Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are a number of reasons for the difficulties in getting data from authorities. One reason is capacity. Sometimes authorities are challenged with staff
vacancies and turnover. Another reason, as I have mentioned, is that authorities are using different information systems. They have different financial systems. They have different risk management systems. So when we try to roll out data on a territorial basis, we get lots of information but quite often the information is apples and oranges: it’s not comparable, we can’t use it to analyze trends, so it becomes like reams of useless information.
I talked about the back office. One of the priorities that was identified in the back office is for information management and information systems. Part of that is because we recognize that we can’t do proper trend analysis without getting everybody on common systems, using the same systems, the same definitions.
Another thing we are doing to try to respond to that is the accountability framework that we talked about in the House last week where we will come up with an agreement that everybody measures the same things and reports on them in the same way. We are putting some steps in place to try to address this deficiency. Thank you.
