The quality at Statistics Canada

Statistics Canada’s product is information. If its information becomes suspect, the credibility of the Agency would be called into question and its reputation as an independent, objective source of trustworthy information undermined. The management of quality must therefore play a central role in the overall management of the Agency and be an integral part of the management of every program.

A significant feature of the management of quality is the balancing of quality objectives against the constraints of financial and human resources, the goodwill of respondents in providing source data, and competing demands for greater quantities of information. The management of quality is not the maximization of quality at all costs, but the achievement of an appropriate balance between the quantity and quality of information yielded by the Agency’s program and the resources available. Within individual programs the challenge is to make the appropriate trade-offs between the evolving needs of clients, costs, respondent burden, and the various elements or dimensions of quality.

Statistics Canada strives to build quality - fitness for use - into all its programs and products. The quality of its official statistics is founded on the use of sound scientific methods adapted over time to changing client needs, to the changing reality that the Agency aims to measure, and to the capacity or willingness of respondents to supply reliable and timely data. These Quality Guidelines are one of the tools that will aid in building quality into the design of each program.