Question:
I’m helping a researcher who is interested in the following table of data from the Cement Survey: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1610004301. He was really hoping to obtain numbers for the row on “Clinker” (last row in the table), and we are curious whether a custom tabulation of this data aggregated by year instead of month would allow for the clinker numbers to be released?
Also, is there any way to access microdata for the Cement Survey?
Answer:
Subject matter has informed us that unfortunately, the data for clinker could not be released even if it was aggregated to annual data. The only way that a researcher could access this data is if they were to enter in a contract with STC do some analysis through the Canadian Centre for Data Development and Economic Research (CDER). Please see the following links for CDER proposal requirements: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/cder/prop and http://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/cder/price.
Any proposal for submission must have sufficient details, so as to determine the feasibility of the project. This will include a data perspective, costs, and professional merit. Note that CDER only considers research projects that are not descriptive in nature.
CDER is run on a cost-recovery basis; as such, all researchers must be able to cover all project costs, including the cost of having their project proposals peer and committee-reviewed.
The costs of a project depend on a variety of factors such as
1. length of time required to access the CDER facilities
2. whether the data set exists or needs to be developed
3. how much output needs to be reviewed for confidentiality.
This means that there is no standard project cost. Each project will be reviewed by CDER to determine the individual cost. Here are some elements to consider for a simple project:
•whether a project makes use of an existing database
•whether the project can be completed in 3 months (66 days)
•if the expected output of the project would take no more than 2 days for a Statistics Canada analyst to review for confidentiality issues
•if there are project submission fees (see below)
•whether there is a need for housing the researcher(s) and providing them with access to CDER facilities (office workspace, workstation, server, data storage, etc.), which is the largest element affecting the cost
Based on current costs, a simple project, such as the aforementioned would cost approximately $7,200.00.
