Questionable transfers from Statistics Canada to Shared Services Canada

Statistics Canada has agreed to transfer $12.8-million to Shared Services Canada (SSC). Ultimately $14.4-million was transferred through supplementary main estimates in December 2016. It appears Shared Services Canada is accepting money appropriated in the 2016-17 fiscal year to deliver products and services to Statistics Canada in future fiscal years. This is contrary to the rules of financial management in the federal government and allows departments to inappropriately carry forward funds from one year to the next.

The Statistics Canada building in Ottawa. So where did the money come from to fund this transfer, given that Statistics Canada has the reputation of keeping every penny of funding it has at work in the statistical program, asks former chief statistician Wayne Smith. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright

Opinion

BY WAYNE SMITH

May 29, 2017

OTTAWA—In a recent letter to Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains and then-Public Services and Procurement minister Judy Foote, obtained through access to information, current Chief Statistician Anil Arora and the current president of Shared Services Canada, Ron Parker, wrote that Statistics Canada h...

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