OTTAWA — The country’s former chief statistician is speaking out to explain what led up to his sudden resignation last week and questioning the Liberals’ campaign commitments to Statistics Canada. RelatedHe said he heard nothing until the middle of last week, when Trudeau responded with a letter saying he was committed to giving Statistics Canada greater independence. On Friday, Trudeau’s office announced Smith’s replacement in a short release just as Smith’s resignation letters were made public. That’s what happened when the previous Conservative government set up Shared Services Canada in a bid to cut costs by eliminating duplication. “It has really been about the consequences for Shared Services Canada if Statistics Canada was pulled out of that arrangement.”Smith said the statistics office’s data centre in Ottawa has increasingly faced outages because Shared Services Canada has declined to invest in infrastructure.

Source: National Post September 19, 2016 17:37 UTC