Tom Symons: A Canadian Life

Chapter 14: Tom Symons and the National Statistics Council

Tom Symons and the National Statistics Council IVAN FELLEGI T he National Statistics Council (NSC) played a subtle but crucial role in the evolution of Statistics Canada as probably the best regarded national statistical agency in the world. And, as its founding chair, Tom Symons played a crucial role in the development of the council. Indeed, not only was Tom its founding chair, but he provided leadership to it for some twenty years. In order to appreciate his contribution, it is important to understand the subtle role of the council as it evolved under Tom’s chairmanship. The National Statistics Council Statistics Canada is a highly centralized national statistical agency, operating under a strong Statistics Act. The act, among its other features, provides unlimited subject matter scope for the agency while also spelling out twenty specific areas in which it must be active—such as population, agriculture, health and welfare, education, labour and employment, prices and the cost of living, manufacturing, commerce with other countries, etc. By statute, the agency operates under a minister. The chief statistician, “under the direction of the Minister, supervise(s) generally the administration of this Act and control(s) the operations and staff of Statistics Canada.” The act assigns the legal mandate for the preservation C H A P T E R 1 4 304 TOM SYMONS: A CAnAdiAn Life of statistical confidentiality to the chief statistician, not to the minister. In addition to these legal provisions, a strong tradition has evolved in this relationship: Statistics Canada is treated at arm’s length by the minister and the government. Successive governments confirmed and reconfirmed that statistical information should be free of political interference. So, while the government establishes the total budget for Statistics Canada, statistical priorities within the budget are set by the chief statistician following extensive consultation with key users in governments (federal and provincial), the private sector, academics, and other key users. As an additional safeguard, all statistical information is made available by Statistics Canada to all members of the public at the same time. A so-called pre-release of less than twenty-four hours is made of a handful of key economic series to designated senior officials for purposes such as the orderly management of money markets. The very limited time available to them ensures it is visibly impossible to alter either the statistics themselves, or, indeed, their analysis. So, while the chief statistician reports to Parliament through a minister, the agency’s professional independence is unquestioned . Although nowhere stated in its mandate, council sees as its fundamental role to protect this independence. In the early 1980s, Statistics Canada embarked on a conscious program of strengthening its active consultative mechanisms with key clients and broadly-based representatives of the national interest. This included the establishment of a series of bilateral senior committees with key federal departments and the setting up of some ten to fifteen professional advisory committees. The latter consisted of experts (typically from outside government) in such areas as demography, labour, national accounting, price measurement, and service industries. Coincidentally, in 1985, the government established the National Statistics Council, by Order-in-Council, at the apex of the agency’s consultative mechanisms. Its formal mandate is very brief: it is to “advise the Chief Statistician in setting priorities and rationalizing Statistics Canada programs.” In line with other aspects of Canadian public policy on statistics, a careful balance was attempted between TOM SYMONS AND THE NATIONAL STATISTICS COUNCIL 305 strengthening the policy relevance of the agency while maintaining its professional independence: members of the council are appointed by the minister, but their duty is to advise the chief statistician. There are about forty members. While there are no rules for representation, the following practice evolved in discussions with Tom Symons and has generally been adhered to: a. All members serve in their individual capacities—there are no formal representational appointments. b. Members are interested and prestigious analysts of some aspect of Canadian life, but few are professional statisticians. c. Some members from Statistics Canada’s various professional advisory committees serve on the council. This ensures the availability of a wide range of subject matter knowledge within the council, as well as linkage with the agency’s other advisory bodies. d. At least one senior journalist on social or economic affairs is a member. e. Membership is selected in such a fashion as to ensure appropriate knowledge of the different...