Unfortunately, Statistics Canada appears less transparent when it comes to managing its finances and human resources. I got wind of specific budgetary issues within the agency but my questions were answered via email in general terms without going into too much detail.

Note that this is the lot of many PR organizations today, and even more so at the federal level. Talking to a human is often difficult or impossible, questions have to be emailed, making asking for clarification and interpolation tedious.

Cloud Computing Problems

In short, Statistics Canada has experienced significant budget overruns over the past year, in addition to restricting student hiring and halting the work of contract workers, sources who cannot publicly speak tell me.

The main problem concerns the migration of servers to cloud computing (the Clouds in English). The road to cloud computing turned out to be much more expensive than expected, I’m told. Statistics Canada staff were briefed last fall and budget pressures have increased with the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023.

In the most recent fiscal year, Statistics Canada spent $619 million, while the budget forecast at the beginning of the year was $577 million, according to the federal government’s most recent spending estimates.

It is impossible to fully understand in the budget documents where this difference of 42 million comes from, but one thing is certain, Statistics Canada’s budget will decrease to 532 million this year (2023-2024).

I informed Statistics Canada of my knowledge of budget overruns and inquired about the impact of those overruns on the organization’s activities. How high is this overrun? And what is the budget for cloud computing?

The agency doesn’t answer these questions, instead simply telling me that “additional resources have been allocated for the migration to cloud computing”. She adds that she has made “efforts to streamline and streamline,” bureaucratic terms that generally mean cuts.

“We are now putting into practice the lessons learned to ensure the effective management of our operations within this new infrastructure,” the agency wrote to me again.

Are there other reasons for the financial problems? No Answer.

Can you explain to me the magnitude of the 42 million deviations for 2022-2023 and the budget decrease for 2023-2024? No response other than saying she “has always respected her budget allocations and remains financially responsible.”

Is it correct to say that Statistics Canada has slowed student and contract worker hiring in this regard? The agency does not actually answer this question and it must be concluded that it would not.

The agency explains to me that they adapt their workforce to their production cycles. She says she has been doing more statistical surveys over the past three years due to the 2021 census and the pandemic. These more numerous investigations were carried out on behalf of other federal agencies in particular, which had meanwhile reduced their mandates.

“We are in the process of rebalancing our workforce to match our current workload and available resources,” the agency tells me through Carter Mann, who holds the title of “strategic media relations manager, stakeholder relations and engagement division.”

Has the agency reduced or will it reduce the number of its publications? His answer is no.

“Statistics Canada continues to produce more data, analytical documents, hubs, portals and resources […]. We regularly review the nature and scope of our products and make changes to keep them relevant. »

At 1^ah As of April 2023, Statistics Canada had 5,940 permanent employees, in addition to 562 contract, casual or other temporary workers. Those temporary workers numbered 922 last year, down 360, data from Carter Mann showed late Tuesday.

“Entrepreneur” is not included in this data, Mr. Mann writes to me, a term that seems to refer to freelancers or consultants.

Syndicate under supervision

At the Union of National Employees (SEN), which represents 23,000 workers, including union members at Statistics Canada, I was told that there are currently no job cuts in unionized jobs, that only contract workers have been laid off.

The information was not easy to obtain as the UNE was held in trust by the board of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). The guardianship took place at the end of October for administrative reasons within the national management of the SEN, which consists of about fifteen people.

It would not be fraud, nor financial problems, nor conflicts of interest, Aurélie McDonald from PSAC told me, who declined to tell me more. Guardianship is to be lifted for the August Congress.

As you can see, timing is not always easy. Maybe things are going very well at Statistics Canada now, but hey, the sometimes evasive answers and lack of response from the agency makes me wonder…