Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maybe I'll start, before I turn to Mr. Ferguson to let him finish off.
I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I would tell you, and this is pure opinion, that the data issue is not new. It's coming to the forefront more and more, because the data analytics tools are becoming more sophisticated—we want to make greater use of data. It's thus putting pressure on our data. The people who are collecting the data are often not the people using the data. We have a cultural issue, in the sense that the accuracy and the relevance of our data are becoming more and more important. We need to drive that cultural issue down to make sure we get accurate data.
If I may offer advice to the committee on what to do, it would be to challenge the data that departments are collecting: is it relevant; is it accurate; how are you using it? Those are the three themes that have to come out.
Mr. Ferguson will likely tell you in a moment that we collect all sorts of data. The question is around how we use it and whether it's the right data. We probably collect more data than we need. For me the real issues are around how we use it.