Anil Arora is a Canadian former

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

who served as the 12th Chief Statistician of Canada from September 19, 2016 to March 31, 2024. Prior to his role as Chief Statistician, Arora served as Assistant Deputy Minister for

Natural Resources Canada Natural Resources Canada (NRCan; ; )Natural Resources Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Natural Resources (). is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for natural r ...

and

Health Canada Health Canada (HC; )Health Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Health (). is the Structure of the Canadian federal government#Departments, with subsidiary units, department of the Gove ...

. He is also a public speaker, and has presented at conferences domestically and internationally.

Early life

Arora was born in

Dehradun Dehradun (), also known as Dehra Doon, is the winter capital and the List of cities in Uttarakhand by population, most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Dehradun district, d ...

, India. After his father was offered a job, the family immigrated to Canada, settling in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, Alberta. He graduated from the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

in 1985, and then worked in the

petroleum industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry, includes the global processes of hydrocarbon exploration, exploration, extraction of petroleum, extraction, oil refinery, refining, Petroleum transport, transportation (often by oil tankers ...

, doing further studies in management and computer sciences. He joined Statistics Canada's regional operations in late 1988 and moved to

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

in 1997.

Career

Arora began his career with

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

in Edmonton in 1988, where he looked after the

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...

and supervised

data entry Data entry is the process of digitizing data by entering it into a computer system for organization and management purposes. It is a person-based process and is "one of the important basic" tasks needed when no machine-readable version of the in ...

and clerical operations. He moved through the ranks working in regional operations, including

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

operations, corporate services, and the introduction of computer-assisted interviewing. After moving to Ottawa, he oversaw the redesign of CANSIM, a multi-dimensional time-series database. He also contributed to modernizing dissemination at the agency, including the provision of publications on the web and microdata in Canadian universities, and statistical products to support literacy in schools. In 2000, he became director of census management, and subsequently, the director general responsible for the research functions of the 2001 census and the entirety of the 2006 census. In 2005, Arora and his team were recognized by the GTEC Distinction Awards for their joint pilot project with

Public Works and Government Services Canada Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC; ),''Public Services and Procurement Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Public Works and Government Services (). formerly Public Works ...

to create Session Encryption with Automated Login (SEAL) technology, which allowed for the census questionnaire to be completed online. SEAL was first introduced in the 2004 Census Test. In 2006, the Data Liberation Initiative awarded Arora and the Census Operations Division the organization's first Exemplary Access Award, in recognition for the division's transformation of census products (maps, tables and reference materials) into electronic products. In 2008, he became the Assistant Chief Statistician of the Social, Health and Labour Statistics division, where he focused on redesigning the household surveys program. In 2009, Arora was awarded the Association of Professional Executives (APEX) Leadership Award. The same year, he completed the Public Sector Leadership and Governance

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at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

. He remained in the post of Assistant Chief Statistician at Statistics Canada until 2010, when he became the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Minerals and Metals Sector at

, and for over a year simultaneously led the Corporate Sector as Assistant Deputy Minister. In 2013, he was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister of Science and Policy Integration. In 2014, Arora moved into the role of Assistant Deputy Minister for

. He also served as the

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of the International Coalition for Medicines Regulatory Authority from 2014 to 2016, as well as chair of the Community of Federal Regulators.

Chief Statistician of Canada

Arora was appointed Chief Statistician of Canada in September 2016. He also oversaw Statistics Canada's shift towards user-centric service delivery, the use of administrative data, the AgZero project, and the virtual Data Lab. He played a significant role in implementing

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

. Arora led the implementation of the Disaggregated Data Action Plan, an approach aiming to produce more detailed statistical information for specific population groups, including women, LGBTQ2+, Indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities. He also oversaw the creation of the Quality of Life Hub. In addition, a partnership with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce was established to develop the Business Data Lab under Arora's term. The Census of Environment was also initiated under his leadership, in partnership with

Environment and Climate Change Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; )Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment (). is the department of the Government of Canada res ...

. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, with increasing demand for data from Statistics Canada, Arora helped the agency assist governing health agencies with

contact tracing In public health, contact tracing is the process of identifying people who may have been exposed to an infected person ("contacts") and subsequent collection of further data to assess transmission. By tracing the contacts of infected individua ...

across the country, and led the implementation of the 2021 census when it had to go contactless due to pandemic protocols. The previous Chief Statistician, Wayne Smith, had stepped down to protest changes in Statistics Canada's informatics infrastructure stemming from the Shared Services Canada initiative, which he feared could compromise the agency's independence. During Arora's tenure, the '' Statistics Act'' saw modifications to increase the independence of the agency and create the Canadian Statistics Advisory Council. Arora chaired the

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Committee on Statistics and Statistical Policy (CSSP) from 2022 to 2023 and was vie-chair starting in 2017 of the Conference of European Statisticians. He also served as the vice-chair of the United Nations Statistical Commission from 2019 to 2021 and chaired the United Nations Future of Economic Statistics Group. In 2018, he became chair of the High-Level Group on the Modernization of Official Statistics, as well as the International Conference of Labour Statisticians for the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

. He has consulted with the OECD,

Eurostat Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...

, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

, and the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...

. Arora has served on the boards of the Institute on Governance as well as the Labour Market Information Council, and as an advisor to a number of institutions, including

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

’s Institute for Data Science. He has chaired and co-chaired initiatives including the Data Governance Standardization Collaborative and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Governance Standardization Collaborative. Arora also co-authored the Data Strategy for the Federal Public Service. Arora has presented conferences both domestically and internationally, including the ISI World Statistics Congress, Empire Club of Canada, Canadian Club Toronto, Metropolis Canada Conference, Safety of Our Cities Conference, International Association of Privacy Professionals Canada Privacy Symposium, Government of Canada data conferences, and

Cabinet of Canada The Canadian Ministry (Canadian French, French: ''Conseil des ministres''), colloquially referred to as the Cabinet of Canada (), is a body of Minister of the Crown, ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the t ...

meetings. In 2023, he delivered the Canada School of Public Service's Manion Lecture at the

National Arts Centre The National Arts Centre (NAC) () is a Arts centre, performing arts organization in Ottawa, Ontario, along the Rideau Canal. It is based in the eponymous National Arts Centre (building), National Arts Centre building. History The NAC was one ...

in Ottawa. He has delivered guest lectures at universities and colleges including

Queen's University at Kingston Queen's University at Kingston, commonly known as Queen's University or simply Queen's, is a public university, public research university in Kingston, Ontario, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Queen's holds more than of land throughout Ontario and ...

, the

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

, Nunavut Arctic College, the

University of Saskatchewan The University of Saskatchewan (U of S, or USask) is a Universities in Canada, Canadian public university, public research university, founded on March 19, 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatch ...

, and the

. On June 14, 2023, Arora was reappointed as Chief Statistician until March 31, 2024.

Selected publications

*
Canadian Identity–Past, present and future
" ''Canadian Issues'' (2023): 2–7. With Maire Sinha and Sharanjit Uppal. *
Now more than ever, the world needs data stewards
" ''Centre for International Governance Innovation'' (October 1, 2020). With Rohinton P. Medhora. *

" ''Statistics Canada'' (June 2018). . * �
Statistics Canada – Census on the Net
” ''Statistical Journal of the UN Economic Commission for Europe'' 23, no. 1 (July 12, 2006): 11–22. With Graeme Gilmour. . *
2006 Census of Canada: Strategic direction and issues
" ''Statistics Canada International Symposium Series - Proceedings'' (2003).

References

General references

*
Anil Arora
. ''Prime Minister of Canada''. 2016-09-16. * Schwartz, Zane.
Measuring Canada: In conversation with Canada's chief statistician, Anil Arora
. ''The Logic''. 2018-11-05. * Hemmadi, Murad.
Measuring the pandemic: How Statistics Canada kept the data flowing amid COVID-19
. ''The Logic''. 2020-09-11. {{DEFAULTSORT:Arora, Anil Canadian statisticians Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Alberta alumni Canadian federal civil servants Statistics Canada