Statistics Canada chief defends data as quality concerns persist – The Globe and Mail
Mar. 11 2015
More researchers are raising concerns about the quality of data from Statistics Canada’s national household survey, even as the agency’s chief statistician says the results have exceeded his expectations.
Back in 2013, Wayne Smith called the NHS – conducted for the first time in 2011 after the federal government cancelled the mandatory long-form census – a “success.” Now, he says the quality has turned out better than he’d expected.
“My view is more positive now than it was, based on everything that we’ve learned about the data subsequently,” Mr. Smith said in an interview, adding that he has trouble understanding why people who use the data are so “skittish” about it.
