There is controversy over Statistics Canada’s plan to obtain personal banking records - exposing a growing concern over the reliability of the data currently produced by Canada’s statistics agency.

Former chief statistician Ivan Fellegi, who led Statistics Canada for 22 years until he retired in 2008, shares some concerns over the data. He tells the Globe and Mail there is less than 40% response rate. "When 60 per cent of the population [asked] doesn’t respond, the data is likely to be very biased, unacceptably biased. So something needed to be done and [obtaining banking records] is the only viable alternative in sight, but the rollout didn’t really … explain properly to Canadians why we are into what is definitely a violation of privacy.”

Read the article here: Controversy over Statscan’s plan to obtain personal banking records exposes problems with current data