Unappreciated

Yes, it's utterly ridiculous for Tony Clement to pretend that after trashing the place over the past year, a form letter of appreciation for World Statistics Day should make everything right with Statistics Canada. But the gap between Clement's words and the Cons' actions is even more obvious when one looks past the long-form census debacle alone.

Here's the Cons' sad excuse for a morale-booster:

In celebration of World Statistics Day, the agency offered free coffee to employees on their way into work, and this afternoon Smith will give an address, along with an expert panel that will offer views on "the importance of official statistics in a democratic society."

And here's what they're actually doing at Statscan, as revealed just a week ago:

Statistics Canada, already reeling from the long-form census debacle, is chopping at least five surveys after being ordered to find $7 million in savings.
...
Chopping the five surveys is expected to trim some $4 million, while cutting the amount of analysis is worth another $1.5 million.

Combining the cuts with the costs of the census fiasco, the end result is that the Cons have declared that they're willing to pay $24 million extra to degrade the data quality of the census and eliminate official data collection on health, environmental and business issues. So it should be perfectly clear what the Cons actually think of the importance of official statistics - no matter how much free coffee they hand out.