StatsCan takes criticism for cutting funding to LifePaths database

Another example of reduced government emphasis on evidence-based approaches:

Former Statistics Canada official Michael Wolfson is criticizing the agency’s decision to stop funding its LifePaths database, saying the program has been essential for researching the long-term impacts of policy decisions.

Mr. Wolfson, a professor at the University of Ottawa who was previously assistant chief statistician at Statistics Canada, has written a new paper on retirement adequacy, which includes comments about his disappointment over the decision to cut funding to the LifePaths database, which he has used in his own work on retirement income.

“As a result, discussion of multibillion-dollar policies – discussions that could be informed by far smaller investments in statistical infrastructure – can now be pursued in ignorance,” he writes.

Statistics Canada stopped supporting the LifePaths modelling tool at the end of 2014, which means the database is not being updated with new data.

Statistics Canada spokeswoman Nadine Lacroix said the resources required to update and maintain the model were too great, and it “was no longer feasible” to continue the program.

She said the agency is developing a new “dynamic socio-economic” modelling tool that will be structured to ensure “sustainability, efficiency and responsiveness to client needs.” Statistics Canada expects to solicit feedback from stakeholders on the proposal next year.

LifePaths is a complex modelling tool developed in the 1990s that contains data on Canadians starting from 1971. It was started during Mr. Wolfson’s time at Statistics Canada to project demographic trends for Canadians decades into the future. It was intended to help shape public policy in numerous areas – including pensions, education and health care – by modelling the impacts of various policy alternatives.

The decision to stop maintaining the model comes amid broader criticisms over cuts to Statistics Canada research, most notably the 2010 decision to eliminate the mandatory long-form census in Canada and replace it with a voluntary survey.

In an interview, Mr. Wolfson said he has not published comments critical of Statistics Canada in the past, and worries he is being disloyal to his former colleagues by speaking out now.

“But I felt it was sufficiently important that I really felt I had to do it,” he said Monday.

StatsCan takes criticism for cutting funding to LifePaths database – The Globe and Mail.