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Section I: Overview

Minister's Message

I am pleased to present Statistics Canada's Departmental Performance Report for 2006–07.

My goal as Minister of Industry, and one of the top priorities of Canada's New Government, is to ensure we maintain a strong economic environment — one that allows Canadians to prosper in the global economy. We are seeing great changes in the international marketplace. New trade agreements, rapidly advancing technologies and the emergence of developing countries are all contributing to today's business environment. Canada needs to keep pace.

Part of my mandate is to help make Canadians more productive and competitive. We want our industries to continue to thrive and all Canadians to continue to enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world.

For this to happen, the government is committed to maintaining a fair, efficient and competitive marketplace — one that encourages investment, sets the stage for greater productivity, and facilitates innovation. We are relying on market forces to a greater extent, regulating only when it is absolutely necessary. Our policies have helped turn research into new products and business processes. In addition, we are making efforts to increase awareness of sustainability practices among Canadian industry, emphasizing the social, environmental and economic benefits they bring.

The Department and the Industry Portfolio have made progress on a wide range of issues this past year, most notably in the areas of telecommunications, science and practical research, manufacturing, small business, consumer protection, patents and copyrights, tourism and economic development.

The Industry Portfolio is composed of Industry Canada and 10 other agencies, Crown corporations and quasi-judicial bodies. These organizations collectively advance Canada's industrial, scientific and economic development, and help ensure that we remain competitive in the global marketplace.

We have accomplished much this year. Using Advantage Canada — the government's long-term economic plan — as our roadmap, we have made great strides toward many of our most important goals. We will continue to focus on these goals to support the conditions for a strong economy — an environment that Canadians expect and deserve.

Jim Prentice
Minister of Industry

Management Representation Statement

Summary Information

Statistics Canada (STC)

Reason for existence - Statistics Canada's mandate is to provide Canadians with objective and non-partisan statistics and statistical products, services and analyses on Canada's economy and society which are relevant, responsive to emerging issues, fulfill legal requirements and are of high quality.

Summary of Performance in Relationship to Departmental Strategic Outcomes, Priorities and Commitments

Strategic Outcomes

Provide Canadians with objective and non-partisan statistics and statistical products, services and analyses on Canada's economy and society which are relevant, responsive to emerging issues, fulfill legal requirements and are of high quality.

Overall Departmental Performance

Mandate, Roles and Responsibilities

Statistics Canada's mandate derives primarily from the Statistics Act. The Act requires the Department, under the direction of the Minister of Industry, to collect, compile, analyze and publish statistical information on the economic, social and general conditions of the country and its citizens. These activities are fundamentally important to an open, democratic society as they provide objective information to Canadians and their elected representatives on the evolution of our society and economy. The Department's information resources are also used by businesses, unions and non-profit organizations to make informed decisions.

Statistics Canada's mandate also provides for the coordination and leadership of the country's statistical system. This has led Statistics Canada to form many partnerships at the federal, provincial and territorial levels. These partnerships have benefited Canadians in many ways: improved data quality through more comparable survey methods; reduced response burden through the use of administrative records and data sharing; and the exchange of best practices among all participants are just a few examples.

The census and statistics are recognized in the Constitution Act, 1867 as an area of federal jurisdiction. The statistics produced by the Department are used for a wide variety of statutory and regulatory purposes, including the distribution of federal funds to provinces (Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act); apportioning federal-provincial tax revenues (Harmonized Sales Tax); indexing various types of federal payments to beneficiaries and income tax credits (Income Tax Act); determining areas of eligibility for supplementary benefits (Employment Insurance Act); determining the distribution of parliamentary seats among provinces and defining federal electoral districts (Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act); designating federal bilingual services areas (Official Languages Act); and measuring the size of sub-populations that are the focus of the federal employment equity program (Employment Equity Act). A complete list of the federal acts that depend on specific information collected or provided by the Department is presented in Section IV of this document.

Organization

The Minister of Industry is the Minister responsible to Parliament for Statistics Canada. The Department is headed by the Chief Statistician of Canada who is supported by seven Assistant Chief Statisticians (ACSs): four are responsible for statistical program areas and three for technical and management services in support of the statistical programs. Table 1 on the following page provides an overview of the organization and resources allocated by program activity.

The statistics produced by Statistics Canada constitute a pivotal element in informing national policy formulation. A large portion of Statistics Canada's program of activities is devoted to meeting the needs of federal, provincial and territorial government policy departments, and providing on-going measurement of Canadian socio-economic dynamics and emerging trends in support of the Government's agenda for transparent, accountable and evidence-based program management.

In addition to the functional organizational structure as presented above, Statistics Canada manages its statistical programs employing a matrix structure to govern the way it plans its operations, and allocates and manages its resources. For example, for a given statistical program, the lead program area will call upon the specialized service areas for expertise in survey methodology, systems developments, survey collection and processing, etc. This matrix structure has enabled Statistics Canada to consolidate its infrastructure functions to achieve efficiencies, to increase flexibility, and to maintain centres of technical expertise. Financial resources are managed both from a statistical program viewpoint as well as from a service area (functional) viewpoint. The Department also uses ad hoc project teams to creatively solve technical or program challenges. These project teams are multi-disciplinary and cut across program and organizational lines.

Partnerships

Partnerships and cost-sharing arrangements with other departments, other jurisdictions and external organizations, have been an intrinsic aspect of program delivery since the eighties. These relationships are essential to the development of effective business plans. Statistics Canada has continued to foster these arrangements over the reporting period, as they have proven to serve not only the needs of the stakeholders but also those of the national statistical system and the Canadian research community. Selected partnership initiatives include:

• The Department provides provincial and territorial statistical focal points with a wide array of information products to serve the statistical information needs of their respective administrations.

• In the area of health statistics, Statistics Canada's priorities are developed in conjunction with Health Canada, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Conference of Deputy Ministers of Health Advisory Committee on Governance and Accountability, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and other related organizations.

• The Canadian Education Statistics Council is a joint management body consisting of members from Statistics Canada and the Council of Ministers of Education. The council, comprising the Chief Statistician and provincial/territorial deputy ministers of education, provides advice to the Chief Statistician on the Department's Education Statistics Program.

• The Justice Information Council comprises the Chief Statistician and the federal and provincial deputy ministers responsible for justice policies and programs. The council provides advice to the Chief Statistician on the justice statistics program at the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics within Statistics Canada.

Public Commitments and Values

Statistics Canada's values

The Department recognizes that the goodwill of survey respondents is one of Statistics Canada's most valuable assets, since it is the continued cooperation of Canadians that enables the Department to turn survey results into reliable information. We make two fundamental commitments to them: First, to protect the confidentiality of information provided to us. Second, to find innovative ways to reduce the time spent completing the surveys and to use existing information whenever possible to minimize the number of surveys. Indeed, a declining trend in response burden is presented in Section IV of this document, Other Items of Interest.

Operating Environment and Challenges

Close to 95% of Statistics Canada's entire budget is allocated to statistical programs that support statutory requirements, regulatory instruments and contractual obligations. To shape priorities beyond those identified in the heading "Partnerships", the Department seeks guidance from stakeholders, chief of which is the National Statistics Council. A network of advisory committees in major statistical areas also helps to ensure that program outputs are relevant. A risk based planning system is in place to balance the many and often conflicting priorities and to monitor the progress of approved initiatives. The Department's planning and performance monitoring system maintains the effectiveness of its statistical programs by linking strategic and operational plans and program performance to the resource allocations made and the results to be achieved. Priorities are defined as those programs and technical or management areas most in need of attention over the planning period.

In 2006-2007, a number of initiatives were considered as priorities in the Department: the 2006 Censuses of Population and Agriculture; the Health Statistics Program; the Environmental Statistics Program.  In this report, Section II, Analysis of Performance by Strategic Outcome, provides a description of results obtained for departmental priorities and other important initiatives. The information is presented using the Department's Quality Assurance Framework and Strategic Outcomes as presented in the 2006-2007 Report on Plans and Priorities.

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