeing to fill it in and that they didn't want anything to do with the census. All of a sudden, we have a response rate of almost 98%. That's as good as it gets, and you didn't need to be persistent with Canadians to obtain this response rate.
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
As I said earlier, I wasn't there at that time. Therefore, it's difficult for me to explain the reasons for the success. Of course, many more discussions took place and there was more knowledge.
Liberal
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Arora, for appearing here today.
What interaction did you have with the Prime Minister's Office or Minister Bains's office prior to being appointed as the chief?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
I had no interaction with the Prime Minister's Office. I was called by colleagues at PCO, who essentially told me that this was something that was under consideration. I had a very brief meeting with Minister Bains. I would say it was more pro forma. After that, I was informed that I would be asked to take on the position as of September 19.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Since your hiring, have you had any contact at all with Minister Bains or with the Prime Minister's Office?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
I haven't had any with the Prime Minister's Office. Obviously, just as any deputy minister does, I have interactions with the Privy Council Office. In terms of Minister Bains, it's been more in the conduct of the day-to-day business of moving business through cabinet and so on, and of giving recommendations and advice, as I did in other positions within government.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Thank you for that.
Your predecessor, Mr. Smith, complained about issues with Shared Services Canada. He had issues about servers, capacity, storage, and performance within their data centre. Shared Services Canada basically said—and I'll paraphrase—that there were no issues between the two departments at that time. We know from your comments today that there obviously were, and still are, issues with Shared Services Canada, specifically around storage and performance. Is that correct?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
As I said, when I came in, I had a full look at where our current capacity was and at how our demand was escalating, with projections in terms of additional data. As you can imagine, every new survey, every new set of data that we get from Global Affairs or anywhere else, puts increased demands on the infrastructure.
By doing those projections of where we were, of the gap, and of how that gap was narrowing, if you like, over the next little while, it was very clear to me that there was going to be a requirement for additional servers and additional storage space. We mapped that out. I had a pretty detailed session between Shared Services Canada and Statistics Canada, in a very collaborative way, to map that gap out and to come to an agreement about the kinds of investments that were going to be required to make sure that the infrastructure was going to be there as the demand increased.
So far, as I said, I think Shared Services has been nothing but responsive. In fact, hardware and software are being installed as we speak.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
It would be great to have Mr. Parker, who made the comments from Shared Services Canada, as well as Mr. Smith, appear before this committee to talk about some of the issues that they saw prior to resigning, just to reiterate the comments and go over it. It's nothing against you, obviously, because you're coming in to do the job.
The RCMP, the defence department, and many others have complained to Shared Services Canada about crashes and a multitude, a litany, of performance issues. Since September, have there been any crashes related to Statistics Canada and the work that Statistics Canada does?
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
—and I can only tell you that since that point, there have been no issues that have escalated to my level, or any issues that have prevented us from providing timely and detailed access to information—
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
How would a Canadian or a member of Parliament find out if there was a crash on a site with a server? How would that come to our attention?
