The Canadian Press
OTTAWA—An $18-million project to make it easier to sort through reams of data from the coming census has been beset by delays and uncertainty that the three-year project will be done on time.
Called the “new dissemination model,” the project is designed to make it easier for visitors to the Statistics Canada website to organize, read, and play with the data collected—be it census or jobs data, or anything else the agency measures.
The end idea is to create a more interactive experience online instead of pages of static data tables, and also to simplify and standardize how information is presented.
It all was supposed to be ready in time for February, 2017, when Statistics Canada releases its findings from this year’s census.
Statistics Canada and Shared Services Canada, the government’s central information-technology department that is building the new system, said the project has been delayed, but couldn’t say by how long or if it still could be completed on time.
Shared Services Canada said it has faced “a number of challenges” hosting the new system in its data centres that it is trying to address.
Internal government documents show there was a “final go/no-go” test on the system in December.
Statistics Canada hasn’t made a decision on the project following the test, the details of which neither agency would disclose, and is “currently analyzing the impact of the delay” to see what the next step will be.
