Time to ditch Stats Canada

[tamarin]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/07/18/crime-stats.html

Interesting stuff! Then CTV has on an explosive report last night. Stats Canada refuses to include drug offences and drug crime in its compilation for these critical numbers. You'd have to live in a chipmunk hole not to know the way crime is driven by drugs in Canada. Who are they to decide what should and shouldn't be included in key index numbers?
Interesting here too (the latter section): http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/02/23/stats_drugs040223.html

The agency is already reeling from criticism across the country from seniors and pensioners who accuse Stats Can of deliberately understating inflation numbers so as to assuage government gate keepers. The org has its patent response: it follows international precepts and ignores food and energy as core rate components. That hasn't placated their critics who icily reply that core rates govern many wage and pension increases across the country and are supposed to reflect the true changes in cost of living, not Stats Canada's bias.

With the crime rate subterfuge fully public, maybe it's time for Stats Canada to be either read the riot act or be wound down.

 

[karrie]

First of all, you need to answer whether there is, or is not, an international standard of measuring these things.

If country A is saying that inflation was 10%, but is measuring it differently than Canada, who is sitting at 15%, then you're all just sitting around talking apples and oranges.

Comparing statistics (let's put them on the table and see whose is bigger), is a fave pasttime of governments everywhere. And it's part of stats can's job. So, should the stats be tailored to us, tailored to the media, or tailored to an international standard for comparison's sake? Perhaps we should be shelling out for twenty different versions of the statistics?

Read them the riot act if need be, fine. But get rid of stats can, and how will we ever be able to back up debate in here? lol.

 

[Toro]

Statistics Canada is considered to be one of the best statistical agencies in the world.

"Ditching" it certainly would do Canadians no good.

 

[Tonington]

Stats Canada is in fact one of the best institutions we have in this country, any criticisms of the work they do is but a trifle when compared to the outstanding records they keep.

Considering that marijuana was almost decriminalized, and the amount of time it takes for Stats Canada reports to catch up to real time, I'd say it's not really that big of an issue.

 

[tamarin]

Toro, yes it is rated highly and the question is: why? Given the agency's obvious shortcomings and the prickly attitude so many Canadians have to it because of the agency's stranglehold on their incomes, it's time to ask probing questions.
Cost of Living increases are important to millions of Canadians and their definition is out of sync with that of Stats Canada. The org can rationalize all it wants but the one thing they can't support is that their numbers accurately reflect what Canadians endure in their monthly budgets. But the crime stats nonsense is unforgivable. How many arguments here on this site use Stats Can's numbers? Fudged numbers?

 

[Tonington]

The question then is Tamarin, what do you replace Stats Canada with? Axe the whole lot, only to hire new beurocrats to taly numbers so the government may have some idea of what the Canadian demographic looks like, in all it's many facets?

I'm all for better ideas, just have never heard any when someone complains about SC.

 

[tamarin]

Tonington, ask any member in your community what is the key component in crime there. Most will quickly answer- drugs. And Stats Canada, whatever its reasoning, has decided to exclude drug crime from its index. That's a huge red flag for anyone dependent on the agency's filings.

Karrie, we do need someone to compile numbers and equally we need a civilian agency to vett them and keep them on their toes.

 

[karrie]

I'm all for better ideas, just have never heard any when someone complains about SC.

That's because, generally speaking, citizens are untrusting of numbers people. It's like wanting to get rid of all accountants. But damn... then we just need to replace them with more, ack!, accountants. Can't trust them, yet can't figure out how to do their job better than them.

 

[tamarin]

Tonington, the answer is above. We need a civilian agency to vett Stats Can and its managers whenever exclusions are obviously operating in their formulas.
To be fair, Stats Can is not the only agency under fire especially on the inflation front. Many market and government voices worldwide have criticized inflation stats gathering and for its inability to reflect what it has to: real time budgetary pressures faced by civilian populations.

 

[karrie]

Karrie, we do need someone to compile numbers and equally we need a civilian agency to vett them and keep them on their toes.

If you want to pay for a civilian agency to keep them on their toes, go nuts. Then we'll hire a gov agency to make sure the civilian agency isn't being corrupted by big business, and on and on.

 

[tamarin]

All we need is an office whose logo is this: the buck stops here.
A forum of civilians appointed for a fixed term could easily hear complaints against the agency and troubleshoot. The inflation nonsense must stop. And the crime stats trumpeting to Canadians that their streets are the safest in a quarter century are a cruel joke as CTV showed last night. You don't release stats to the public with holes in them bigger than the moon.

 

[BitWhys]

StatsCan refuses to change the metric but not the name of a statistic and that leads to some calling for their head. Speaks well of the national dialog.

 

[Zzarchov]

Or, you could just make the information stats can gathers public, removing names and dates if need be. And let everyone access it, and figure out whatever stats they wish to use.

 

[BitWhys]

That's a pet peeve of mine, actually. There's a wealth of data available from StatsCan but thanks to the petty-mindedness of successive governments its only available to people who are willing and able to pay for it. It only recovers a fraction of the cost, btw.

 

[Toro]

Toro, yes it is rated highly and the question is: why? Given the agency's obvious shortcomings and the prickly attitude so many Canadians have to it because of the agency's stranglehold on their incomes, it's time to ask probing questions.
Cost of Living increases are important to millions of Canadians and their definition is out of sync with that of Stats Canada. The org can rationalize all it wants but the one thing they can't support is that their numbers accurately reflect what Canadians endure in their monthly budgets. But the crime stats nonsense is unforgivable. How many arguments here on this site use Stats Can's numbers? Fudged numbers?

I am somewhat aware of the technical arguments underlying the measurement of inflation in the United States. I tend to agree with those who say inflation is understated. However, the argument is one of a technical nature regarding hedonic adjustments to measure the increase in quality of goods as well as the measurement of housing costs based on an implied rate of rent that could theoretically be derived from a property that is a function of interest rates.

However, these are technical arguments among statisticians and econometricians. I have seen allegations that the statistics are being manipulated for political ends. Yet, those making this argument offer absolutely no proof whatsoever, instead relying on assumption. Also, having known and met statisticians who have worked on the problem - many whom BTW are Ph.D.s and almost all who have masters degrees - they would take great umbrage at the accusation their work is merely a pawn in some grand scheme to defraud a large portion of the population.

Is it the same in Canada?