Labour Force and Commuting for Work Question

Question:

I’m helping a researcher sort out some travel to work data for the CSD of Houston, BC. From this table: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/98-400-X2016325 looking at Houston (DM) we get a labour force of 1065 living in Houston, but the census profile of Houston (DM) gives a labour force size of 1615, and it seems to both of us the difference between the two seems much too large to be due to suppression and random rounding. I’m wondering if there is documentation I’m just missing that would account for this difference?

Answer:

On the first table, your client has given the “universe” or population captured, is people who are employed in the labour force aged 15 years and over who have a usual place of residence. Whereas, in the second table your client is looking at a universe that we would title persons in the labour force aged 15 years and over. We can find this information from looking at either the table title or the profile section title.

Here is a little explanation on why this population is so different from the total labour force that you see on the second table.

Seeing as this table is a commuting flow chart, respondents must have a usual place of work which limits the number of respondents that you see. This helps with the accuracy of the table as those with a flexible work environment are not always commuting to the same place. This table is also only showing those who are employed in the labour force. From reading this definition of both labour force and labour force status we see that those counted in the labour force may have been unemployed during the reference period which would also mean that they would not have an eligible destination to use in the commuting flow chart.

After seeing these differences I would recommend that your client look at journey to work sections of the profile for comparability instead of the labour force sections. You can find this by selecting “Journey to work” using the “Topic” toggle bar at the top of the profile.

One last consideration with this flow chart is that suppression rules do apply to protect the privacy of Canadians. Random rounding has of course been used on all of these tables however as well, there may be some respondents living in Houston ,BC who have a very unique commuting destination. The six possible commuting destinations listed on the first table may therefore not be exhaustive, which would account for the sum of these 6 answers not adding up to exactly the same total as the journey to work universe.

Canadian Active Living Environments - Geographic Variable in CCHS 2015-16

Question:

I am helping a researcher with the CCHS 2015-16 dataset and we were wondering about the “Canadian Active Living Environments” geographic variable. I am struggling to find metadata for this variable in the accompanying documentation. The Data Dictionary points me toward the “Derived Variable (DV) Specifications”, but there is nothing in that document listed for “Canadian Active Living Environments”.

Can someone direct me towards a webpage or pdf file with information about how this variable is derived?

Answer:

Does this StatCan article help?

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-003-x/2019005/article/00002-eng.htm

or the Canadian Active Living Environments Database (Can-ALE) User Manual & Technical Document:

http://canue.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/CanALE_UserGuide.pdf

Prostitution Offences

Question:

I was helping a researcher who's looking for "the breakdown of the prostitution offences by each offence (e.i. incidents for s.213, s.286.1 etc)".  

From this table: 
35-10-0177-01 - Incident-based crime statistics, by detailed violations, Canada, provinces, territories and Census Metropolitan Areas

We can get the breakdown of the prostitution offences (classified under Total Commodification of sexual activity violations, and Total Prostitution) by types of offences. 

Next, in order to map those types of offences to criminal codes (such as s.213, s.286.1 etc), we consulted the questionnaire and the reporting guide linked from this page: http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p3Instr.pl?Function=getInstrumentList&Item_Id=55196&UL=1V&

Basically, we figured out that on the questionnaire(PDF), there is the code for "Prostitution Total" (046) as well as the more specific codes below it; and from the reporting guide (p. 86), it shows how that code is linked to criminal code (section 213 etc).  Although the codes in the stats don't align with the codes on the questionnaire, for example, bawdy house 3110 vs. 047, we can just match them up by the same description (i.e. bawdy house). 

However, there are still some critical problems -- the questions in the questionnaire don't entirely reflect the crime hierarchy of stats, for example, there's no "Total Commodification of sexual activity violations" and its breakdown on the questionnaire, and we suspect it's because the questionnaire/reporting guide on the website needs to be updated. Furthermore, since the researcher is interested in the impact of the 2014 legislation, it would be useful to get access to the questionnaires/reporting guide of different times, which are unavailable from the website.  

Sorry for this rambling email. I'd appreciate it if you can shed some light on this. 

Answer:

I’ve received the following response from subject matter:

“If your researcher hasn’t seen the tables of concordance contained in the 2019 UCR manual (attached), it could be very useful. It is a comprehensive lookup table that cross references all Criminal Code sections to their respective UCR2 violation codes.

The 3-digit UCR codes mentioned, such as ‘Prostitution Total (046)’, come for the old UCR1 Aggregate survey, which is no longer in use and has not been for a long time.

All of our current online CODR (new CANSIM) tables are based on the 4-digit UCR2 codes.”

---

"... [data tables] are readily available via the website. These are customizable and downloadable. Below is the CAN/PROV/CMA table, there are also similar police service level tables that can be found on the site as well.

Incident-based crime statistics, by detailed violations, Canada, provinces, territories and Census Metropolitan Areas

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510017701”

---

"[The manual] is not  available on the website, we distribute it to our partners, but also to anyone who requests it”

Cannabis Cost Data

Question:

Hello,

I have some researchers looking for cost data related to cannabis at the provincial level. Specifically they are looking for data on consumer spending on legal vs. illegal cannabis (I already sent them to StatsCannabis, but they are hoping for market size data and not just cost/gram), as well as wholesale costs of legal retail cannabis shops.

They’ve already been to our RDC and there doesn’t seem to be anything to suit their needs there.

Answer:

I’ve received the following response from subject matter:

“Thanks for your inquiry, we just released provincial level detail in the core Provincial and Territorial Economic Accounts. We do estimate Household Final Consumption Expenditure by province for legal medical, legal recreational and illegal recreational cannabis consumption. This data is available by province to 2018. Nationally, the same data is available up to 2019Q3 and for more timely data, data on legal recreational only is available from the Monthly Retail Trade Survey (see the three links attached). 

As a note, the Monthly Retail Trade estimates only include legal cannabis sales made by retail stores, it would not include any retail sales made by provincial wholesalers or own use consumption, which are included in the household final consumption expenditure estimate.

Wholesale costs for legal cannabis retail shops are not currently available.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/cv!recreate.action?pid=3610022501&selectedNodeIds=2D1,3D128,3D129,3D130&checkedLevels=0D1,0D2&refPeriods=20140101,20180101&dimensionLayouts=layout2,layout2,layout3,layout2&vectorDisplay=false (Provincial Household Final Consumption Expenditure)

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/cv!recreate.action?pid=3610012401&selectedNodeIds=2D1,3D1,4D130,4D131,4D132&checkedLevels=0D1&refPeriods=20180701,20190701&dimensionLayouts=layout2,layout2,layout2,layout3,layout2&vectorDisplay=false (National Household Final Consumption Expenditure)

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/cv!recreate.action?pid=2010000801&selectedNodeIds=2D30,3D1&checkedLevels=0D1,0D2&refPeriods=20190501,20190901&dimensionLayouts=layout3,layout2,layout2,layout2&vectorDisplay=false (Monthly Retail Trade Survey)”

Data, or Stats, re: New Ross Nova Scotia

Question:

I have a researcher interested in getting either some data or statistics on a VERY small community in Nova Scotia called New Ross. Looking up New Ross on the Stats Can site just brings up New Ross as an “Indian Reserve” (census subdivision) with a population of zero. It’s located in the Chester Municipal District. I can find data surrounding Chester – is there a way to carve it down to New Ross? Or is it just too small?

Answer:

In part, I think New Ross is too small (though the Ross Farm is wonderful and should have it’s own census geography). But, you could look at the Dissemination Areas (New Ross seems to be at the overlap of DA 12060072, 12060074, 12060150, though primarily is 12060072, 12060074). Especially if they were to focus on DA 12060074, I didn’t see much else in terms of settlement in that one. It’s not exactly New Ross, but will probably be as close as the researcher can have without diving into the master file at one of the RDCs?

---

You may have already noticed this, so apologies if so, but I just noticed some stats in the Strategic Plan for the community on their website. They are survey results but there's some limited demographic information there as well as opinion polling.

http://newross.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/A-Strategic-Development-Plan-for-New-Ross-Area-2014.pdf

Business Databases Availability at CDER or through DLI

Question:

I have a PhD student who would like to have access to the microdata for the following three databases:

Business Register (BR), (http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=1105)

Exporter Register Database, (http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&Id=24132)

Survey of Innovation and Business Strategies (SIBS) (http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5171)

As these are all business-related sources I am inclined to think that the microdata would only be available at CDER. I checked their website and could only find is the SIBS.

Are the other two available at CDER? Also, is there any other way to obtain access to some of the data without going thorough CDER which is probably prohibitively expensive for my student? I noticed this guide to the BR (https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/statistical-programs/document/1105_D2_T1_V3) which mentions a Business Register System (BRS) and a Browsing Module. How does one get access to this?  

Answer:

CDER indeed provides access to business microdata, including the ones listed below. To provide some context on Statistics Canada’s data access standards, please visit “Access to microdata”. For more data-specific questions, I encourage your student to contact CDER directly.

To our best knowledge, BRS is not provided to general public. Business microdata are highly confidential and the access is granted on a need-to-know basis. This means only researchers with approved project by STC are able to access these data. 

To provide data-specific recommendations, I would encourage the researcher(s) to contact CDER directly. A drafted proposal would be a good start to place their research questions in context.

Social Zones

Question:

I’m helping a student who’s looking at demographic changes in a particular Saskatoon neighbourhood over time. In the 1946 census of the prairies  I found a table for Saskatoon and Regina broken down by social zones, but no further explanation as to the areas of the cities to which the numbers apply. In 1951 there is a CT reference map that is similarly numbered. Did social zones morph into CTs?

Answer:

Here is a map of the social zones for Saskatoon used in the 1946 Census:

​https://archive.org/details/1946981946FV31949engfra/page/n565


On a cursory glance, they appear to be the same as the Census Tract boundaries used in the 1951 Census, but the student will need to compare them more closely.

With thanks to the U of Toronto Map and Data Library's Historical Census page for the link to the 1946 publications digitized by the Internet Archive, and the 1951 CT map.

On page 201 of Statistics Canada - Cat. No. 92-351-UPE 1996 Census Dictionary - Final Edition, under Remark:

            Census tracts were called "Social Areas" in 1941 and 1946.

I would venture social zone or social area definitions were used in the 1941 and 1946 censuses.  These were later replaced with census tract beginning with the 1951 census.

Bootstrap Weights with the CCHS 2015-2016

Question:

A researcher is using the Bootstrap weights with the CCHS 2015-2016 and has the following question:

“I am conducting data analysis in STATA using the bootstrap weights, and one of the parameters for the function is bsn, which "specifies that # bootstrap replicate-weight variables were used to generate each bootstrap mean-weight variable specified in the bsrweight() option of svyset. The default is bsn(1)".  Do you know what the bsn number is for the CCHS 2015-2016 file?  I found documentation from CCHS 2013 which stated the bsn number was 500, but I cannot find any similar documentation for CCHS 2015-2016.”

Answer:

For the 2015-2016 CCHS file there are 1000 bootstrap replicates, this should be for your degrees of freedom (DOF) in STATA.

For the BSN, the CCHS uses the Rao-Wu-Yue bootstrap to estimate the variance. In this variant of the bootstrap, a single bootstrap weight is used to generate each bootstrap weight.

So the default value of 1 should be used. ( BSN(1) )

Incarceration Rates

Question:

Hi

I have a Masters student who is looking for Black female incarceration rates in Canada. Would this only be available through the RDCs? Do you have any suggestions of where this data may also be found? (We are also looking at the Corrections Canada research and publications).

Answer:

I’ve received the following response:

“This is not data we collect. Our Corrections data only account for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, we do not have any other ethnicity indicators.”

---

A quick search found the 2014 study of Black Inmate Experience from the Office of the Correctional Investigator (2014?)   It does give CSC counts of female Black inmates (only 55) compared to over 1 thousand Black male inmates.  Perhaps a followup wth the Office of the Correctional Investigator would get or data, to calculate incarceration rates from Black women?

https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/oth-aut/oth-aut20131126-eng.aspx#toc3

Cannabis Prices

Question:

I'm working with a student looking into black market and legal cannabis prices, particularly for New Brunswick. In their own words:

The data I am looking for is cannabis prices and, quantity for both legal and black market, before and after 1 year of its legalization for recreational use. (Colorado 2013/2014/2015 data)
(New Brunswick 2017/2018/2019 data). Particularly in New Brunswick and Colorado.

I've already directed them to tables 36-10-0124-01 and 18-10-0211-01 from Stats Can. I'm just wondering if there are other places to look to find data more specific to New Brunswick?

Answer:

I’ve received the following reply from subject matter:

“The two data tables you mentioned are from Crowd-sourcing. The most recent Crowd-sourced Daily provided Canada level data only because the number of submissions is not sufficient to support provincial break-outs. 

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/191009/dq191009a-eng.htm

StatsCannabis data availability: Crowdsourced cannabis prices, third quarter 2019 (not specific to New Brunswick)

The NCS survey does include questions on price and quantity.  Given the typical sample size, however, more than one cycle of data would have to be combined to support this type of detailed analysis.  Also, preliminary investigations suggest for many product types there can be considerable missing/incomplete data meaning that estimating price elasticity (or something similar) would require a sensitivity-type analysis to understand and potentially impute records where price per gram could not be estimated. 

Finally, Health Canada’s Canadian Cannabis Survey (CCS) also collects price information and for a DLI student I believe this data source could also be an option.”

GHG by Company Size

Question:

I have a student looking for Canadian or B.C. stats or “data related to the emissions of greenhouse gases (or carbon footprint) segregated by enterprise size (small, medium, and large)”.

Emissions by industry are easily enough found, but he is particularly interested in the proportion of GHG generated by small, medium and large companies. So I guess I am looking for a breakdown by industry and then company size (not that he seems to concerned with industries).

I don’t think this breakdown exists, but I thought I’d throw my query out to the wisdom of the crowd on this list. Does anyone have a suggestion for where I might look?

Anyone?

Answer:

Your student might want to look at this interactive dashboard produced by Climate Smart Business:

British Columbia Business Energy and Emissions Profile
(BEEP) dashboard

https://public.tableau.com/profile/climatesmart#!/vizhome/BritishColumbiaBEEPdashboard-VanCity/BritishColumbiaBEEP

• ​Tab 4 on the dashboard shows GHG emissions broken down by company size (based on number of employees). You can further slice and dice by BC region and industry.

I haven't been able to determine exactly how they gather their data (aside from the following statement from the beep.eco website), so your student may want to dig into that.

Unique data
Aggregated from over a decade of engaging SMEs and derived from actual industry-specific business transportation, waste, energy and other greenhouse gas emission sources. BEEPs are about “small data” obtained directly from businesses in a new way.

Modernization Bulletin

Dear DLI contacts,

The October 2019 issue of the Statistics Canada Modernization Bulletin is now available on the EFT. The bulletin aims to keep you up to date on the latest Statistics Canada initiatives and transformations.  

EFT: /MAD_DLI_IDD_DAM/Root/ModernizationBulletinModernisation

Thank you!

Postal Codes Shape File

Question:

Hello DLI,

A researcher has asked me if there are postal code shapefiles available. We initially looked at the shapefiles for FSA boundaries from StatsCan, but those areas are too big for the researchers needs. Any advice? Thanks!

Have a lovely day! 

Answer:

DMTI has shapefiles of FSAs and LDUs in their CanMap Postal Suite product.

What do you mean “too big”? If the extent is too large, you can clip the files to a geographic region using a GIS application. If the FSAs are too big (ie, too large an area), then the LDUs (six digit postal codes) may be sufficient.

National Apprenticeship Survey

Question:

Hello,

I have a faculty member looking for public-use microdata file versions of the National Apprenticeship Survey.  

I haven’t been able to find this.

Thanks for your help.

Answer:

We received the following reply from the division that is responsible for this survey:

There is no PUMF for the 2015 NAS.

There is currently no plan to develop a PUMF for the NAS.

FSA Land Area

Question:

Hi Data Librarians, 

I'm helping a researcher get a list of FSAs (Forward Sortation Areas) with their population density, but I only found the population data by FSA via Census Analyzer or Stats Can website. So as a workaround, I downloaded the boundary file (shapefile) of FSAs, imported to ArcMap, calculated geometry of all the polygons, and got a spreadsheet of FSAs with their land area. Then she can just calculate population density. But I'm just wondering if there is another way-- maybe this FSA land area data is hidden somewhere I'm not aware of?  

Thanks!

Answer:

That’s the approach I would have taken as well. Depending on what area of Canada your researcher is examining, you might want to choose a projection that minimizes areal distortion, especially if you’re dealing gigantic FSAs.

You may want to have a look at this (or something like this) in case you haven’t already:

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/92-195-x/2011001/other-autre/mapproj-projcarte/m-c-eng.htm

Master File Documentation Request

Question:

So - it was kindly pointed out to me this morning that 1911 and 1921 files (data and documentation) have been made available here: https://ccri.library.ualberta.ca/enindex.html (and that 1911 is also in ODESI).

So I guess this leaves me with 2 questions:

1. Are we definitely sure the files on the CCRI website are the same as the RDC files? I suspect they must be, and have just been publicly released because they are past the 92 year rule. But if anyone can confirm that would be much appreciated!
2. For 1931, 1941 & 1951, my previous questions still apply about how to get some general information about the datasets.

Answer:

Hi,

Please note this additional information:

The researcher does not need to have RDC access to access some CCRI files. Some information regarding the historical microdata Census files are available via the hyperlinks below. The 1911 to 1951 historical microdata Census files were compiled electronically by the Canadian Century Research Infrastructure (CCRI). While these data files are made accessible through Statistics Canada, the Agency (i.e.: the Research Data Centre analyst or Census subject matter division) will not be providing support for the use of these historical files. Researchers accessing these data do so with the understanding that Statistics Canada support is not available for files provided by CCRI.

Note that the following hyperlink includes a direct link to the publically released 1911 and 1921 microdata files and therefore the researcher can download the files and review the related codebook content.

https://ccri.library.ualberta.ca/en1911census/contextual/index.html    (1911 to 1921 microdata files)

https://ccri.library.ualberta.ca/enresources/schedules/index.html   (Questionnaires and content)

 

CCHS - Food security for City of Ottawa health region in 2016 (or more recent)

Question:
We have a graduate student who is looking for food security, he is specifically interested in insecurity, for the City of Ottawa (by health region). We found that CCHS 2015-2016 included a derived variable for food security, but it would appear that Ontario did not opt in for the food security module. Is there another data source for these data that we missed?

Also, does the CCHS 2017 or 2017-2018 documentation happen to indicate if Ontario opted in to the module for this latest cycle? If so, how soon could the student find the latest weighted number of people having food security (moderate or severe) compared to all respondents in the City of Ottawa health region?

Answer:
The CCHS 2017 and 2018 did include the food security content for Ontario. The PUMF for the two-year 17-18 data is currently in production and will be available early 2020. In the meantime, I am able to provide the information you need. For 2017-2018, in the City of Ottawa health unit (HR), 6.7% of people aged 12 or older lived in a household that was classified as food insecure. This estimate has a confidence interval of 4.7% to 8.6% and a coefficient of variation of 14.95%.

Religion Data

Question:

Hello,

I’m working with a researcher who’s looking for data on gender, employment, and religion, to explore the relationship between Muslim religious identity and employment among women (at the national level). After looking around a bit it seems to me that accessing the GSS (work & home) via the RDC might be the only way to get down to the level of specific religious affiliation, but I thought I would check in here first. Would there be an option for a custom tab that would include these variables? Am I missing another source that might work for her?

Answer:

You have the National Household Survey that has religious affiliation data.
Religion (19), Age Groups (10), Sex (3), Selected Demographic, Cultural, Labour Force and Educational Characteristics (268) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2011 National Household Survey

There’s the 2001 census as well that has variable on religion, gender and employment.  Interestingly enough, the question on religion was not included in the 2016 Census since it is only asked every 10 years. The question will be considered for inclusion in the 2021 Census (source – Census Dictionary).

Race and the Census

Question:
Hello, I have a researcher who wants clarification as to why 'race' is not used as a variable in the Census. Also, an explanation of how the 'ethnicity' variable was developed for the Census would be helpful.

Answer:

The Census Dictionary for every modern census year explains and expands on any terms and variables contained in that census.

Ethnic origin/race/ancestry/heritage/ etc are all complex terms to define and select, and is a historically evolving concept in addition to being differently measured in other census-holding countries, so there's usually links to further information from the Census Dictionary as well.

Here's the expanded info for Ethnic Origin for the 2016 Census: https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/ref/guides/008/98-500-x2016008-eng.cfm

---

Our subject matter specialist has provided the following information :

“We do not have a 'race' variable as such on the census, but we do have the visible minority variable, which is documented in the Visible Minority and Population Group Reference Guide, Census of Population, 2016, available through the following link:

http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/ref/guides/006/98-500-x2016006-eng.cfm.”

Historical Census Data Project

As some of you may be aware, OCUL’s Historical Census Working Group (part of the OCUL Data Community) is working on scoping a comprehensive bilingual inventory of Canadian census data. Our dream is to eventually build a bilingual and openly available discovery platform for census data & statistical tables (print & digital) going back to the earliest Canadian censuses. 

This is a big goal, and it certainly isn’t exclusively an “OCUL” one. Yes, this project started because a small group of data librarians in Ontario got together and started talking, but we need participation from across the country if we are going to realize our goal and have it meet everyone’s needs. 

I’m writing right now to update you on some of the work we’ve been doing, to request your feedback, and to encourage you to consider getting involved. This project is very flexible, and we can evolve the way we are organized and our working methods to accommodate everyone with an interest in all things census.

So...where are we at? We’ve been hard at work considering all of the relevant census collections in detail, reviewing existing work on the topic (such as existing inventories and platforms that contain some census material), and determining the inventory’s scope (see our scope statement here). 

We have also been prototyping the actual inventory, determining what metadata fields are needed to adequately describe the various data products. We invite you to review the following documents:

Inventory design (in English and French), showing how we propose to organize the inventory to accommodate the relevant census data products and documentation

Prototype inventory spreadsheet (attached for the census year 1921), showing the metadata fields we have selected. The cover sheet provides a summary of the inventory progress. 

Metadata crosswalk (attached), showing how the selected fields correspond to several relevant metadata standards. We intend to harvest existing metadata, which was the main driver for creating this crosswalk. 

Please let us know what you think! You can add comments directly in the documents, or don’t hesitate to send me an email with your feedback.

Next steps: we hope to finalize the inventory design in the next few weeks, and begin inventorying in earnest. There are over 100 censuses on our list to inventory, so this is a very big job! If you are able to contribute in any way (your time, student employee time, etc.) please get in touch. 

Thanks, and we look forward to hearing from you!

GSS 27, 2013, Social Identity

Question:
I have a researcher using the GSS 27, Social Identity, that she has some questions about.

• Were respondents contacted, and the survey conducted, on cell phones as well as landlines?
• In the survey questionnaire, there is the following language preference variable: LP_Q01:  Would you prefer that I speak in English or in French? This variable is not included in the PUMF. Would it be available in the Master file through the RDC? I would like to know how many respondents who identified as visible minorities selected ‘Other’.
• LP_N02 INTERVIEWER: Select respondent's preferred non-official language. If necessary, ask: (What language would you prefer?) – would this variable be in the Master file also? If a respondent selected one of the unofficial languages, are they allowed to conduct the survey in that unofficial language? For example, if a respondent selected “Urdu”, would the survey be conducted in “Urdu”?
• If respondent selected “Other”, but is not allowed to conduct survey in an unofficial language, are they then dropped from the survey?
• From pg 160-166 of the 2013 questionnaire (attached for reference), there is a series of questions on respondent’s language background. These are also not in the PUMF. Would they be available in the Master file through the RDC?
• LNR_Q025: Of English or French, which language(s) do you speak well enough to conduct a conversation? Is it...? English, French, both, neither.
• LNR_Q114: Do you still understand Chinese?
• LNR_Q120 Do you still understand Vietnamese?
• LNR_Q100: What language did you first speak in childhood? and LNR_Q155 What language do you speak most often at home? are in the PUMF as grouped variables (LANCH and LANHSDC). Would the other languages grouped ‘other languages’ in the PUMF be included in the Master file?

See tabulation below for the following question:

• I am confused as to why more visible minorities report “yes” to voting in the last federal election than those who report “yes” to being eligible to vote. In other words, 1065 visible minorities are eligible to vote, but 2671 claim they voted-- but how can so many people vote when they are not even eligible? This is quite a large discrepancy. Even if there’s some over-reporting of voting behavior, I feel survey administrators would have caught on to it.
• This discrepancy between reported “yes” to voting and eligibility carries through in the provincial and municipal elections.
• There is quite a large proportion of “valid skip” to these voting questions (I assume coded as “.a” in the .dta file, which corresponds to “6” in the codebook) What constitutes “valid skip”? Respondents below 18 yrs old?

Answer:

Here is the response from subject matter:

1. Survey respondents in 2013 were contacted both on landlines and cell phones. For the first time for a social survey at STC, respondents were also offered an Internet option.
2. Language of interview (English or French) is available on the Masterfile as is Knowledge of official languages (‘Of English or French, which language do you speak well enough to conduct a conversation?’). The number of those respondents who answered that they can conduct conversations in neither English nor French is very small. Crossed by visible minority status it may be unreleasable. 
3. Statistics Canada’s official policy is to conduct interviews in English and French only. In some cases, exemptions are granted to carry out an interview in a third language. Regional offices keep a list of interviewers and their language profiles in the ad hoc case where the respondent request another language beside English and French.  This is a best practice rather than a policy, and it depends on the language requested and if an interviewer is available with this profile.  When there are no interviewers able to conduct an interview in the respondent’s preferred language, the case becomes “out-of-scope” as a result of language barrier.
4. LNR_Q025, LNR_Q114, LNR_Q120 and LNR_Q100 are available on the Masterfile.
5. The reason for the discrepancy between number of respondents who voted and the number of respondents who were eligible for voting is that only respondents who reported not having voted were asked if they were eligible to vote. The valid skip category therefore includes all those who answered “yes” to having voted (since this clearly implies that they were eligible) as well as those who were under 18 years old.

Food Allergy Data for Business Evaluation

Question:
Hi

I have a researcher from the School of Business looking for information about what areas of Canada, US, or worldwide, have the highest rate of food allergies. They are looking to see if there are areas of high concentration of ‘single-location full-service restaurants’ that have high prevalence of food allergies. The objective is to identify an opportunity in these concentrated service areas to focus on a 'food-allergy' customer group in order to gain a strategic advantage in a crowded market.

Does anyone have suggestions for finding prevalence of food allergies?

Answer:
I’ve received the following response from subject matter:

“In 2017, the Canadian Community Health Survey(CCHS) asked two questions on allergies. The first question asked if the respondent has ever been told by a health professional that they had allergies as a result of an allergy test. The following question asks what they are allergic to, with one of the categories being certain foods.

The data is available in a custom request.

It seems like the level of geography they would be interested in might be small, and because allergies were only available in 2017 the sample size might not be available. The feasibility of a custom request will depend on the sample size for the requested geography.”

Is the International Travel Survey 2017 available?

Question:
According to the StatsCan website, 2017 was released in July, 2018 but doesn’t appear on the Nesstar server. Will this be uploaded at some point or am I missing something?

Answer:
Unfortunately you’re not missing anything. We’ve followed up numerous times now.  Unfortunately the website is not accurate and subject matter has hit delays. As soon as it is actually released, we will make it available for our clients.

Census Data at Dissemination Block Level

Question:
I have a researcher really wanting to get ahold of Census data (2011 & 2016) for NS at the Dissemination Block level. Do we have access to this level of geography (if so – any guidance for grabbing it would be amazing) or should I refer to the local RDC?

Answer:
Subject matter had the following to relay:

“Data for dissemination blocks is not available as part as standard products, besides for population and dwelling counts through our GeoSuite tool.

Other data is available through custom tabulations (additional  suppression is applied). The RDC file only goes down to the Dissemination Area (DA) level.”

PCCF/PCCF+ LibGuide

Queen's University Library has developed a PCCF/PCCF+ LibGuide, available at: https://guides.library.queensu.ca/PCCF

PCCF Terms of Use Question

Question:
I have a question regarding the restrictions outlined in the PCCF end-use license agreement.

Here is the question, in the researcher’s own words:

“I am inquiring in relation to end-use license agreement, and how much we would be able to expand the analysis geographically. We have done some organizing of the data according to PC, and then explored via geonames.org in order to get an approximate location just so we can get a sense of what size of town/small city is defined within urban and rural. However, I do not want to violate terms of use bullet #2. What we would like to be able to do is to separate into large urban/small urban and rural, which we think we can do with the information we have. Our research team is also wondering if there is a possibility to split north and south province. Can you provide any clarification to us on the agreement and what we can and cannot do?”


My understanding is that the researchers are worried that manipulating the data as outlined might count as “disassembling” or “decompiling” the data, as restricted by point 2 of the agreement. Do they have cause for concern?

Answer:
I’ve received the following response from subject matter:

“It seems that your client is using the PCCF only to correspond the postal codes to different geographies. That is the purpose of the product.

Using geonames.org to find locations, or other methods may not be necessary; that information is readily available at StatCan. Using the PCCF, most of the postal codes are linked to a dissemination block (DB), or perhaps a dissemination area (DA). There will be a representative point for those, with xy coordinates for more accurate location finding. Census Subdivision (CSD) is also provided, which is the postal code legal municipality.

Linking our Geographic Attribute File (GAF, https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/geo/ref/att-eng.cfm) to the PCCF provides links to higher level census geographies like population centres (PopCtr, https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/ref/dict/geo049a-eng.cfm) and Census Divisions (CD). Using PopCtr, the client can determine rural/urban. Using CDs the client can determine north/south (http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/pUtil.pl?Function=getNote&Id=792561&NT=04).


We can provide an Excel file of the CDs in North/South, rather than the client having to get it from the website.”

New Files on Statistics Canada Nesstar

We are pleased to inform you that the following are now available on the Statistics Canada Nesstar WebView site.

• Canadian Travel Survey (CTS) 1982 - 1999 PUMF (English only)
• Survey of Financial Security (SFS) 1999 PUMF (French only)
• Travel Survey of Residents of Canada: Trip File (TSRC) 2016 PUMF (French only)

Time Series for Labour Force Characteristics

Question:
A researcher would like to know why Table 14-10-0095-01 (Labour force characteristics by census metropolitan area, three-month moving average, unadjusted for seasonality) only go back as far as 2001; he'd like to go back as var as the mid-80s, if possible.

Answer:
We've received the following reply from subject matter:

"Comparable seasonally adjusted data by Census Metropolitan Areas is only available since 2001. We can produce unadjusted data back to March 1987. Please specify which characteristics you are requesting."

Canadian Data on Disability and Mental Health Services

Question:
I am looking for information, data, and statistics on disparity to mental health services for the following Canadian populations: rural folks, people classified has having disabilities (blind, physical disability, cognitive disability, brain injury etc).

I'm also looking for any types of statistics on internet accessibility across Canada, more specifically related to rural areas.

Answer:

I’ve checked with the team from CIHI and they’re provided us with the following response:

In response to your interest relating to mental health data, based on your specific data of interest, our Hospital Mental Health Database (HMHDB) team does not unfortunately have any sources that are readily available to be able to provide to you.

Customised data is typically obtainable through the submission of a formal data request. However, with that being said, even if you were interested in exploring this option, the data we have available, would only address the use of inpatient mental health services, and not access disparities. In terms of disabilities, we likely will not be able to capture historical diagnoses, rather would be able to identify only those that are captured on that episode of care.

Lastly for your interest regarding “any types of statistics on internet accessibility across Canada, more specifically related to rural areas”- such data is not a part of our data collection.

New Files on Statistics Canada Nesstar

We are pleased to inform you that the following are now available on the Statistics Canada Nesstar WebView site.

• Family Food Expenditure Survey (FOODEX) 1984, 1986 & 1990 PUMF
• Labour Market Activity Survey (LMAS) 1988 - 1990 PUMF (English only)
• Survey on the Importance of Wildlife to Canadians (SIWC) 1981, 1987 & 1991 PUMF (English only)
• Survey of Volunteer Activity (SVA) 1987 PUMF (English only)
• Travel to Work Survey (TWS) 1976 - 1984 PUMF (English only)

PCCF+ Header File

Question:
I would like so information on how to massage a pccf+ output (2006 census geo, version 5k). The preview in SAS is clear, but I generate a .csv which contains more variables (without any header) than the one that is being displayed in SAS (first 500 records). Could someone help me with this?

Answer:
I was given the following response:

“The CSV is output automatically when you run PCCF+. The output variables are indeed provided with variable names (at the top of the column), and the variables are all listed and explained in the documentation.

If the user wishes, they can import the CSV back into SAS and eliminate some of the columns, or rename their variables. This can also be done easily in Excel.

Alternatively, if they prefer the version that pops up automatically in SAS (which in this case seems to lack problems), they can hard-save that output as a SAS file using a DATA step, or output it as another CSV.

Without having more details, it’s hard to provide more feedback than that.

Please let the user know that there is a newer version of the PCCF+ available.”

New Files on Statistics Canada Nesstar August 2019

We are pleased to inform you that the following are now available on the Statistics Canada Nesstar WebView site.

• National Graduates Survey (NGS) 1997 PUMF
• National Graduates Survey (NGS) 2007 PUMF
• Adult Education Survey (AES) 1984 PUMF
• Adult Education and Training Survey (AETS) 1990 PUMF
• Adult Education and Training Survey (AETS) 1992 PUMF
• Adult Education and Training Survey (AETS) 1994 PUMF
• Adult Education and Training Survey (AETS) 1998, Courses PUMF
• Adult Education and Training Survey (AETS) 1998, Hobbies PUMF
• Adult Education and Training Survey (AETS) 1998, Labour Force PUMF
• Adult Education and Training Survey (AETS) 1998, Programs PUMF
• Adult Training Survey (ATS) 1986 PUMF
• Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey (CADUMS) 2012 PUMF
• Canadian Health and Disability Survey (CHDS) 1983-1984, Adult PUMF
• Canadian Health and Disability Survey  (CHDS) 1983-1984, Child PUMF
• Survey of Family Expenditure (FAMEX) 1974 PUMF
• Survey of Family Expenditure (FAMEX) 1990 PUMF
• International Adults Literacy Survey (IALS) 1994-1996-1998 PUMF
• Job Mobility Survey (JMS) 1973 PUMF
• National Alcohol And Drug Survey (NADS) 1989 PUMF
• National Child Care Survey (NCCS) 1988, Child Records PUMF
• National Child Care Survey (NCCS) 1988, Designated Adult PUMF
• National Survey on Drinking and Driving (NSDD) 1988 PUMF
• Postsecondary Students Survey (PSS) 1983-1984 PUMF
• Survey on Ageing and Independence (SAI) 1991 PUMF
• Maternity Leave Survey (SML) 1985 PUMF
• Survey of Persons Not in the Labour Force (SPNLF) 1992 PUMF
• Survey on Smoking in Canada (SSC) 1994 PUMF
• Survey of Volunteer Workers (SVW) 1980 PUMF
• Survey on Work Reduction (SWR) 1985 PUMF
• Victims of Crimes Survey Edmonton (VCSE) 1985 PUMF

PCCF+ - Neighbourhood Income Variables

Question:
In PCCF+ 7B, ten neighbourhood income quintile and deciles variables are available - BTIPPE, ATIPPE, QABTIPPE, QNBTIPPE, DABTIPPE, DNBTIPPE, QAATIPPE, QNATIPPE, DAATIPPE, and DNATIPPE ( see PCCF+ 7B Reference Guide, page 17). Prior to PCCF+ 7B, four neighbourhood income (within CMA/CA and national) quintile and decile variables are available – QAIPPE, QNIPPE, DAIPPE, and QDNIPPE (see for example PCCF+ 6D Reference Guide, page 15).

My question is which of the ten PCCF+7B correspond to the earlier definition of the neighbourhood income quintile and decile?

Answer:
We’ve received the following response from subject matter:

In previous versions, the quintiles were based only on After-Tax (AT) income.

So:

QAIPPE = QAATIPPE quintiles, area-based
QNIPPE = QNATIPPE quintiles, national
DAIPPE = DAATIPPE : deciles, area-based
DNIPPE = DNATIPPE : deciles, national

Deprivation Data at DA and CT Level

Question:
I am helping a professor develop a health geography assignment using Canada-wide marginalization data that allows students to explore the modifiable aerials units problem (MAUP) by comparing different geographies of the same dataset (eg. using the CT and DA level of the Canadian Marginalization index). This data exists for the 2006 Canadian Marginalization index (CAN-MARG) at the DA and CT level however, the product seems to have only been continued in 2011 and 2016 for Ontario.  As the years pass, it’s harder to rationalize using the 2006 data in order to get a national picture.

I recently discovered the “Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (CIMD)”. It seems like a great fit, but I am wondering if it is available at the CT level? If not, could I get an estimate on a custom tab?

I am aware the 2016 deprivation index is available for 2016 however, it also only appears to be available by DA https://open.canada.ca/data/dataset/c595f11f-5d24-421f-9d9b-d63cd5333904 -- any leads to CT level data for comparison would be helpful.

Answer:
I’ve received the following response from subject matter:


“Unfortunately, the CIMD is only available at the DA level. She can link the CIMD using geographic information (e.g. address, postal code). The client can consult the user guide for additional information on postal code information, specifically the postal code conversion file:  https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/45200001.”

New Release: Labour Force Survey July 2019

We are pleased to inform you that the following product is now available.

Labour Force Survey (LFS) - July 2019

This public use microdata file contains non-aggregated data for a wide variety of variables collected from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The LFS collects monthly information on the labour market activities of Canada's working age population. This product is for users who prefer to do their own analysis by focusing on specific subgroups in the population or by cross-classifying variables that are not in our catalogued products. The Labour Force Survey estimates are based on a sample, and are therefore subject to sampling variability. Estimates for smaller geographic areas, industries, occupations or cross tabulations will have more variability. For an explanation of sampling variability of estimates, and how to use standard errors to assess this variability, consult the Data Quality section in the Guide to the Labour Force Survey.

EFT:  /MAD_PUMF_FMGD_DAM/Root/3701_LFS_EPA/1976-2019/data/micro2019/micro2019-07.zip 

New Release: 2014 Provincial Symmetric Input-Output Tables

2014 Provincial Symmetric Input-Output Tables

EFT: /MAD_DLI_IDD_DAM/Root/other_autres/1401_IO_ES/15-211-X – Provincial Symmetric Input-Output Tables 2014.zip

New Release: 2015 Provincial Symmetric Input-Output Tables

2015 Provincial Symmetric Input-Output Tables

EFT: /MAD_DLI_IDD_DAM/Root/other_autres/1401_IO_ES/15-211-X – Provincial Symmetric Input-Output Tables 2015

Modernization Bulletin - July 2019

The July 2019 issue of the Statistics Canada Modernization Bulletin is now available on the EFT. The bulletin aims to keep you up to date on the latest Statistics Canada initiatives and transformations.  

EFT: /MAD_DLI_IDD_DAM/Root/ModernizationBulletinModernisation

BC Provincial Electoral Districts

Question:
A PhD student is looking to compare BC provincial electoral results with socioeconomic variables from the electoral districts, such as; visible minority and income. Is someone aware of a custom census tabulation for the provincial electoral districts in BC? I look on BC provincial website and couldn’t find anything.

Answer:
Have you looked at https://elections.bc.ca/resources/statistics/

New Release: DLI Standard Tables: FIUC-CAUBO 2017-2018

New Release:
DLI Standard Tables: FIUC-CAUBO 2017-2018
EFT: /MAD_DLI_IDD_DAM/Root/other_autres/3121_FIUC_IFUC/FIUC-IFUC 2017-2018

Update: CCHS 2015-2016 PUMF

Update: 
For the CCHS 2015-2016 PUMF—released in January— a new geographic classification variable (ALECLASS) based on open source data was added to the file. This variable is a categorical measure of the favourability of active living environment of each respondent based on their dissemination area and its intersection/dwelling density, as well as points of interest. Due to the addition of this variable, further data suppression was applied on the 2015-2016 PUMF to avoid disclosure risks. We are looking for any feedback you may have on the usefulness of the ALECLASS variable to help us determine if it should be added to the 2017-2018 PUMF. For the 2017-2018 PUMF there will be data on both physical activity and sedentary behaviors, so we see a potential usefulness, but would like to get a sense of how much the concept has been used so far.

Census data for Canadians of Bangladeshi origin

Question:
I have a faculty member looking for all census data (income, education, work, housing, etc) for people of Bangladeshi origin for Edmonton, Calgary, Alberta, and Canada. Does this require a custom tabulation?

Answer:
I’ve received the following reply from subject matter:

“We have the following 2016 data table available. Your client can use the filters to select their desired Geography and Ethnic origin at the top of the page.”

 If this is not sufficient, we will have to go the custom tab route.

ADAs and DAs correspondence files pre-census 2016

Question:
A researcher at Dalhousie has expressed interest in using the ADA as her unit of analysis. Since ADA is a new dissemination geography created for census 2016 and her research included pre-census 2016 time period, she would like to know if it is possible for Stat Can to provide

• DAs and ADAs correspondence for each census year pre-census 2016.  Using GeoSuite 2016 it is possible to generate DAuid corresponding to ADAcode.  This is not possible pre-census 2016.
• correspondence file that describe the ADAs between two censuses.  For examples
• census 2016 ADAs  corresponding to census 2011 ADAs
• census 2011 ADAs corresponding to census 2006 ADAs
• and so on

Answer:

I’ve received the following response from subject matter:

“As noted, there are no ADAs prior to 2016. Correspondences could be created between different census years, since a link is maintained on the geoframe between current census and previous census, at the lowest levels of geography. So, what could be created would be: 

2011 DA — 2016 ADA

2006 DA — 2016 ADA

2001 DA — 2016 ADA

Etc.

Because there is no such thing as an ADA prior to 2016, the concept of 2011 ADA — 2016 ADA does not really exist. All that could be provided is groupings of previous DAs that are close to equivalent to the current ADAs.”

This would all need to be done through a custom tabulation however. 

We do also produce correspondence files between the DAs for each census and its previous census. Those files are available on the Geography website, or I could see about the potential of having them added to the EFT (if they are not already there).

 

a different PCCF+ question: collaboration btwn 2 institutions, each with a PCCF+ license

Question:
I’ve been contacted by a researcher at [the university] who is collaborating with the regional government on a project. Both [the university] and the government group have PCCF+ licenses that forbid access to the data by anyone outside the institution named in the license. Do they each have to work in parallel with separate copies of the PCCF+ and essentially produce two separate but equal copies of the results, or can common sense prevail here since both groups have licensed access?

Answer:
Since both parties have valid end use licences and are collaborating on the same project, they can produce the results together

PCCF+ Question about Residential Postal Code File

Question:
I’m looking at the November 2018 (V 7b) files and the file labeled ‘Residential postal code file’ does not appear to contain residential postal codes. Is this a mistake?

I don’t use PCCF+ very often and would like to know where I can find the list of national residential postal codes.  There is a file called “Unique postal codes from PCCF” which appears to be what I’m looking for but I can’t find documentation to support this. Also—why is it called ‘unique postal codes’

Answer:
I apologize but I don’t seem to see the “Residential postal code file”?

I’ve double checked with the PCCF team and they’ve said the following:

“As per our agreement with Canada Post, we are not able to share a list of all residential postal codes in Canada – the data are proprietary. The purpose of the PCCF+ is to match USER lists of postal codes with our census geography. The client needs to have their own list of postal codes in order to use PCCF+.

The file indicating “unique postal codes” is a list of unique matches to the PCCF – so it is not a full list of residential postal codes either.

I apologize, but we do not provide a master list. The client may wish to approach Canada Post for access to these data.”

CCHS PUMFs and Sexual Orientation

Question:
I have a researcher wanting to use the CCHS PUMFs to look at the sexual identity variable, but even though the question has been asked in the Socio-Demographic portion of the questionnaire since Cycle 2.1 and reports have been published citing the data (such as https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/040615/dq040615b-eng.htm) neither of us can find this variable in any file other than the 2015-16 cycle. I hope we are not just missing something, but perhaps there is a reason this information was not made part of the PUMF files?

Answer:
I’ve received the following response from subject matter:

“In the past, the subject matter team preparing the PUMFs for release considered the sexual orientation concept as an indirect identifier and chose not to include it with the file. In 2015-2016, our team requested to the Microdata Release Committee to allow us to add the variable to our 2015-2016 PUMF. They agreed that the risk of disclosure was low and approved the addition of the variable. We will continue to assess the risk, but I imagine we will continue with the release of that variable going forward.”

Financial Data for Specific Industries at the Provincial Level

Question:
A researcher here is looking for some data for specific NAICS codes. We’ve found some information at the national level, and some provincial information at higher NAICS groupings, but nothing with both the level of industry and geographic detail he wants. He’s willing to purchase a custom tabulation if necessary.

Specifically he is asking for:

Annual, (total capital expenditures) for (NAICS 22111, 22112, 23713) for each province/territory, from 2007 to the most current date;
Annual, (total federal taxes, total provincial taxes) for (NAICS 22111, 22112, 23713) for each province/territory, from 2007 to the most current date.

Table 34-10-0035-01 gives capital expenditures at the provincial level, but at the two digit level only. 33-10-0007-01 has taxation but is also at the two-digit level. Am I missing an available source? Would this level of detail be available from a custom tabulation?

Answer:
I’ve received the following response from subject matter:

“We have data on taxes on production and products for NAICS 2211 and 23, but the data is not broken down by level of government.  We have data on capital expenditures, but only for NAICS 221 and 23.  This data would be available from 2007 to 2015, by province and territory.”