Anil Arora appointed chief statistician at StatsCan

Statistics Canada has a new chief statistician, an appointment that fills a vacancy created when Wayne Smith resigned in protest over what he said was the federal government's failure to protect the agency's independence.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday the appointment of Anil Arora, who works as assistant deputy minister, Health Products and Food Branch, at Health Canada.

• Chief statistician resigns over government's failure to 'protect the independence' of StatsCan

Arora will step into the new role on Sept. 19.

In an email to colleagues sent on Friday, Smith said he could not support the decision to hand over control of StatCan's informatics infrastructure to another agency known as Shared Services Canada, which oversees information technology across government departments.

• StatsCan cites IT agency providing "lower quality services"
• Minister convinced troubles with Shared Services will end

He said Statistics Canada is "increasingly hobbled in the delivery of its programs through disruptive, ineffective, slow and unaffordable supply" of technology services.

Smith said the integration compromises Statistics Canada's ability to protect Canadians' confidential information.