Evidence of meeting #57 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 advisory.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON
Thank you very much for your suggestion. I appreciate that.
Liberal
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Thank you.
I just want to continue with my line of questioning from the first round. This is where it comes to the end of it. Statistics Canada right now can be one of the best in the world, if not the best. It's close to it already, despite the roughshod way it went through the last government, to be quite frank. But right now, my understanding is that the current onus of the bill that's in front of us allows the minister to decide whether StatsCan wants to use Shared Services or not. My understanding is that the minister has discretion about whether they choose to do that or not.
Will you allow Stats Canada to do that? Why not allow them to collect their own information and data, and not give it to Shared Services? To put this plainly, nothing has to be outsourced to Shared Services Canada from StatsCan. We can create the independent body that it is and maintain that without actually having exposure to privacy breaches and data exposure.
My understanding is that the new government plan is to allow the minister to allow Stats Canada or independent agencies to comply with that decision. If that is not correct.... That's my understanding of the current situation. Will you allow Stats Canada to in-house all of their stuff, or will they have to go to Shared Services? My understanding is that it's a ministerial decision, not the chief statistician's.
Liberal
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON
When it comes to operational matters, the IT stuff in particular, as the current interim chief statistician Anil Arora mentioned, he is working with Shared Services to determine what the best possible outcome is for maintaining the integrity of the data and the quality of the data. That really is at the discretion of the chief statistician. He will make that determination in terms of the best possible IT solution going forward. That's something I completely defer to him.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
That's a wrap.
Thank you very much, Minister and Mr. Knubley.
With that, we shall end our day. Have a great two weeks off.
The meeting is adjourned.