Question:
I have a grad student and faculty member who want to examine detailed census data at the DB level, from 2016, 2011 (NHS) and 2006, to analyze neighbourhood change over time. They have already looked at the DA level data available in the CHASS Census Analyser, which seems to stop at the DA level.
I know in theory that this data at the DB level would be available to a researcher at the RDC, but I also suspect that one needs a quite well defined research proposal to gain admission to RDC data. At this stage these researchers want to browse the data to see where interesting investigations may be revealed, so I’m not sure they would qualify at this stage for RDC.
I am suspecting that the available census/nhs pumfs would provide no greater granularity than the CHASS system, but I’m not sure of this, so *please* advise me on the best course of action at this point. We have, in the past, had researchers purchase a custom tab for a neighbourhood larger than the DB but smaller than the FSAs, but that might be expensive if a number of neighbourhoods are included in the request. I’m leaning toward sending them to consult at RDC, but am happy to learn from you what else I might do to enable these researchers.
Answer:
I’ve consulted with subject matter to get their opinion on what might be the best course of action and they’ve given me the following:
“The CHASS Census Analyser is not a product supported by STATCAN so we cannot speak to the geography level which is available there. However, the PUMFs would not go beyond DA either.
We would recommend having a look at the standard profiles at the DA level available on our website. From there, if the client would like to narrow down an area it would have to be processed by one of our Data Service Centres.
I’m not familiar with how exactly the RDC would process the request but I assume, they too would need a more directed demand for DBs and reasoning.
Here are some links to the standard DA profiles for the years requested:
2006 [http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/datasets/Index-eng.cfm?Temporal=2006&Theme=-1&VNAMEE=&GA=53087&S=0]
2011 [http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/datasets/Index-eng.cfm?Temporal=2011&Theme=-1&VNAMEE=&GA=53087&S=0]
2016 [http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/datasets/Index-eng.cfm?Temporal=2016&Theme=-1&VNAMEE=&GA=53087&S=0]”
My suggestion would be to a) take a look at these standard profiles and see if they help at all, and if not, b) contact the RDC to see about the possibility of accessing the data through there. If time is of an issue, the custom tabulation route will probably be faster, however more costly.
