The swagger in the StatsCan offices

These must be heady days over in Tunney’s Pasture where, at the beige Ottawa headquarters of Statistics Canada, the sun is shining on a New Data Renaissance. The analysts, economists and other number crunchers have Stephen Harper’s Conservative government to thank for sparking a debate over the mandatory longform census that morphed into a legendary skirmish in the culture war.

With the Tories gone, the agency has a whole new swagger after the Liberals were elected partly by fetishizing the mandatory census.

Its work is vital for crafting “good policies, based on good evidence and good quality data,” as the minister

IT HAS DEVELOPED A PLAN TO AMASS MORE AUTHORITY THAN EVER BEFORE.

in charge, Navdeep Bains, said when announcing that his government would again threaten jail and fines to any census resisters.

Now Statistics Canada is seizing its moment. It has developed a plan to amass more independence and authority than ever before, having presented a plan for changes to the law that would make answering all its surveys, not just the long-form census, mandatory. It wants the power to force companies to hand over private data, including Internet search and creditcard transaction records. Companies, and even other levels of government, would be compelled to give Statistics Canada any information it deems important, with fines for any “unreasonable impositions” that “restrict the flow of information for statistical purposes.”

In the discussion paper, which the agency strategically leaked to The Canadian Press, Statistics Canada seeks to free itself from government control over how it collects its data, with a whole new list of powers it wants the government to give the chief statistician to free the agency from political influence.

It even wants its own computer infrastructure, because being on the centralized system the rest of the federal bureaucracy uses gives tech staff “an effective veto” on its work, by not providing tech support. Statistics Canada would prefer not to answer to anyone, including the guys in IT.

The agency’s sudden, shrewd power grab should hardly come as a surprise. It’s been clear for some time that the reinstatement of the mandatory long-form census — and with it, the critical role of Statistics Canada — had become a symbol of enlightened thinking for those who believe in the benevolence of the evidencegathering state.

As the census began landing in mailboxes in May, with its conspicuous warning on the envelope that completing it was again “the law,” liberal-minded Canadians euphorically tweeted photos of themselves dutifully writing in their personal information for government use.

The Globe and Mail editorial board said it was “disappointed” it didn’t get the long-form version. Statistics Canada announced that the response on the first day was so overwhelming its website broke.

The language the agency now uses to describe its mission achieves near-Trumpian levels of self-regard. In the discussion paper, it calls itself “a key institution in the democratic process (that) informs the electorate of the state of the nation aiding citizens in choosing their governments, and in holding those governments to account.” Its important work “underlies meaningful public policy debate.” It must be “trusted.” It must remain “free of bias.” This is why it must be left to do its work, without any interference from less virtuous corners of government.

Who knows whether even Statistics Canada really believes its own blarney, but in reality not everyone sees its data-gathering operations as quite so vital to preserving our democratic integrity. Despite the media and academic consensus opposing the Tories’ census changes, surveys showed Canadians as divided as possible over the move, with an almost 50-50 split “right down the middle … old against young, parents against non-parents, regions against each other … divisive among almost every line” as Ipsos Reid pollster Sean Simpson marvelled during the height of the debate.

Statistics Canada is actually asking now to remove the threat of prison against census dissenters, leaving only fines, obviously recognizing that such a draconian punishment only added to the polarization. But by pursuing even more power now, with more surveys demanded by coercion, and more data extracted by threat of penalty, it is tacitly acknowledging that this moment of political sympathy cannot last. Not every government will nod along with its bumptious self-praise. Perhaps not even this one.

And why should it? Statistics Canada does important work. But it is hardly the paragon of integrity it claims to be. It is not free of bias; no organization is. Anyone who’s spent time digesting its reports will notice a tendency toward bigger, more liberal government priorities. Great resources are deployed to measure income inequality, outcomes for immigrants, universal health-care performance, and gender pay gaps. It’s been well noted its statistics on abortion are patchy and sparse. In the discussion paper, made public Tuesday, it talks of needing more power to analyze “increasingly pressing environmental issues.”

Plus, it apparently lies. When Statistics Canada tweeted May 3 Canadians were responding to the census in “such high numbers” its website was “overwhelmed by the enthusiasm” and crashed — making headlines across Canada — this wasn’t true. The CBC later found out through access to information documents that computer traffic was lower than expected, and the crash was the result of design flaws. Perhaps the delirium over being able to once again force us to cough up our information was intoxicating. A lot seems to be going to Statistics Canada’s head, lately. Maybe broad new sweeping, retributive powers shouldn’t be next.

THE AGENCY’S SUDDEN POWER GRAB SHOULD HARDLY COME AS A SURPRISE.