Don’t beat up Statscan for one data error – Cross

More on StatsCan from Phillip Cross, former chief economic analyst. Worth reading for some of the history and how the agency reacted to previous cuts:

People should get agitated about Statscan over substantive issues. Wring your hands that the CPI over-states price changes over long periods. Write your MP complaining that the Labour Force Survey doesn’t follow the U.S. practice and exclude 15 year olds. Take to the barricades that for an energy superpower like Canada, measuring energy exports has become a monthly adventure, routinely revised by $1-billion a month. But don’t use the July employment incident to evaluate how the statistical system is functioning overall. They messed up one data point in one series. Big deal. Anyone who lets one data point affect their view of the economy should not be doing analysis. Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Don’t beat up Statscan for one data error – The Globe and Mail.