UCR and ArcGIS

Question

A graduate student is using the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey and would like to do some analysis of the content on ArcGIS. The UCR provides census tracts but he was looking for a way to get specific coordinates so that the data could be mapped using this software. Is there any way this can be done? My general understanding of how GIS software works makes me believe it is a ‘no’ (although no harm in asking!). Has anyone experienced a similar request or figured out a work-around?

Answer

The subject matter specialists confirmed that "the UCR files that we have in CCJS as well as those that are in the RDC do not have geocode information (Postal code, or address).

Many academics are confused when they hear that we do not have low level geography data on the file, as they know that CCJS many years ago released a series of analytical reports using small levels of geography for several Canadian CMAs. For these studies we received additional funds to work with police services that provided us with additional “address files” which we then cleaned and verified the quality of the addresses.

The lowest level of geography that is available on the RDC files is CMA and through our CANSIM tables end users can obtain counts of offences by the police service level. 

In the DLI, we have some UCR data by police service and as mentioned the one-time release at the census tract level.

CCS Level Data

Question

A researcher is looking for demographic information at the CCS level. Specifically, her question is:

“whether we can have detailed data, including population (by age), area, language, education, income, labor, mobility, etc., and whether we can connect a particular place with a CCS, for instance, by a post code. Also, we were told that CCS boundary is changing over time. So the question is can we have the CCS data on the basis of 1996 or 2006 boundary, so that we can know the dynamics of the communities.”

Answer

If I have understood your question correctly, you can aggregate census data up to the the CCS level, as the CCSUID is embedded in both the CSD and DA geography files. So if you join the census data at these levels you could then dissolve on the CCSIUD and Sum the associated attributes.

As far as postal codes go, I took a quick look at the most recent PCCF pdf and it does have an attribute field with a direct link to the CCS. If you have your postal codes all ready in GIS format you could overlay postal codes on top of the CCS geographic file, and using a spatial join append the CCSUID to the postal codes.

As for the boundary change, there is a change from previous years, however I have found the CCS to be much more stable then say the DAs.

Census Shapefile Geography Request

Question

Where can I find an authoritative listing of all of the census tracts and enumeration/dissemination areas that were suppressed for all of the cities and years covered in the project:

Winnipeg 1981-2011
Regina 1981-2011
Saskatoon 1981-2011
Calgary 1981-2011
Edmonton 1981-2011”

I don't need the shapefiles, just a list of the suppressed areas, DAs and CTs. 2011 is easily accessible on the website, so only the other census years (from 1981 to 2006).

Answer

For 2006, the information you need is here:
<http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/ref/notes/index-eng.cfm>

For 2001, we can e-mail you a file. Prior to 2001, the Census Tract suppression lists can be found published as Appendix 1 in the Census tract profile publications, but Statistics Canada does not have them collated together electronically anywhere in the Geography division. Prior to 2001, DAs didn’t exist.

Foreign Direct Investment in Canada by Province

Question

A graduate student is looking for the following information:

1) a provincial breakdown of FDI in Canada.

I searched the DLI list and found a message dated January 5, 2012 from Marie-Josée Lamontagne of the Balance of Payments Division stating that no such breakdown was available. I want to confirm that this is still the case.

Also, if Statistics Canada does not have that information, can anyone suggest another source? This report <http://www.investtoronto.ca/InvestAssets/PDF/Reports/The_fDi_Report_2013.pdf> from a firm called FDI Intelligence provides some data at the provincial/state level for North America. They cite their source as fDi Market, their own database, which unfortunately we do not subscribe to. Any other idea?

2) Historical unemployment data

This CANSIM table (http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26?lang=eng&retrLang=eng&id=2820087&paSer=&pattern=&stByVal=1&p1=1&p2=37&tabMode=dataTable&csid) provides data back to 1976. Is there any source of data, at the provincial level, going further back? I checked in Historical Statistics of Canada, but the data is only at the National level

3) Historical GDP, again by province

CANSIM table (http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26?lang=eng&retrLang=eng&id=3840037&tabMode=dataTable&srchLan=-1&p1=-1&p2=9) covers 1981 onward. Any data for previous years? Again, Historical Statistics of Canada has only national level data.

Answer

You are correct that the data is not available by province. Unfortunately, the data on Foreign direct investment in Canada is not available by province either. We will continue looking into this for you.

CCS as Urban or Rural

Question

I noticed that CCSs could be either an urban or rural area, because several CCSs may make up a CA or CMA, which are considered as urban areas. Is there are way to tell whether a CCS is urban or rural? I am only interested in rural areas in SK, BC, MB and AB.

Answer

The Geography Division explained that: "being a population centre (formerly referred to as ‘urban area’) or rural, is not a classification system for different geographic areas but are instead their own distinct geographic area types. I have highlighted the CCS and population centres in the image below,

Both geographic areas can be built from dissemination blocks, but a CCS can contain dissemination blocks that are part of a population centre, and dissemination blocks that are not (and are therefore part of the rural area). This means it is not possible to classify consolidated census subdivisions as being wholly population centre or wholly rural (except in those cases where all the dissemination blocks within it are classified as one geographic type or the other).

More information on the change from urban to population centres can be found in the General Notice, <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/standard-norme/sgc-cgt/notice-avis/sgc-cgt-06-eng.htm>

More information on population centres, including delineation criteria, can be found in the Census Dictionary, <http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/ref/dict/geo 049a-eng.cfm>

More information on Census consolidated subdivisions, including criteria used to define them can be found in the Census Dictionary,<http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/ref/dict/geo007-eng.cfm>

History of Census Tracts

Question

A student here is looking for data on a series of census tracts in Toronto, for as many years as possible. I know the tract names will change over time, but I want to verify that, according to what I know, census tract-level data didn't appear in the census until 1951; is this true?

Answer

I consulted the Census tract: Detailed definition <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/92-195-x/2011001/geo/ct-sr/def-eng.htm> and noted that it was available for the following censuses: 2011, 2006, 2001, 1996, 1991, 1986, 1981, 1976, 1971, 1966, 1961, 1956, 1951, 1941

-From 1971 to 1991, a provincial census tract program existed. Provincial census tracts were similar in concept to census tracts, but covered areas outside census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations. Taken together, census tracts and provincial census tracts covered all of Canada.

-In 1941 and 1946, census tracts were called 'social areas.'

2011 Montreal Census Tract Age Statistics

Question

I am trying to locate age statistics for a specific Montreal census tract from the 2011 Census, but it gets skipped over in the html and B2020 profiles on the StatCan site and on the EFT site. The tract is: 4620071.00.

I can get some information from the table below the GeoSearch map when searching for the tract using its code, but is there any way of getting hold of the whole profile for this tract?

Answer

I consulted the Census tract (CT) suppression list for the 2011 Census and the census track you provided is on that list. <http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/ref/sup_CT-SR-eng.cfm>. The information may be available as a custom tabulation.

Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy

Question

I have a researcher who would like to access the microdata (firm-level data) for the Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy - 5171. Can this be made available through a RDC or otherwise?

Answer

The only way to work with Business level microdata would be through the Canadian Centre for Data Development and Economic Research (CDER). See their website for more information:<http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cder-cdre/index-eng.htm>.

National Graduates Survey, 2013 (class of 2009/2010)

Question

We have a client looking for the National Graduates Survey, 2013 (class of 2009/2010).
Will we be getting a PUMF for this? If so, what is the target date.

Answer

There will be a PUMF sometime in late fall 2014.  The clients can send their request for a custom tabulation.

Canadian Forces Mental Health Survey (CFMHS) Release

Question
We received confirmation that there will only be a master file, and not a PUMF, for the Canadian Forces Mental Health Survey (CFMHS) <http://www23.statcan.gc.ca /imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5084>, but I was also wondering:

- Can we expect selected statistical tables to be published for this survey, given that custom tabulations seem on occasion to be more often taking the place of published tables?

- Is there any new information on when the master file(s) will be available, is it likely to be in 2014?

Answer

The author division confirmed that: "The (very) tentative date for the master file is fall 2014. Basically, details of the release are still being planned. At this point, nothing is definite. As I mentioned, even the release date is very tentative."

Aircraft Traffic in Canada

Question

I'm looking for detailed information on aircraft movement in Canada, Specifically: Domestic air-traffic between different cities (airports) in Canada, by carrier (Air Canada, WestJet etc) for all domestic carriers, including private flights.” There are CANSIM tables with aircraft data, but nothing with the level of detail (departure and arrival city, carrier) that I would like. Is there any way of getting microdata from the Aircraft Movement Statistics Survey? <http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=2715>

Answer

Unfortunately that level of information is not available. This level of detail would not be available through a custom tabulations either. The program does not measure traffic between cities.

National and Provincial Multipliers

Question

Will the National and Provincial Multipliers for 2010 (released 10-Feb-2014) become available through the DLI?

Answer

We will be adding these to the EFT site and notifying the community once available. 

Unionization Rates

Question

Is it possible to obtain the unionization rate (presumably the percentage of the active labour force which is unionized) within each federal electoral district. Do such statistics currently exist? If not, could a table providing this level of geographic detail produced from the Labour Force Survey? Could it be created for various years of the LFS (to show historic changes over time), assuming a common set of FEDs? What would be the cost of producing each such table (assuming that it could be produced)?

Answer

Unfortunately this data is not available. The Labour Force Survey does not produce data at the Federal District level.

DAD 2009 ICD- 10 Exclusions

Question

I have prepared flag variables for the DAD 2009 ICD-10 classification (which I will send to the DLI for distribution once finished; I’m still working on the CCI codes). As I was looking at the frequencies of these flag variables to see if they made sense (i.e., that the chapter headings were picked up along with the more specific heading), I encountered something peculiar: there are no ICD-10 listings for any classification of V01 through Y98 (external causes of morbidity and mortality) – no one requiring treatment for any form of accident, fall, drowning, assault, etc. Were these records suppressed on the file distributed to us, or was it random chance (through sampling) that none of these records were selected for our file, or (even less likely, there were no such discharges through the years)? I checked the specifications file for the cycle (specifications-dad-raf.pdf), and couldn’t see any note to that effect in the exclusions.

Exclusions:

- Stillbirths (ENT_CODE = S)
- Cadaveric donations (ADM_CAT = R)
- All therapeutic abortion (TA) records, defined as follows:
1) ICD-10-CA diagnosis code = O04 at the three-digit level, in any diagnosis code field; or
2) CCI intervention code = 5CA20, 5CA24, 5CA88, 5CA89 or 5CA90 at the five-digit level, in any intervention code file

Answer

ICD-10 codes for ‘external causes of morbidity and mortality’ (V01 - Y98) are recorded as a diagnosis type ‘9’. All diagnoses with a diagnosis type of ‘3', '4', '5' or '9' were removed from the records for privacy reasons. As per the file layout there are only type ‘M’, ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘W’, ‘X’ and ‘Y’ included in the file.

This is not included in the exclusion criteria of the specifications because it was not the criteria used to remove an entire record. Any record with one of the exclusions listed (Ex. stillbirths) was completely removed from the dataset. In the case of diagnoses type ‘3', '4', '5' or '9' these ICD-10 codes were only removed from the record and the record itself was retained in the dataset. This way you can still search ICD-10 codes for ‘Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes’ (S00-T98) to obtain records with a diagnosis due to an external injury – but the cause is removed.

All this information can be found in the DAD Abstracting Manuals which we provided as part of the DLI. The Group 10 – Diagnosis section contains a description of “Diagnosis Type” and how it is coded.

For example:

-“9” External Cause of Injury Code - A Diagnosis Type 9 is assigned to an external cause of injury code (Chapter XX: External Causes of Morbidity and Mortality in the Canadian Coding Standards for ICD-10-CA and CCI), place of occurrence code (U98.–Place of occurrence) or activity code (U99.–Activity). Chapter XX codes are mandatory for use with codes in the range S00 to T98Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes. Category U98.–Place of occurrence is mandatory with codes in the range W00 to Y34, with the exception of Y06 and Y07. Recording with Category U99.–(Activity) is optional.

I’ve included short description of 3, 4 and 5 below but further information on all the types and when they are coded can be found in the manual:

-“3” Secondary Diagnosis - A Diagnosis Type (3) is a secondary diagnosis or condition for which a patient may or may not have received treatment, has been assigned an ICD-10-CA code and does not satisfy the requirements for determining co-morbidity. Diagnoses that are listed only on the front sheet, discharge summary, death certificate, history and physical or pre-operative anaesthetic consults qualify as Diagnosis Type (3). A Diagnosis Type (3) is also used for ICD-10-CA codes that are assigned to provide detail that in themselves do not represent a co-morbidity.

-“4” Morphology Code - Diagnosis Type (4) morphology codes are derived from ICD-O (International Classification of Diseases—Oncology) codes describing the type and behaviour of neoplasm. These codes are found in Chapter XXII: Morphology of Neoplasms.

-“5” Admitting Diagnosis - Diagnosis Type (5) can be used to code the admitting diagnosis when it differs from the most responsible Diagnosis Code. Its use is determined at the provincial/territorial or facility level. Refer to the DAD provincial/territorial sections and facility policies to determine the use of this Diagnosis Type.

Long Term Care Facilities Survey

Question

Will tables be released from the Long Term Care Facilities Survey: <http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5203>? The Daily of April 10th<http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/140410/dq140410d-eng.htm> indicates that the data has been released. Does this specifically refer to the master file or other products as well?

We have a researcher who is requesting summary findings by province (and territories if available) for:
1. Number of hours of care per resident
- This was reported as Number of hours of nursing care per resident/day for the superseded survey, Residential Care Facilities
- She would be interested in any consistent measurement of numbers of hours of professional health care per resident, as long as it is consistent, would be acceptable
2. Dollars per year per resident
3. Ratio of profit versus non-profit long-term care facilities.

Answer

This is available as a custom. The cost would be $256.00 plus applicable taxes. It will only include home for the Aged. The Mental Health and the Other facilities have confidentiality issues. For some provinces, we do not have enough facilities to disclose without identifying the facilities. We would have to collapse the data and that would imply a few more hours of work.

Export Data

Question

I have a researcher looking for export data that seems to be available from the Exporter Register. He is looking for export value by destination and by firm size (either in terms of number of employees or, even better, in terms of revenue). An example of what the data would look like is table 1.2 in this publication:<https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/061.nsf/vwapj/KSBS-PSRPE_June-Juin2011_eng.pdf/$FILE/KSBS-PSRPE_June-Juin2011_eng.pdf>

Is it is possible to get this data for more countries and as a time series. Is there any chance he can have access to the Exporter Register directly?

Answer

Unfortunately, we are not disseminating any data from the Importer/Exporter registries at this time as they are currently under review. Which means that the database’s methodologies are being re-examined. The database is hence temporarily not available for dissemination to the general public. At this point we do not have a time estimate as of when the databases will be available for access again.

It is important to note that this database’s micro-level records can only be accessible for research purposes via the Canadian Centre for Data Development and Economic Research. The researcher will have to have a formalized proposal of research topic approved by Statcan before they can gain access.

There is no way for students to access these directories free of charge, so if and when they do become available again, it would be on a cost recovery basis.

PCCD Best Match Alogrhythm

Question

Is it possible to get any more detail on the actual algorithm that is run on the main PCCF file to produce the best match in addition to the wording below?From the codebook we have:
" The single link indicator (SLI) was created to assist users in dealing with postal codesOM with multiple records. The method used to establish the single link indicator identifies the geographic area with the majority of dwellings assigned to a particular postal codeOM"

Answer

It looks like you are looking for Postal CodeOM Conversion File (PCCF), Reference Guide, June 2013 <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/92-154-g/92-154-g2013001-eng.pdf>. This is only part of the explanation for Single Link Indicator (SLI) available in the guide. Further on in the guide, there is an explanatory note regarding using the SLI for retrieving distinct records, in section 4 (Technical specifications, Record layouts and data descriptions: <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/92-154-g/2013001/tech-eng.htm>

Single link indicator (SLI)
The single link indicator (SLI) provides a geographic record for mapping a postal codeOM representative point. It can be used to establish a one-to-one relationship between postal codesOM and dissemination areas, dissemination blocks, or block-faces. The SLI has the value of '1' to flag one record of an active postal codeOM. Every set of retired records for a postal codeOM, for a given retirement date, has one SLI equal to '1.' The SLI value '0' indicates additional records.

For more information as to how the link was established, refer to section 5. (Data Quality, Lineage, Linking to 2011 Census geographic areas: <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/92-154-g/2013001/qual-eng.htm>

Many postal codesOM are represented by multiple records on the PCCF.The single link indicator (SLI) is created to assist users dealing with postal codesOM having multiple records. The SLI provides a geographic record for mapping a postal codeOM representative point. The SLI has a value of '1' to flag the best (or only) link for a given postal codeOM. The value '0' indicates an additional record. Please note that the SLI is identified on both active and retired postal codesOM. Users will find when working with both active and retired postal codesOM that multiple SLIs will appear for a postal codeOM that was retired and reintroduced. However, there will only be one SLI for a set of active records for a postal codeOM. When assigning the SLI, priority is given to postal codesOM associated with civic addresses or dwellings (based on the PCtype). The confidence of coding to the geographic area (the quality indicator) and the precision of the geocoding (the block-face, dissemination area or dissemination block), as well as the population, are considered. When the postal codeOM was linked to a DA associated with multiple federal electoral district (FED), population centre (POPCTR), or designated place (DPL), the SLI is linked to the record represented by the greatest proportion of the FED, POPCTR, or DPL population.
Users are cautioned that the SLI provides only a partial correspondence between the postal codeOM and other geographic areas.