Question
I have a researcher looking for microdata files for the Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy and it appears that this is not available in the DLI. Is there anywhere else she could get that data? She specifically wants data at the company level, rather than the industry level.
Answer
That information would not be available for confidentiality reasons. The only way to work with that business microdata would be through the Canadian Centre for Data Development and Economic Research (CDER).
Could a business or person be identified by any of the data in CDER?
No. All data sets have been stripped of identifiers-such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and detailed industry classification-that could be used to identify particular businesses or individuals. Moreover, a combination of measures – user agreements, synthetics databases and batch mode processing – are in place to ensure researchers cannot peruse the individual observations in their data base.
For more information about the application process and what data is contained at CDER, see the program website
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cder-cdre/questions-eng.htm#q3
