The Canadian Housing Statistics Program (CHSP) was launched as a modernization pathfinder projectFootnote 1 in 2017 to provide comprehensive information on non-resident ownership and the financing of residential properties. Its first release focused on the cities of Toronto and Vancouver and has since expanded to cover other geographies and topical issues through the creation of a micro-level database. This standalone database was one of the CHSP's main deliverables and involved standardizing, cleaning, and integrating various databases (e.g., property assessment rolls, land titles, Census of Population, tax data, the Business Register, and the Longitudinal Immigration Database) from internal and external data providers. Data and data products were released as soon as development and analysis were completed.
This evaluation was conducted by Statistics Canada in accordance with the Treasury Board's Policy on Results and Statistics Canada's Risk-based Audit and Evaluation Plan (2021/2022 to 2025/2026). The objective of the evaluation was to provide a neutral, evidence-based assessment of the CHSP. The evaluation aimed at providing valuable information about the relevance and usefulness of data produced by the CHSP. It also looked at some of the lessons learned from the CHSP so far to inform future direction.
Overall, users reported that the CHSP database and data products were relevant and useful and filled important existing data gaps. CHSP data were used to generally understand the housing market, prepare reports, inform policy, conduct research, and communicate with the public. Possible improvements in areas such as timeliness, accessibility, and available data were noted. Users also identified several needs including information about the rental market, increased granularity and increased geographic coverage. The CHSP is aware of these needs and is currently exploring options to meet them moving forward.
Several key lessons can be learned from the CHSP as a modernization pathfinder project. These lessons include the importance of supporting innovation, recruiting and retaining skilled staff, and developing relationships with stakeholders. The CHSP also highlighted the complexity involved and the resources required to work with administrative data. At the broader agency level, the CHSP has highlighted the need for Statistics Canada to be clear about the complexities of working with administrative data, the opportunity to continue to support partnerships and coordination across housing divisions, and the importance of supporting innovation and expediency while managing risk.
The evaluation proposed two recommendations:
Recommendation 1:
The Assistant Chief Statistician (ACS), Economic Statistics (Field 5), should ensure a comprehensive strategic plan is developed that defines the CHSP's core priorities:
- The strategic plan should consider the development of new products that meet users' needs and existing gaps, the CHSP's communications goals, and provide a roadmap on how to efficiently achieve these in a standardized and sustainable way.
- The plan should be based on a risk analysis that accounts for the CHSP's evolution from a developing program to a more established one — thus impacting the balance between innovation, expediency, and risk appetite.
- The strategic plan, either annual or multi-year, should be reviewed periodically by the ACS or appropriate oversight group.
Recommendation 2:
The ACS, Economic Statistics (Field 5), in consultation with relevant partner ACSs, should ensure that there are processes in place, informed by CHSP's lessons learned, to support the CHSP's continued collaboration with other partners across the agency. This includes:
- Developing mechanisms and/or governance structures that support coordination and collaboration across divisions that work on housing as well as clearly defining the housing divisions' roles and responsibilities.
- Assessing the CHSP's relationships with internal corporate partners (e.g., Stakeholder Relations and Engagement, the Data Integration Division, and the International Cooperation and Methodology Innovation Centre) given it is nearing the end of the first developmental phase. This assessment should identify opportunities for further collaboration, including sharing innovations the CHSP has developed, identifying opportunities to leverage internal partners' expertise, and defining their roles moving forward.
- Reviewing and documenting lessons learned from the CHSP, and sharing these lessons, including innovative in-house solutions, with key partners to promote innovation and expediency.