ARCHIVED - RPP 2006-2007
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SECTION II: ANALYSIS OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES BY STRATEGIC OUTCOME

The following section presents plans and key outcomes for projects listed as departmental planning priorities in the Summary Information table 1.1 on the previous page.

Priorities over the Planning Period

Economic Statistics Activity

Resource Requirements	2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$ thousands	217,879	213,640	214,851
FTE	2,281	2,279	2,260

Customs Border Modernization Initiatives

On October 3, 2005, Treasury Board approved funding for the Program Support and Systems Maintenance related to Customs Border Modernization Initiatives.

Through this multi-year and multi-task project, the tourism statistical system will be adapted to border modernization changes introduced by the Custom Border Services Agency (CBSA).

In addition, the traveler enumeration card (E311) will be redesigned from a family card to a single person card that is easier to scan. The resulting Census of cards will reduce processing costs and increase statistical quality. The redesigned E311 card is at the approval stage across departments.

Planned activities: The negotiations of our statistical requirements for the new stream of NEXUS traveler, that is those travelers who have been identified as frequent travelers, will be completed this year and system changes will begin in 2006/2007.

Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators

In 2004, the Government of Canada committed to establishing national indicators of freshwater quality for aquatic life, air quality and greenhouse gas emissions. The goal of these new indicators is to provide Canadians with more regular and reliable information on the state of the environment and how it is linked with human activities. Environment Canada, Statistics Canada and Health Canada are working together to develop and communicate these indicators. Reflecting the joint responsibility for environmental information management in Canada, this effort has benefited from the co-operation and input of the provinces and territories.

The first annual report was released in December 2005 and included all three indicators. The air quality indicator presented in the report focused on human exposure to ground-level ozone, a key component of smog. This indicator will be complemented by a measure of fine particulate matter in future reports. The greenhouse gas emissions indicator described changes in emissions since 1990. In 2005, the preliminary water quality indicator focused only on the ability of Canada's surface waters to support aquatic life over the period 2001 to 2003. Revisions and improvements to the water indicator for future reports will require a better understanding of how well the monitoring sites represent the quality of water bodies or watersheds in which they are located and how they relate to all the rivers and lakes in Canada.

Planned activities: Reports will be produced annually on a continually improving set of indicators with increasingly robust analyses to track the changes in the three areas. Statistics Canada's contributions to the improvements will include new contextual survey results for both water quality and air quality and improved data management and analytical methods. The long-term goal is better information in support of decision-making that fully accounts for environmental sustainability.

Business Register (BR) redesign

The Business Register is a central repository containing the name of all businesses with significant activity in Canada, together with contact and classification information. It is a key component of Statistics Canada's economic statistics program. The majority of our economic surveys rely on the Business Register to carry out their operations, particularly for sampling, data collection and the production of estimates.

The Register's overall structure and technological environment were originally established some two decades ago. To ensure the Register's ongoing capacity to fulfill its mission in the years to come, it must be completely reengineered. This initiative is a large-scale project that began in 2005-2006 and will continue over a three-year period. The primary objectives of this project are to simplify the concepts and operational processes, to streamline and facilitate the use of the Register through the utilisation of more modern, user-friendly technology, and to enhance the timeliness of the information included in the Register. This modernization will help reduce the operating cost of the Business Register and increase Statistics Canada's capacity to reduce and effectively manage the business response burden, a key departmental priority.

Planned activities: In 2006/2007, all the components and modules required for the operations of the new Business Register will be ready to undergo initial testing to ensure operational functionality by 2008. In addition, work related to the transition and integration of surveys to the new Register will be initiated to take full advantage of the redesigned Register.

Services Price Index Development

Services are about two-third of the Canadian economy. Business services are almost 40% of gross domestic product compared to about 17% for government services and 11% for personal services. Despite their importance, price indexes for the business services sector are a significant gap in the Canadian economic statistical system. This gap seriously affects the quality of real output and productivity change estimates for this sector.

Over a five year period, the Agency aims to develop services price index programs for approximately 30 business services categories accounting for about 80% of business services value added. In the 2005/2006 fiscal year, work focused on research, development and testing of price index methods for four major business services categories; specifically wholesaling, truck transportation, non-residential rents and property/casualty insurance services. Preliminary research was also conducted for three other services categories: brokerage and wealth management financial services, machinery and equipment rents, and retailing.

Planned activities: In 2006-2007, initial development will be completed for four major services categories resulting in regular quarterly release of national price indexes (with geographic detail for some services categories when possible) by the end of the year. Research, development and testing is expected to be initiated for gaps related to telecommunications services, professional and technical services, administrative services and passenger air transportation.

Social Statistics Activity

Resource Requirements	2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$ thousands	218,316	216,524	216,959
FTE	1,636	1,641	1,646

Child-Centered Family Law Strategy

In 2003/2004, the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS) received funding as part of Justice Canada's "Child-Centered Family Law Strategy" to undertake the development and implementation of a micro-data version of its Maintenance Enforcement Survey (since renamed the Survey of Maintenance Enforcement Programs) and to develop and implement a Civil Court Survey, a brand new survey area. Since that time, the CCJS has developed survey specifications (through federal-provincial-territorial consultations) and designed central processing systems for both of these administrative data surveys.

Planned activities: In 2006-07, the CCJS plans to continue implementation of both surveys in two or three jurisdictions. As well, the Centre will begin to develop multivariate output tables for each survey, in consultation with its federal-provincial-territorial partners. In advance of the first public release of data in 2007-08, a prototype report will be drafted for the Civil Court Survey as a means of consulting with survey respondents and to maximize the utility of the information.

Health Statistics

The Canadian Health Information Roadmap is a collection of projects designed to produce new, timely and relevant information on the health of Canadians. This information is central to the relatively intense public discussion and policy formulation related to Canadians' health and to our health care system. Statistics Canada, in partnership with several organizations, has developed and produced critical information on issues such as wait times for diagnostic and surgical procedures, unmet health care needs and problems accessing health care.

The Canadian Community Health Survey program (CCHS), in its 6th year of existence, is being adapted to better respond to the increased demand for population health information. The survey's sample design is being modified starting with the 2007 cycle to allow a faster response to emerging information needs and the questionnaire structure is being modified to include additional high priority content. The survey's data dissemination approach is also being adapted to better meet the needs of stakeholders.

Statistics Canada is negotiating increased access to provincial health-related administrative records to improve its analytical program. This additional information, once combined with the information obtained from the health surveys will provide a richer set of data and help shed some light on various issues related to population health and the use of the health care system. This is part of the Health Person Oriented Information initiative (HPOI) created under the Health Roadmap.

Data collection for the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) is planned to start in November 2006. Blood, urine and fitness measures will be collected and analyzed for a sample of 5,000 Canadians over the next two years.

Planned activities: In 2006-2007, the changes to the CCHS program will be implemented. New analytical projects will be initiated under the HPOI project. Data collection for the CHMS will start in late 2006.

Census Statistics Activity

Resource Requirements	2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$ thousands	295,048	97,424	63,017
FTE	2,325	1,183	914

2006 Census of Population

The 2006 Census is the Census which represents the most change since 1971 when self-enumeration was introduced. In May 2006 70% of Census questionnaires were delivered by Canada Post rather than through Census enumerator staff. Canadians had the choice of completing their Census questionnaires online, by mail or over the telephone with a Census Help Line Operator. Census forms now go back to a central processing centre instead of the local enumerator for review and editing. New processing systems have added increased protection to Canadians' confidentiality and scanning has now replaced data entry as the principal means of capturing Census information.

The first field operation, the updating of the national address list, was completed successfully in the fall of 2005. The resulting address files were used to uniquely assemble some 9.5 million questionnaire packages which were delivered by Canada Post. The remaining 3.5 million questionnaire packages have been dropped off, primarily in rural areas, by Census representatives.

Census communications activities are ongoing across the country. The Census communications program relies very heavily on the public communications support provided, without remuneration, by governments, businesses, ethnic and cultural groups and community organizations of all kinds. In fact, more than 1,000 public and private organizations have already agreed to support the Census in 2006 and cumulatively, these supporters will voluntarily make more than 1 billion messages about the Census available to Canadians.

The Field infrastructure includes 36 local Census offices, 4 regional field offices, 3 Census call centres and one central data processing centre. This included the hiring and training of some 27,000 temporary field and operations staff and the bringing into operation the computer systems for collection and processing activities. These systems include, a central pay and recruitment system, data capture systems, automated coding systems and the internet application. Each of the production systems feed a data warehouse which in turn feeds a central management information portal.

All field collection activities associated with the 2006 Census are expected to be complete by September 2006. All questionnaire processing, preliminary data quality and dwelling coverage studies are to be completed in the fall of 2006. The output from these steps is used in preparing for the first 2006 data release, Population and Dwelling counts, scheduled for February, 2007. Also beginning in the fall of 2006 are the coding, editing and imputation processes, which prepare the Census data for subsequent releases.

Despite all the changes to collection and processing methodology, the fundamental value of the Census remains the same. The Census continues to provide critical information needed by community groups, businesses, and governments to develop plans for education and training, seniors' housing, day care, fire protection, public transport and many other programs that are important to Canadians.

While a tremendous amount of effort has been focused in preparing and planning for the Census, there are still a number of challenges which could impact the overall success of the Census. Among these are Canadians' continued support of the Census through their strong participation, the potential impact of strong economic conditions in parts of the country on the availability of a suitable temporary workforce for the Census. Canadians' acceptance of the Internet response channel and the potential impact in the event of a major crisis such as the avian flu. These and other risks continue to be planned for and monitored as we conduct the Census.

Planned activities: In fiscal year 2006-2007 , the 2006 Census of Population is being conducted and includes: the initialization and operation of a number of highly integrated computer systems and databases; the opening of 36 local field offices, 4 Regional Centres, 3 Census Help Lines and 1 central data processing centre; the hiring and training of some 27,000 temporary Census staff; the mailing out of Census questionnaires to some 9.5 million dwellings and the drop off to another approximately 3.5 million dwellings; the data processing of millions of questionnaires, culminating in the release of the official Census dwelling and population counts in February of 2007. Other major Census releases will span from June 2007 with the release of age and sex data to the release of income data in April 2008.

2006 Census of Agriculture

The year 2006/2007 equally marks the conduct of the Census of Agriculture. This Census makes history in a number of ways.

First, it marks a change in how Census information is collected and processed. Although most questionnaires have still been delivered by an enumerator in rural areas, the process for returning them is completely different. Instead of returning the forms to local enumerators, all questionnaires are being returned by mail to a single processing centre in the National Capital Region. Statistics Canada is also offering, for the first time, the option of completing questionnaires securely via the Internet. In addition, any telephone follow-up of incomplete questionnaires is from a centralized location outside the respondent's area. These measures are a direct response to privacy concerns expressed by Canadians, particularly in rural areas, about someone they know having access to their information.

Of course, as has always been the case, all information on Census forms, including financial information, is protected by the Statistics Act and all Census representatives have been sworn to secrecy. This implies that they could be subject to prosecution if they reveal a respondent's personal information.

Second, this Census is also the first time that both the Census of Population and the Census of Agriculture used a technology called Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR). This technology enables questionnaires to be optically scanned and converted to images. The images are sent through an automated data capture system that captures the handwritten answers and transforms them into computer-usable data.

By the end of March 2007, Census of Agriculture data will have been through many quality assurance measures — including several kinds of edits (clerical, subject matter, geographic), matching or eliminating duplications in individual farms, adjusting for missing data, and validation — and the first data release is scheduled for May 16, 2007, one year after Census Day.

The Census of Agriculture's independent pursuit of unpaid advertising support is another innovation for 2006. This activity complements the services provided by a general Census Communications team headed by Census of Population.

Services for Canadians

Statistics Canada must continually strive to ensure that the information it produces is relevant, timely, accurate and coherent. Of equal importance is the need to ensure that the means, by which Canadians communicate with the Agency, as respondents and information users, are as practical and user friendly as possible. The Agency will pursue its initiatives aimed at controlling the burden it places on respondents, by exploring new ways of making use of existing information holdings, and by developing and testing modern methods and technologies to minimize reporting burden.

Website improvement project

Statistics Canada first established its presence on the World Wide Web a decade ago. At that time, our challenge was to move statistical information from the traditional print medium to this new electronic environment and to promote our fledgling website as an alternative mode of access for our users. Today, as the virtual library for all information from and about Statistics Canada, our website has become the Agency's principal dissemination and communication channel. Next year will be the second year of a two-year redesign project.

The Agency's web clientele includes diverse constituencies whose information needs are equally diverse. While the content on our website continues to expand as new information becomes available, the challenge articulated by our clients is to organize and link this growing information store in a manner that facilitates access by the different client groups to the information they seek.

Planned activities: In 2006/2007, Statistics Canada will introduce a redesigned homepage that will effectively communicate the scope of information the Agency has to offer online, an improved search and navigation environment, and common design standards to ensure accessibility and promote a common look across all website modules. From here, we will move forward on strategies to meet client demands for integrated access by subject, interactive thematic mapping and a single client registration system for the different services we offer online, such as e-commerce, subscription notices and information updates.

Statistics Canada's web site (http://www.statcan.ca)

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