RSSeNEWS to be determined...

Munir Sheikh, the head of Statistics Canada, has resigned over the Conservative administration's decision to replace mandatory long form data gathering with a voluntary survey in the 2011 census.

In a statement the Chief Statistician said his resignation "relates to the question of whether a voluntary survey can become a substitute for a mandatory census. It cannot ... Under the circumstances, I have tendered my resignation to the prime minister."

Sheikh is a career bureaucrat who rose to prominence in the 1990s over his work to reduce the country's deficit. Commentators say he was put in an impossible position as Statistics Canada will not be able to assure the quality of data gathered voluntarily to the same degree as that gathered mandatorily.

He is prohibited by law from divulging the advice that his agency gave the government on the changes. But Industry Minister Tony Clements insists that Statistics Canada chose the voluntary survey from three options that the government offered it to replace the mandatory long form census.

The government justified the changes on the grounds of personal privacy. But Canada's privacy commission says it has had three complaints about the census in last decade. Statistics Canada reported receiving 22 letters and emails on the issue whilst collecting data for the 2006 census.

Critics of the change believe the resignation will put pressure on PM Stephen Harper to safeguard Statistics Canada's reputation. According to Professor Kevin Milligan of the University of British Columbia the proposed change, “violates all known laws of statistics”.  New Democratic Party MP Charlie Angus commented “When you don’t have a commitment for honest research and the integrity of data, anything is possible.”

Nik Nanos of Nanos Research noted: “The government is probably in a position it never wanted to be in ... It’s possible for the prime minister to intervene and it’s much easier now that the head of StatsCan has stepped down.”

David Green of the University of British Columbia called for Statistics Canada "to operate at arm’s-length from political interference", just as the Bank of Canada has for the past decade. "The same should be true of the national statistical agency. If statistical collection changes with the ideological whims of the government, the very basis of government decision-making, transparency and trust is shattered," he commented.

Statistics Canada will be headed by Wayne Smith, assistant chief statistician of business and trade statistics on an interim basis until a permanent replacement is found.