A year after jobs data leak, StatCan resumes sharing advance numbers with officials

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OTTAWA — Statistics Canada has resumed its practice of giving key federal officials an advance look at its jobs report ahead of its official release.

The agency says two people each in the Finance Department and Privy Council Office, which aids the prime minister and cabinet, were authorized for a sneak preview of the April jobs number on Friday.

The officials were allowed to access the jobs report through a secure digital portal that tracked when each of them read the online report.

Information was being shared as early as 6:30 a.m. on Friday, a change from the practice up to May 2020, when details were shared early Thursday afternoon with select officials who could then brief ministers after markets closed for the day.

Statistics Canada says in an online notice about the change that it is a pilot project that will run through the summer and will decide afterwards whether to expand to other federal organizations.

One year ago, the agency stopped sharing job numbers in advance with government officials after the April 2020 were leaked to the media before their official release.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2021