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Government Operations committee Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I have a very brief opening statement just to establish what I might be able to contribute to the work of the committee. On August 3, 2016, as chief statistician of Canada, I wrote to the Prime Minister to inform him of three major concerns
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee I was not, as I recall, directly involved in the consultations, no.
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee No, I don't recall being asked.
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee I'm at your disposal for that full time.
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee The question was in what way is Statistics Canada unique, and how does independence have an impact on whether Statistics Canada should or should not be part of the Shared Services Canada initiative? The notion of independence for national statistics offices is established intern
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee A group was set up. It was specifically not to deal with those strategic issues. They were set aside. It was to deal with immediate operational crises, essentially, to find solutions that would allow, for example, the census to go forward and meet its full commitments and that wo
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee Absolutely not. Well, the census was generally a success, but there was one major project in which we had made commitments to improve the web service of Statistics Canada in time for the 2016 census. Because of repeated failures to deliver in a timely way on the infrastructure ne
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee It was a letter. It was written and sent at the beginning of August.
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee What I stated are the points that I made in my introductory comments. I said that the relationship between Shared Services Canada and Statistics Canada was inconsistent with the internationally recognized principle of official independence of national statistical offices, which t
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee Two days before my resignation, I received a letter from the Prime Minister reiterating his commitment to the independence of Statistics Canada, and it really didn't go any further than that. The Clerk of the Privy Council wrote me a letter essentially stating his disagreement wi
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee He wrote back indicating that he disagreed with the arguments I was advancing in the letter.
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee The only specific in it, which provoked me to respond, was a claim that Shared Services Canada had fully and properly supported the 2016 census of population—which really wasn't true—to which I responded. On the other points, I simply said we'll have to agree to disagree.
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee The census one was not Shared Services Canada's fault, nor actually was it Statistics Canada's. It resulted from a bug in the commercial database software, which brought the website down. The website, after we turned it on initially, was operating very slowly. We determined tha
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith
Government Operations committee If you look at the governance arrangements for Shared Services Canada, nothing actually establishes any obligation on the part of Shared Services Canada to provide any specific service or volume of service to Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada transferred its resources and wa
November 16th, 2016Committee meeting
Wayne Smith