In 2014/2015, the Agency accomplished the following:
- The Economic and Environmental Statistics program continued to deliver timely, relevant and high-quality economic indicators. These included gross domestic product, statistics on the financial health of the economy, retail sales, manufacturing shipments, balance of payments, international merchandise trade, and the Consumer Price Index.
- The Socio-economic Statistics program continued to conduct surveys, such as the monthly Labour Force Survey, the Survey of Household Spending, the Canadian Community Health Survey and the General Social Survey, as well as to produce information based on administrative programs, such as the Longitudinal Immigration Database. It also released information and analytical outputs on key social issues, including immigration, ethnicity, social engagement, youth, families, gender, seniors, Aboriginal peoples, education, crime, justice, health, births and deaths.
- Statistics Canada supported data needs for key policies and initiatives. An example of the Agency's responsiveness to support federal government decision making relates to the need for job-vacancy data. In February 2015, collection started on the first set of quarterly estimates for a new survey on job vacancies, supported by Employment and Social Development Canada. This survey will address key information gaps by looking at job vacancies by occupation and key economic region.
- Statistics Canada completed the final steps of a major enhancement project for the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The accuracy of the CPI has been improved by increasing the frequency and timeliness of basket updates and by almost doubling the monthly sample size. Better methods have also been put in place to account for product quality changes, and to improve product and outlet selection methods.
- The Agency continued to implement the Framework on Environmental Statistics. This included developing ecosystem and land and water yield accounts, initiating the means to facilitate collaboration with outside data partners, developing pilot environmental activity accounts, identifying data sources and gaps, and extending the existing physical flow accounts in the area of solid waste.
- Statistics Canada made significant investments in the redesign of a number of major programs, including the Labour Force Survey and the Canadian Community Health Survey.
- The Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP) completed the implementation of the first wave of surveys and now encompasses approximately 60 surveys. The main objective is to enhance the Economic and Environmental Statistics program so that it remains as robust and flexible as possible, while reducing the burden on business respondents. The IBSP project will streamline and consolidate the Agency's business survey processing environment. When completed, it will provide a common processing environment for more than 150 business surveys and will make electronic data collection the primary data collection method.
- The Agency released provisional estimates of Government Finance Statistics based on the new International Monetary Fund standard for Government Finance Statistics. The data, which cover government revenues, expenditures, assets and liabilities, fill a major gap in the area of public finance.
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