Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Data on Racialized Populations Guide

September 15, 2021

Please see the message below about a guide created by a special Ontario Data Community working group consisting of Alex Cooper (Queen's), Moira Davidson (Lakehead), Kevin Manuel (Ryerson) and Rosa Orlandini (York).

 

'Finding data on race, racialized populations, Indigenous populations, and anti-racism in Canada can be a complex process when conducting research. In response, the Ontario Data Community has created an online research guide to aid information professionals and researchers who are looking for data about Indigenous and racialized peoples or groups.'

 

The guide is also mentioned in the Scholars Portal newsletter for September 2021.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Supporting the SPSD/M

June 15, 2022

Question:
I'm currently in the Research Analyst program and I am currently working on a research project. My project is on basic income and I'm hoping to use Statistics Canada's SPSD/M product to simulate a basic income program and see how it would affect low income populations. I've read the user manual and I am still very lost. Do you have any experience with it or do you know if there are additional training materials? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer:
Our user-guide is a comprehensive document which describes all facilities included in our SPSM application. I am providing a roadmap here regarding some important/essential facilities which might be useful for this student’s project.

  1. The SPSM contains rich build-in variables already which can be directly used by our researchers. However, our users are also able to create user-defined variables. For example, based on the description provided in the email, the student might want to create a low-income flag in the SPSM when doing the simulation, and he/she can use the “User-defined Variables” facility to do so. In terms of how to access and use that facility, please see the section called “User-defined Variables Facility” on the user-guide for more details.

  2. There are two default tables created in the SPSM after each simulation (i.e., total expenses in Canada and by province). However, our researchers can also create their own tables based on the purposes of the projects. One of the example which might be relevant to this student’s project is looking at the expenses of this basic income program by people’s demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, age group, and education levels). “User-specified Tabulation facility” is the one to create these additional tables. Please see the section called “Specification of User-defined Tabulations” on the user-guide for more details.

  3. Another useful facility is “Record selection facility” which can facilitate researchers to select a subsample in the SPSM. For instance, if users would like to do the simulation only among a specific group (i.e., people not working), then this is the one to use. Please see the section called “Selection Facility” on the user-guide for more details.

  4. Researchers are also able to output microdata from the SPSM to see how the data or variables look like. Please see the section named “Test output facility” for more details.

  5. Generally speaking, whenever a researcher start a new simulation in the SPSM, he/she need to choose a base year,  variant scenario (can choose both base and variant scenarios if would like to compare the changes due to the policy, please see section called ”variant and base” for more details) in a small pop-up window. Then the researcher will be able to see the SPSM interface and access to those facilities mentioned above. Once the user-defined variables or/and tables are specified,  the researcher can save the simulation and click the “execute” button on the left top to run the simulation. Finally, the default and user-specified tables will been output when the simulation is done.

  6. If the user have also specified the “Test output facility”, then he/she can click “View” on the left top and then “microdata” to output the data.

NOTE: Each detail of the SPSM is not covered here; please feel free to reach out to spsdm@statcan.gc.ca & provide us with specific description of the questions should any come up.

Looking for TV Ratings Data

June 15, 2022

Question:
I have a student looking to get some sort of TV ratings data, and they do not have funds to purchase data from Nielsen ratings. From the conversations we’ve had it sounds like if we can’t get ratings data another popularity ranking would work, but they are wanting to get the most popular TV shows aimed at teens for 1950, 1960, …etc to 2020 which is proving to be difficult. Has anyone encountered any data that might help with this?

Answer:
Unfortunately, television ratings data is not available. Please see the detailed data pertaining to your inquiry available by selecting the following hyperlinks:

Statistical program: Radio and Television Broadcasting Survey (RTBS)
This survey collects financial and operating data for radio, television stations and networks and discretionary and on-demand services.

Information collected by the annual Radio and Television Broadcasting Survey serves the following broad objectives: to measure the financial performance of radio and television broadcasters and the economic contribution of this sector to the Canadian economy. The principal outputs of the survey are revenue, expense and operating statistics at the establishment level (individual radio or television undertaking). The level of detail collected varies with the size (revenues) of the undertaking.

Statistical program: [INACTIVE] Annual Cable Television Survey (ACTS)
This survey collects financial and operating data for statistical measurement and analysis of the broadcast distribution undertakings sector (cable and wireless).

Information collected by the Annual Cable Television Survey serves the following broad objectives: to measure the financial position and performance of broadcast distribution undertakings (cable and wireless) and the economic contribution of this sector to the Canadian economy. The principal outputs of the survey are revenue, expense and operating statistics at the establishment level (individual system). The level of detail collected varies with the size (revenues) of the undertaking.

Statistical program: Survey of Service Industries: Film, Television and Video Production (PROD)
This survey collects the financial and operating data needed to develop national and regional economic policies and programs.


Statistical program: Survey of Service Industries: Film, Television and Video Post-production (POST)
This survey collects the financial and operating data needed to develop national and regional economic policies and programs.


Service Cable Television and Other Program Distribution Services | Catalogue no. 56C0002
This service provides custom tabulations for the Canadian cable and other program distribution industry. For example, this could consist of statistics on revenues, expenses, subscription and employment by region, community size or type of broadcast distribution undertaking. The availability of information is subject to rules of confidentiality.

Price notes: The cost of each custom product is based on the time required to produce it according to the client's requirements. The hourly rate is $81.85.
To view/ manipulate the variables available in a data table:

  • Click on "Add/Remove data"
  • Click on the “ + ” icon next to a checkbox to expand the list of variables (if applicable)
  • Select at least one variable in each tab and click on “Apply” in order to view your customized table

To download the data:

  • Click on “Download”
  • Select one of the three output formats then click on the hyperlink and save the table

 Discover the display and functionality of Statistics Canada data tables: How to use the data tables

Perceptions of Sexual Assault - Data that Covers Undergraduates

May 26, 2022

Question:
A student is looking to see if there are any datasets about rape myths or perceptions surrounding sexual assault held within Canadian Society. There is particular interest in data that covers undergraduates. 

Answer:
I believe the best source of information for your client would be the 2019 Survey on Individual Safety in the Postsecondary Student Population (SISPSP).

From this initiative there have been a number of analytical pieces published.  Specifically:

If ever you would like to conduct your own analyses with the data then you may submit a proposal to access the master data file via Research Data Centres (statcan.gc.ca).

New videos available from the Data Literacy Training Initiative

May 27, 2022

As mentioned in the StatCan Daily on May 24:

“A new suite of training videos from the Data Literacy Training Initiative is now available. It includes topics on FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data principles, data ethics, and confidence intervals.”

Monday, June 6, 2022

Scholars Portal Dataverse is becoming Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository / le dépôt Dataverse canadien

 June 1, 2022


Scholars Portal Dataverse is becoming Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository / le dépôt Dataverse canadien.


This new name is the culmination of a collaborative effort with representatives from the four regional library consortia, the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, and community members (like you!) and reflects the new identity as a national service connecting Canadian researchers.


This change is planned to go live on June 23 at borealisdata.ca.


For full details, please visit the Borealis blog post.

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Statistics on Visible Minorities in Youth and Adult Prison Systems

April 4, 2022


Question:
Is there a means to discover statistics on visible minority populations in adult and youth prison systems?  I am aware that there are statistics in the data portal for people self-identifying as Indigenous, but that’s only one part of the researcher’s question.  The broader scope of “visible minority”, and the narrower subset of “Black” are at the core of his research.

Public-access resources are best, but the researcher may be open to restricted or licensed resources.


Answer:
A quick check of the publications of Correctional Services Canada was completed and your researcher might find the statistics from a couple of these publications to be of interest.  



Examples of research topics & publications
    a) Offender Profiles and Forecasting,
Gottschall, S. (2012) Ethnic Diversity in Canadian Federal Offender Admissions. Research Report, R-263. Ottawa, Ontario:  Correctional Service of Canada.

Admission Profile of Ethnocultural Offenders: Emerging Research Results

    b) Health and mental health
Concurrent Disorders and Substance Abuse Disorders among Visible Minority Offenders

*new data tables on visible minority admissions for adult and youth (for select provinces: NS, ON (adults), AB and BC) were released on April 20, 2022.

Census 2021 PUMF Release Date

February 25, 2022

Question:
Looking back at the 2016 Census (released February 2019), I am quite certain it won’t be until at least 2023, but I thought I’d ask if there is any anticipated time frame, even general such as Fall 2023, for the release of the 2021 Census?

Answer:
The 2021 Census PUMF release date should be August 2023 for the Individuals File PUMF and December 2023 for the Hierarchical File PUMF.

Census Boundary Files

November 15, 2021

Question:
I have a term project which requires us to write a tutorial on free and open source geospatial software and data. My plan is to write it on how to use Python to perform areal interpolation of Canadian census data.

Up to now I’ve been using U of T's Canadian Census Analyser website to download census profile data in a format which is easy to join to the associated census boundary files but, as that website is not publicly available I will need to use data direct from StatCan. I have looked into their Beyond 20/20 formats, as well as their other methods of publishing profile data, but have not figured out any simple workflows for getting it into a format that can then be easily joined to the census boundary files.

I’ve started work on a Python function which will read in a census comprehensive file (for example) and then return a data frame that contains specific variables of interest as columns, and the census geographies as rows - basically something in the same format that the Census Analyser Website spits out. For example, all of the Ottawa-Gatineau census tracts as rows and the modes of commuting as columns.

Writing this function is not the simplest of tasks but I am getting close. I’m just wondering if I’m missing some app or resource that basically mimics the Census Analyser Website’s functionality but which is free and open source. Should I be spending more time trying to figure out how the StatCan Beyond 20/20 browser works or is there another way?

Answer:
There are the Boundary files and there are two types: cartographic and digital. Cartographic boundary files portray the geographic areas using only the major land mass of Canada and its coastal islands. Digital boundary files portray the full extent of the geographic areas, including the coastal water area. The boundary files use the Lambert conformal conic projection. Boundary files using geographic projection (latitude and longitude coordinates) are available upon request.

Also, the 2016 Census Profile is available in IVT format which needs to be read using the Beyond 20/20 Professional Browser. This software is relatively user friendly and allows users to navigate through a large dataset. A set of slides is included, which includes a tutorial on how to use the tool.

Portage Website Update

April 6, 2022

As part of the integration of RDM into the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, Portage is very pleased to have launched a new website that integrates all services, including research data management, advanced research computing and research software. With the launch of this new site, portagenetwork.ca will no longer be maintained, and research data management information is now available at https://alliancecan.ca/services/research-data-management.

Portage will put redirects in place to help facilitate navigation and allow website visitors to update their bookmarks. The old website will be shut down in the fall, and it has been archived by UBC here. Many thanks to our colleagues at UBC for this work!  

If you have any questions, please contact communications@alliancecan.ca.

Saturday, February 26, 2022

Canadian Census Data Discovery Partnership Announcement

 August 26, 2021

The Canadian Census Data Discovery Partnership is pleased to announce that it is the recipient of a SSHRC grant (2021-2023) to drive a pan-Canadian research project that will improve research conditions and open access for Canada’s national historical data. The project will capitalize on past efforts in this area, completing a historical census inventory begun in 2020-2021, and it will envision how to design a bilingual census discovery portal that supports interoperable searching across Canada’s existing historical census information sources, whether that information is qualitative, quantitative, or spatial. Over the course of this two year research project, we will hold stakeholder consultations and deliver a proof-of-concept discovery portal. A further value of the project will be recommendations about leveraging our project findings to improve usability and long-term preservation of Canadian census data to ensure that researchers can seamlessly describe and analyze national historical data across censuses, places and communities.

 

The project has a bilingual website (https://cddp-pddr.ca/) where you can learn more about the project (https://cddp-pddr.ca/en/about/) and our team (https://cddp-pddr.ca/en/contact/).

Real Time Remote Access (RTRA): The SAS Assistant

June 24, 2021

Information on a key component of RTRA the RTRA SAS Assistant.


The SAS Assistant will help users with little SAS experience to generate successful tables. You will be able to use buttons and dropdown menus to build your SAS code. Your code being created as you select the variables. When you are finished, you will download your code and submit it through your EFT account. Unsuccessful submissions should be greatly reduced, as everything built through the SAS Assistant will be compatible with the tabulation tool. The SAS Assistant was built using documentation for each individual survey cycle.

 

NOTE: The SAS Assistant does not contain all available RTRA datasets.  New files are being added.

 You will find documentation located on our RTRA GCCollab webpage.

 

Please direct any SAS Assistant related questions to the RTRA mailbox:

statcan.dadrtra-dadadtr.statcan@canada.ca


Wednesday, February 16, 2022

CCHS 2019-2020 PUMF

June 16, 2021

Question:

A researcher has inquired if there an estimated release date for a CCHS 2019-2020 PUMF? I know data collection was delayed in 2020 so recognize the file’s release would likely be later than typical, but it would be great to give an estimate to the researcher.


The researcher would also like to know the following in order to determine if the 2019-2020 PUMF will be useful to them (when it is released):

 

Our project will focus on the question “Thinking of the most recent time you felt this way, why didn’t you get care?- Transportation issue”. The variable code for the question is UCN_010J. Will this variable be included on the 2019-2020 PUMF, specifically with data for Ontario?

 

We can see from the questionnaires on Statcan’s website that the question was asked in both 2019 & 2020, but is it possible to confirm whether the variable will indeed be included on the PUMF for 2019-20? The 2017-18 PUMF only included data for certain provinces for this question, and we aren’t certain of the reason for that, or if it is safe to assume Ontario data will be included again.



Answer:

The CCHS questions are organized into thematic groups called ‘modules’ which are included either in all provinces and territories on an annual basis (core content such as smoking, height weight, general health, etc.. ), in all areas for certain years (theme content such as food security, mental health care needs, suicidal thoughts, etc..), or else are included in certain provinces/territories based on a selection by the relevant ministry of health as part of the ‘optional content’ selection process.  This process gives the ministries of health (and whatever extended consultation they do) the option to select up to 8 minutes of content from a bank of existing modules based on their particular data needs. The UCN content has only been offered as optional content in the past several years (2015 to 2020) with the last year being included as theme content being in 2014.

 

For the 2019-2020 PUMF, we only include content in a particular province/territory if the data was collected in both years in that area. For the case of UCN, here is the selection by province (O designating that it was selected and asked). The UCN variables will be included with valid answers for those provinces on the PUMF. I’m not listing the territories, even though the content was asked in Nunavut in both years. This is because we are not yet sure we’ll be able to include the territories on the next PUMF. The pandemic halted our collection from March to August 2020 and we only collected a limited sample from September to December with a very low response rate in Iqaluit (and the other capitals) only. With the lack of coverage of the full territory, at best we may be able to include the territorial capitals on the PUMF, but at worst, due to disclosure risk, the 2019-2020 CCHS PUMF will cover provinces only.  Work on the PUMF will begin soon with an expected release of sometime mid-fall (though this may be subject to change – things are very busy with data production for pandemic related data right now).



New Dataverse and Research Data Repositories Training Modules

June 21, 2021

Portage has published several new online modules to help researchers and other stakeholders navigate the world of research data repositories.


Dataverse 101: Module 1 is the first of a planned series of modules on the Dataverse repository platform. This module helps users learn about the purpose, importance, and benefits of sharing research data, and gives an overview of the Dataverse platform and its key features. It also discusses the benefits of using Dataverse repositories, and presents scenarios in which users might deposit their data in a Dataverse repository. Finally, the module outlines some situations in which a Dataverse repository might not be a suitable option, and gives an opportunity for users to test their knowledge.


The Research Data Repositories 101 series of modules will help users learn about the role that research data repositories play in good research data management (RDM), and in meeting the requirements of the Tri-Agency RDM Policy. These modules will help researchers learn about different types of research data repositories, policies and practices that affect these repositories, and what they should consider when choosing a repository in which to deposit their data. There are seven modules in this series:



These resources were developed through the hard work of Portage’s Dataverse North Working Group on Training, and the Data Repositories 101 Working Group of Portage’s National Training Expert Group. The modules are graciously hosted by Scholars Portal. If you have any questions, please contact Portage Training Coordinator Jennifer Abel at jennifer.abel@engagedri.ca.

Survey of Household Spending

April 28, 2021

Question:

I have a researcher who would like consumer spending data for the CT level. I have suggested the Survey of Household Spending (SHS), but neither the tables on the StatCan website site nor the PUMFs have a geography level below province. Would this data be available at the CT or CMA levels. Would this be a custom tabulation? Is it available in the RDCs at the CT or CMA levels?

 

I believe the SHS would be the best survey because it covers most household spending patterns. Is there another survey that would have this type of data? He is looking for as current as possible.

 

I would also like to confirm that the SHS replaced the Survey of Family Expenditures (FAMEX).


Answer:

Our SHS analyst has indicated that certain CMAs are available through cost recovery or through the RDCs; however, CT geo wouldn’t be an option within SHS dataset. The complete list of CMAs available by custom request (cost recovery) would be: St. John's, Charlottetown-Summerside, Halifax, Saint John, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria. The SHS is the best survey at StatCan covering most household spending patterns, and the SHS is the successor to FAMEX.

 

While 2019 SHS data is available for custom requests; within the RDCs the most current dataset is 2017. As the 2019 SHS PUMF is still under development, the 2017 data is also the most current PUMF dataset available within the DLI.

Immigration of Catholic Priests in Canada

April 6, 2021

Question:

I am looking for the statistics and numbers on the immigration of religious workers in Canada since the 1990s, and more specifically Catholic priests. I would like to find the following information:

·         Number of priests that immigrated to Canada as "religious workers" each year since 1990

·         Where these priests were from

·         Which province these priests migrated to or at least which parish sent a letter to hire them

If the type of religious worker (ex: priest/rabbi/Iman) is not tracked, and only the number of religious workers as a whole is tracked, I would still like the stats on the number of religious workers that immigrated to Canada from 1990 and what province they went to.

 I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction for this data?


Answer:

I found from IRCC a bit of the legal aspect about this -

Religious work – International Mobility Program https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/foreign-workers/work-without-permit/authorization-work-without-work-permit-clergy.html

 

There are two separate provisions in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR) relating to religious work:

 

  • paragraph R186(l) provides a work permit exemption for religious leaders
  • paragraph R205(d) provides a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) exemption (code C50)

 

So I looked on the Open Data Portal for data on the International Mobility Program and found the following

 

Temporary Residents: Work Permit Holders – Ad Hoc IRCC (Specialized Datasets)

Temporary residents who are in Canada on a work permit in the observed calendar year. Datasets include Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and International Mobility Program (IMP) work permit holders by year in which permit(s) became effective. Please note that the datasets will not be updated.

https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/67fd1fae-4950-4018-a491-62e60cbd6974

 

Specialized Research Datasets: Temporary Resident – Ad Hoc IRCC (Specialized Datasets)

https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/31ef4cab-d2b3-4dba-8e91-48fe64211ec5

 

But I can’t validate that the data contains the specific work permit of interest because when I click on the Access button, nothing happens on either dataset. Perhaps IRCC would have the data and could make it available upon request?

Data Literacy Modules from UK Data Service

March 16, 2021

The UK Data Service has made available introductory level interactive modules that are designed for users who want to get to grips with key aspects of survey, longitudinal and aggregate data. I skimmed through several of them are they are great. Even demonstrate how to get started with preparing survey data for analysis.

Fertility and Mortality Rates by CSD

March 16, 2021

Question:

I have a researcher trying to find total new births, birth rate, total new deaths and death rate by year at the CSD level.  I've found some data at the Health Unit level, but thought I would ask if anyone has come across anything at CSD level or smaller geography before.


Answer:

Some datasets that may be of interest - the data frequency for the first two is monthly and the rest are annual:

 

Birth registrations in Ontario (by location)

https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/6a2ee0c2-b3f1-4af2-9c86-735377a961af

(municipalities / CSDs)

 

Death registrations in Ontario (by location)

https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/f2d9985b-7195-4a12-8f6c-4efc9adca8d1

(municipalities / CSDs)

 

Population estimates, July 1, by census subdivision, 2016 boundaries

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710014201

 

Population estimates on July 1st, by age and sex

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710000501

(Provinces)

 

Fertility: Overview, 2012 to 2016

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/91-209-x/2018001/article/54956-eng.htm

National Registration File of 1940

March 5, 2021

Question:

The National Registration File of 1940 resulted from the compulsory registration of all persons, 16 years of age or older, in the period from 1940 to 1946. This information was originally obtained under the authority of The National Resources Mobilization Act and the War Measures Act. Custody of the records was subsequently given to Statistics Canada, then known as the Dominion Bureau of Statistics.

 

How can I get access to this file?


Answer:

If the client wants to access information contained in this file, they can contact statcan.censuspensionsearch-recherchesurpensionrec.statcan@canada.ca

 

There are however limitations to what can be accessed. More information can be found here: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/93C0006

New DMP Templates

March 4, 2021

Portage is pleased to have published five new discipline- and methodology-specific Data Management Plan (DMP) Templates in English and French, with more to come. These Templates cover a range of disciplines and research methods, highlight best practices for DMPs in those disciplines, and provide tailored guidance for researchers writing their own DMPs. Initiated by a Portage funding call in April 2020, they are the result of hard work on the part of exceptional Researchers, Librarians, and Information Professionals in the Portage community, and members of the Portage Secretariat with whom they collaborated. 


The following DMP Templates are now available:

These Templates are available on Portage Training Resources under DMP Templates as well as in the Portage Zenodo Community. They are also available and embedded for use and institutional customization in the DMP Assistant.


If you have any questions regarding the DMP Templates, please contact Robyn Nicholson, Portage Data Management Planning Coordinator, at robyn.nicholson@carl-abrc.ca

Public washrooms and COVID

February 24, 2021

Question:
What special considerations have been made for the increased need/demand for public washrooms during COVID in Canada? Specifically, what data sources/methods would you recommend for us to be able to capture what is happening in municipal pockets across Ontario/Canada?”

Does anyone have any ideas where to find this sort of thing. Are there associations of municipalities provincially or nationally that would be a good place to start? I would like to avoid suggesting that she contact individual public health agencies or municipalities.



Answer:

  1. Municipal open data portals sometimes have public washrooms, but they’re often incomplete or out of date – still, they might be a start. E.g. for Toronto, refreshed this week: https://open.toronto.ca/dataset/street-furniture-public-washroom/ (and this particular dataset seems limited to one company’s contracts with the city)
  2. Your patron might also have luck with some of the crowdsourced public washroom apps, like https://www.restroommap.com/ or https://www.refugerestrooms.org/ though these a) might not have the dates when specific items were created (just added, if that) and b) sometimes have specific themes, like non-gendered washrooms (very useful for people who need them, of course, but it seems like your patron has a different need).

For BC, it might be worth checking CivicInfoBC to see if it includes any municipal reports. From the menu options on the left side, I'd suggest looking in the Documents section and/or COVID-19 Resources section. The Annual Surveys don't seem to cover this topic and wouldn't be current enough anyway.


https://www.civicinfo.bc.ca/researchtools

How to Cite Statistics Canada Products

February 18, 2021

An updated edition of 
How to Cite Statistics Canada Products (12-591-X) is now available. This guide aims to provide direction on the creation of bibliographic references for Statistics Canada's products and services.

In the absence of international standards, citing statistics and data has been a neglected grey area in academic publishing. This new edition of How to Cite Statistics Canada Products fills the gap by covering an even broader range of Statistics Canada and other statistical products and services.

Canadian Internet Use Survey

February 10, 2021

Since the release of the 2018 Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS) microdata file, it was noticed that the ‘Valid skip’ (valid skip = 6) and the ‘Not stated’ (not stated = 9) were missing from some of the ‘Universe statements’ in the Codebook (data dictionary). 

In general, this issue only impacts questions that rely on a flow from a previous question. Please refer to the questionnaire flow document to ensure that you are using the proper universe when conducting research and creating indicators.

 

Note, we are working to correct this issue and will release a new version of the 2018 CIUS codebook when it becomes available.

SHS 2017 Bootstrap Weights Question

February 10, 2021


Question:
I have a question you might be able to answer about these bootstrap weights. In order to use them in Stata, I need to know whether they were produced using the 'mean bootstrap' method and if so, I would need to specify how many samples were used to produce each weight in order to adjust the variance estimates to account for mean bootstrap weights (see for example https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/12-002-x/2014001/article/11901-eng.htm under “STATA 12”; the example refers to the GSS, but I’m assuming the procedure applies as well to the SHS PUMF).


Answer:

The bootstrap weights created for the SHS2017 PUMF should be treated as regular bootstrap weights, and therefore, you are right that the mean bootstrap method is not used, and that the number of samples should be set to 1 (bsn=1).

Request for Statistics about Indigenous Peoples and Federal and Provincial Justice Systems

April 20, 2021

Question:
I’ve had a question from a faculty member developing a course, and I'm hoping someone might have some ideas of where I could look for data (preferably aggregate data/tables as they aren't looking to analyze the data but rather have asked for published statistics). They are looking for topics (and statistics) related to Aboriginal Justice and have specifically requested:

  • "I am looking for information by region in Canada, gender, age, federal incarceration, provincial incarceration, and recidivism rates too." 
  • "I am looking for published statistics of incarceration of Indigenous people in federal/provincial institutions. Is there any information on the number of sentencing circles held? Another area that I would like specific information is about Indigenous rape/sexual assault across the age spectrum, even sex trafficking."

I have found tables in CANSIM (Table 35100128 Adult correctional services, admissions to provincial and territorial programs, Table 35100016 Adult custody admissions to correctional services by aboriginal identity, and Table 35100007 Youth admissions to correctional services, by Aboriginal identity and sex), but I'm wondering where else I should be looking. If anyone has suggestions, I would really appreciate them.


Answer:

We have a trove of Correctional data in these tables; https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/201221/dq201221b-cansim-eng.htm

 

Included is average counts of youth and adults in Federal and Provincial correctional facilities, by Province/Territory, and admissions counts by gender, age groupings and Aboriginal status. Our data does not break down by recidivism or sentencing circles, but there is some more in-depth discussion of Aboriginal issues around sentencing/incarceration in the associated report: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00016-eng.htm