• Business register coverage
• Data quality and limitations
• Key definitions found in Business Register Data
• Available Data
• Contact information

Business Register coverage

The Business Register is a repository of information reflecting the Canadian business population and exists primarily for the purpose of supplying frames for all economic surveys in Statistics Canada. It is designed to provide a means of coordinating the coverage of business surveys and of achieving consistent classification of statistical reporting units. It also serves as a data source for the compilation of business demographic information.

The major sources of information for the Business Register are updates from the Statistics Canada survey program and from Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) Business Number account files. This CRA administrative data source allows for the creation of a universe of all business entities.

Included in the Business Register are all Canadian businesses^{Note 1} which meet at least one of the three following criteria:

1. Have an employee workforce for which they submit payroll remittances to CRA; or
2. Have a minimum of $30,000 in annual revenue; or
3. Are incorporated under a federal or provincial act and have filed a federal corporate income tax form within the past three years.

The data provided in our products reflects counts of statistical locations by industrial activity (North American Industry Classification System), geography codes, and employment size ranges.

Notable changes to the data

Starting with the June 2015 reference period our product’s name changed from Canadian Business Patterns to Canadian Business Counts.

A number of changes that occurred for the December 2014 reference period resulted in a significant increase in the total number of businesses in Canada. The changes are made in an effort to be more coherent with our definition.

The changes are the following:

- There are two sets of CANSIM tables replacing the previous set of tables:

• Locations with employees (CANSIM 552-000x)
• Locations without employees (CANSIM 553-000x)

- There are two general industrial classification categories:

• Unclassified: new category for businesses which have not received a NAICS code
• Classified: existing category for businesses which have received a NAICS code

The impact of adding the unclassified category is an additional 78,718 locations with employees and 313,107 locations without employees. These counts can be easily identifiable because they are in a separate category.

- Businesses without employees correspond to the “indeterminate” employment category from the previous reference periods. The counts of businesses without employees now cover all enterprises which meet one of the following criteria:

• is incorporated
• shows a minimum of $30,000 in revenue (non-taxable and/or taxable)

This change affects businesses that did not have $30,000 in taxable revenue in previous years but did have at least $30,000 in overall (non-taxable and taxable) revenue. These businesses will now be included and represent approximately 600,000 units. Business counts in NAICS 53 - Real estate and rental and leasing and 62 - Health care and social assistance have the largest increases.

Starting with the June 2012 reference period, Canadian Business Patterns CD products are no longer available. Data by provinces and territories is available through CANSIM tables 551-000x, 552-000x and 553-000x. As well, all other previous data are still available through custom requests by contacting the Business Register Division’s Dissemination Unit.

The December 2008 reference period introduced the use of ‘statistical location’ counts, in addition to the usual establishment counts. The use of location counts provides a better measurement of actual business units. Definitions of the statistical establishment and location are provided later in this document under the “Statistical Establishment” and “Statistical Location” sections.

Data quality and limitations

The Business Register is largely based on the Business Number (BN) registration source as collected by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Therefore, the quality of counts is heavily dependent on the quality of the information submitted by Canadian businesses when applying for their Business Number.

Creations

In general, a location creation on the Business Register occurs shortly after a BN is created for each business registrant by CRA. The BN registrations are used to update the Business Register database on a weekly basis, which results in most new business locations being created only a few weeks after their administrative entry. For a small number of business locations the creation process is delayed by the imprecision or the lack of information concerning the nature of business activity as submitted to CRA. In these cases, the business is contacted to obtain the necessary information for the creation of a location record.

Inactivation

Businesses are assigned an inactive status on the Business Register when neither a tax payment nor payroll remittance has been made by these businesses for some time. Therefore, the possibility exists that a business may have ceased operation within this time period but remains recorded within the CBP counts.

Failure to make contact with a business during the conduct of Statistics Canada survey activities may also lead to the inactivation of Business Register units.

Data variations due to methodological changes

In December 2014, a revision of the employer status on all units of the Business Register resulted in approximately 70,000 businesses with employees to shift to the businesses without employees category. This is mostly noticeable in the smaller employment size ranges. Business counts in NAICS 72 - Accommodation and food services, 62 - Health care and social assistance, 31-33 – Manufacturing and 44-45 - Retail trade see the largest decreases. Also, the change in coverage to businesses without employees represents an increase of approximately 600,000 to cover all businesses which meet the criteria (see 1st section on Business Register Coverage).

In December 2000, you will note a drop in the number of businesses. As well in June 2005, the number of smaller businesses significantly declined. During the last few years, the Business Register Division has analyzed new administrative sources in order to detect more rapidly and accurately business closures. This has resulted in the use of new signals that are now part of the processes to update the Business Register.

The June 2006 reference period shows an increase in the number of businesses as a result of a methodological change. There is a new way of identifying newcomers on the Business Register. The following sectors have been affected: NAICS 48-49 (Transportation and Warehousing), NAICS 53 (Real Estate and Rental and Leasing) and NAICS 54 (Professional, Scientific and Technical Services).

The December 2007 reference period is based on the redesigned Business Register. The statistical structure (including establishments) has been simplified to better reflect the operating structure of the business. The decrease in the number of establishments is the result of our continuous efforts to detect inactive businesses as early as possible.

The December 2008 and June 2009 reference periods show a decrease in the number of businesses. This can be attributed to the introduction of new ‘inactivation rules’ that expanded the ability to identify units that are not reporting any economic activity.

For the first time, the December 2010 reference period includes all unincorporated (T1) businesses with sales of at least $30,000. This integration of T1 businesses is intended to create a more comprehensive representation of the business population on our Register. In particular, this change has mainly affected the following sectors: NAICS 53 (Real Estate and Rental and Leasing), NAICS 44-45 (Retail Trade) and NAICS 62 (Health Care and Social Assistance). The introduction of these units has not had a significant impact on total CBP counts and represents 1.6% of all locations in December 2010.

A large overall increase in the June 2013 reference period is due to incorporated businesses which are now required to auto-code a NAICS in order to record their tax form information with the Canada Revenue Agency. The increase represents an accumulation of about two years of auto-coding. This change affected almost every sector and accounts for most of the growth in the data between December 2012 and June 2013.

A small portion of the increase in businesses in December 2013 is due to new rules regarding the acceptance of auto-coded NAICS which resulted in these businesses being included in the data. The impact was not as wide-spread as the initial NAICS auto-code increase in June 2013 but mostly affected non-employers and the majority of sectors.

Geography

The Business Register adopted the Standard Geographical Classification, 2011 version, starting in June 2013. The spatial coding of locations is based on the Standard Geographical Classification (SGC-2011) maintained by Statistics Canada. The link between a specific business and its geographical code is made using the postal code.

Since the postal code is designed by Canada Post and targets the efficient delivery of the mail, there are many situations where one postal code does not align exactly to the boundaries of a single SGC geographic unit. The smaller and rural geographic units are more subject to this possibility. These situations are more prevalent in rural areas, where the addresses are defined by a single rural route, box or post office within the postal code.

Where a single postal code crosses different SGC geographical units, the Business Register assigns all the locations claiming the same postal code to a single geographical unit, which in general, is the major geographic unit in the surrounding area. There are some situations where locations are counted in geographical units (particularly at the census subdivision level) slightly askew to their true physical locality.

Starting in June 2014, only CSD with a count of 1 or more are included in the data tables. This resulted in a difference of 1,598 CSD from December 2013 to June 2014 but did not have any impact on the data.

Employment size ranges

As of December 2007, for most establishments/locations, the employment estimate is based on a Canada Revenue Agency form (PD7) filled by the employer where the number of employees over the last pay period (full time or not) is reported. This variable is updated on a monthly basis.

Prior to December 2007, for most establishments, the employment estimates were derived using, as a primary input, the amount of payroll deduction remittances made by employers on behalf of their employees. These were estimates and should not be confused with estimates produced by the Labour Force Survey or the Survey of Employment, Payroll and Hours. They are used by Statistics Canada for survey stratification purposes.

Businesses which do not have a payroll deduction account with CRA, but may still have a workforce of contracted workers, family members or business owners, are included in our tables without employees (formerly the indeterminate category).

Industrial classification code

Locations are coded based on the concept of major business activity in a manner consistent with the approach outlined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS-2012).

For newly created businesses, the primary industrial coding is initially processed using automated coding software. This software evaluates the activity description indicated by the business and assigns the appropriate industry classification coding (about 50% of new business records). Activity descriptions lacking precision are subjected to a manual coding process (about 50%^{Note 2} of new business records). Subsequent to this initial classification process, the industry code may be further updated if:

• the Business Register is notified of a change of activity as a result of a survey contact;^{Note 3}
• a subsequent update from the CRA administrative source which mentions a change in the business activities; or
• a business profile is conducted by the Business Register.

Over the course of 1997, the BR implemented the conversion of the 1980 Standard Industry Classification (SIC) coding system to the newly developed North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The fundamental concepts behind the classification systems (SIC and NAICS) were different: NAICS is based on a production-oriented principle whereas the SIC’s basis was the various goods and services produced. While the BR had sufficient information to assign a NAICS code for the majority of business records, over 300,000 businesses were contacted to obtain additional information regarding the nature of their business. Based on this new information a NAICS code was assigned and, where appropriate, the SIC was also updated. The SIC and NAICS 1997^{Note 4} coding systems are available on our products as of December 1998 and the SIC is available up until June 2004. Therefore, any data disseminated after October 2004 only have available the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code.

In December 2014, we added businesses which did not yet have an assigned NAICS and separated them into two categories, the Classified and Unclassified categories.

In December 2012, we implemented a new revised version of the NAICS: NAICS 2012. Various kinds of changes are brought into NAICS for 2012. Many changes involve clarification of the definition and boundary of classes through changes to the descriptive text of the definition; the illustrative examples; the exclusions; and titles of industries. Some changes involve the reduction of industry detail, while other industries are detailed further. Several other changes involve code numbering changes, by pushing 5-digit detail down to the 6-digit level, with otherwise no changes in content. This was done to keep the NAICS coding consistent at the trilateral level. Among the most notable changes are changes relating to outsourcing of manufacturing production, video game publishers and developers, book publishing exclusive agents, and crafts.

In December 2006, the NAICS 2007 version was implemented. It is important to note that the majority of changes occurred within sector boundaries with two exceptions. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) which moved from sector 52, Finance and Insurance to sector 53, Real Estate and Rental and Leasing. Executive Search Consulting Services moved from sector 54, Professional, Scientific and Technical Services to sector 56, Administrative and Support, Waste Management and Remediation Services. The greatest change introduced by this revision is in the area of telecommunications, as was the case in the NAICS 2002 revision. As of December 2006, NAICS 2002 has been replaced, in our products, by NAICS 2007.

In June 2002, NAICS 1997 was replaced by NAICS 2002. Two sectors were affected: Construction, and Information and Culture industries.

Key definitions found in Business Register Data

Statistical Entities

Statistical Enterprise

An enterprise is the legal operating entity at the top of the operating structure. There is only one enterprise per operating structure. It is associated with a complete set of financial statements.

Statistical Establishment

A statistical establishment is the production entity or the smallest grouping of production entities^{Note 5} which:

1. Produces a homogeneous set of goods or services;
2. Does not cross provincial boundaries; and
3. Provides data on the value of output together with the cost of principal intermediate inputs used along with the cost and quantity of labor resources used to produce the output.

For example, a plant in the manufacturing industry which provides accounting information regarding the value of shipments (sales), direct costs and labor costs is considered a single establishment. However, two stores in the retail industry may be considered one establishment if the accounting information, described in item (c) above, is not available separately, but is combined at a higher level.

Statistical Location

The location is an operating entity, specifically a production entity which:

1. Conducts economic activity at or from a single physical location or group of locations;
2. Resides within the smallest standardized geographical area;
3. Is able to provide employment data at a minimum.

Employment

Source

Employment is based on both corporations’ payroll remittance and profiling/survey data. These data are at first edited and imputed before being used as input for other processes.

For simple units, attached to only one legal entity, the employment is derived from payroll deductions using the 2nd maximum input within the last 12 months of data. For the complex units, aggregated employment, obtained from profiling, is first determined at the enterprise level. This value is afterward distributed at the establishment and location levels based on the profiled employment distribution from the Business Register.

These employment estimates are used for survey stratification purposes. Using other sources of data such as the Survey of Employment Payroll and Hours may lead to different results.

Employment Size Ranges

The following are the employment size ranges available in the Business Register:

1 to 4
5 to 9
10 to 19
20 to 49
50 to 99
100 to 199
200 to 499
500+

Locations without employees include the self-employed, i.e. those who do not maintain an employee payroll, but may have a workforce which consists of contracted workers, family members or business owners. These also include employers who did not have employees in the last 12 months.

Please note that locations are assigned to employment size ranges based on employment size estimates derived from payroll remittance and profiling data. The primary purpose of the employment size data is to improve the efficiency of samples selected to conduct statistical surveys. These data should not be used in any manner to compile industry employment estimates. Employment size estimates, as grouped in employment size ranges, tend to measure the annual maximum number of employees, full time or not.

Geography

The Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) is Statistics Canada’s official classification for the geographical areas in Canada. It was developed to facilitate the analysis of statistical data using a uniform geographical area definition. It produces a range of geographical areas that are useful for analysis, convenient for data collection and compilation on this basis. It is intended primarily for the classification of statistical units such as locations.

Two criteria were used in the selection of the geographical areas for the Standard Geographical Classification:

1. Easily recognized by the respondents who are asked to report geographical detail because they routinely conduct business with administrative units such as a municipality, regional municipality or province; and
2. Useful geographical areas for the purpose of statistics.

The Standard Geographical Classification identifies three types of key geographical areas:

1. Provinces and territories (13 in total)
2. Census divisions (293 in total)
3. Census subdivisions (5,253 in total)

Structure of the Standard Geographical Classification

Each of the three sets of areas covers all of Canada. They are hierarchical: a census subdivision aggregates to a census division, which in turn aggregates to a province or territory.

(1) Province and Territory

'Province' and 'territory' refer to the major political units of Canada. From a statistical point of view, province and territory are basic areas for which data are tabulated. Canada is divided into 10 provinces and 3 territories.

(2) Census Division

Census division (CD) is the general term for provincially legislated areas (such as county and regional district) or their equivalents. Census divisions are intermediate geographic areas between the province/territory level and the municipality (census subdivision).

Usually they are groups of neighbouring municipalities joined together for the purposes of regional planning and managing common services (such as police or ambulance services). These groupings are established under laws in effect in certain provinces of Canada. For example, a census division might correspond to a county or a regional district. In Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, provincial/territorial law does not provide for these administrative geographic areas. Therefore, Statistics Canada, in cooperation with these provinces and territories, has created equivalent areas called census divisions for the purpose of collecting and disseminating statistical data.

Census division boundaries tend to be relatively stable over many years. For this reason the census division has been found useful for analysing historical data on small areas.

Census divisions (CDs) are classified into 12 types. Ten of these types were created according to official designations adopted by provincial or territorial authorities. The other two types - the "census division" (CDR) and the "territory" (TER) - were created as equivalents by Statistics Canada, in cooperation with the affected provinces and the territory, for the purpose of collecting and disseminating statistical data.

(3) Census Subdivision

Census subdivision (CSD) is the general term for municipalities (as determined by provincial/territorial legislation) or areas treated as municipal equivalents for statistical purposes (e.g., Indian reserves, Indian settlements and unorganized territories).

Municipalities are units of local government. There are two municipalities in Canada that straddle provincial boundaries, Flin Flon (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) and Lloydminster (Saskatchewan and Alberta). Each of their provincial parts is treated as a separate CSD. Three Indian reserves also straddle provincial limits, Shoal Lake (Part) 39A and Shoal Lake (Part) 40 (Ontario and Manitoba); and Makaoo (Part) 120 (Saskatchewan and Alberta); and are treated as separate CSDs.

Beginning with the 1981 Census, each Indian reserve and Indian settlement recognized by the Census is treated as a separate CSD and reported separately. Prior to the 1981 Census, all Indian reserves in a census division were grouped together and reported as one census subdivision.

There is a total of 961 Indian reserves and 28 Indian settlements classified as CSDs. These are populated (or potentially populated) Indian reserves, which represent a subset of the approximately 3,100 Indian reserves across Canada. Statistics Canada works closely with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (formally known as Indian and Northern Affairs Canada) to identify the reserves and the settlements to be included as CSDs. Furthermore, the inclusion of an Indian settlement is dependent upon the agreement of the provincial or territorial authorities.

Census subdivisions are classified into 54 types. Fifty-two of these were created according to official designations adopted by provincial, territorial or federal authorities. The other two types - "Subdivision of unorganized" in Newfoundland and Labrador, and "Subdivision of county municipality" in Nova Scotia - were created as equivalents to municipalities by Statistics Canada, in cooperation with the two affected provinces, for the purpose of collecting and disseminating statistical data.

Please take note, when using the CSD, of the volatility of the counts between the different reference periods (specifically with regards to rural areas). Units move from one CSD to another, not due to actual changes in physical location, but due to changes in linkages between a specific CSD and postal code.

Census Metropolitan Area and Census Agglomeration

Census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations are other standard units created to present statistics for the largest urban centers in Canada.

A census metropolitan area (CMA) or a census agglomeration (CA) is formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centred on a population centre (known as the core). A CMA must have a total population of at least 100,000 of which 50,000 or more must live in the core. A CA must have a core population of at least 10,000. To be included in the CMA or CA, other adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the core as measured by commuting flows derived from previous census place of work data.

If the population of the core of a CA declines below 10,000, the CA is retired. However, once an -area becomes a CMA, it is retained as a CMA even if its total population declines below 100,000 or the population of its core falls below 50,000. All areas inside the CMA or CA that are not population centres are rural areas.

Other Geographies

Economic Region

An economic region (ER) is a grouping of complete census divisions (CDs) (with one exception in Ontario) created as a standard geographic unit for analysis of regional economic activity.

Census Tract

Area that is small and relatively stable. Census tracts usually have a population of 2,500 to 8,000. They are located in large urban centres that must have an urban core population of 50,000 or more.

Federal Electoral District

Area represented by a Member of Parliament (MP) elected to the House of Commons.

Dissemination Area

Small area composed of one or more neighbouring blocks, with a population of 400 to 700 persons. All of Canada is divided into dissemination areas.

Forward Sortation Area

Area composed of the first three digits of the postal code which is a six-character code defined and maintained by Canada Post Corporation for the purpose of sorting and delivering mail.

‘000’ Residue

Please note that codes have been created for residues. They consist of the province/territory code followed by zeroes. This residual category reflects statistical units in Canada where there is insufficient information to precisely locate the locations within a census division/census subdivision as determined by the 2011 Standard Geographical Classification. The information does, however, indicate within which province/territory the location resides.

Starting with the December 2007 reference period, the number of businesses coded as “residue” (see description below) has increased with the change to the new Standard Geographical Classification (SGC). Since the new geography is based on a more recent version of postal codes, a number of existing postal codes no longer find a matching geography code. A similar impact affected the June 2013 data for the same reason.

Note that for the census metropolitan areas and census agglomeration geography, the code for the residue has been set to ‘blank’. This was implemented to counter the geography change from SGC1996 to SGC2001 where the code 000 represents the territories.

Industry Codes - North American Industry Classification System

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is an industry classification system developed by the statistical agencies of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Created against the background of the North American Free Trade Agreement, it’s designed to provide common definitions of the industrial structure of the 3 countries and a common statistical framework to facilitate the analysis of the 3 economies. NAICS is based on supply or production oriented principles, to ensure that industrial data, classified to NAICS, are suitable for the analysis of production-related issues such as industrial performance.

NAICS is a system encompassing all economic activities. It has a hierarchical structure. At the highest level, it divides the economy into 20 sectors. At lower levels, it further distinguishes the different economic activities in which businesses are engaged:

The first four levels of NAICS (2 to 5-digit codes) are designed for the production of comparable economic statistics by the three countries. At the fifth level (i.e. 6-digit code), each country can elaborate the national detail it requires for its own statistical purposes.

NAICS is designed for the compilation of production statistics and, therefore, for the classification of data relating to establishments and locations. It takes into account the specialization of activities generally found at the level of the producing units of businesses. The criteria used to group establishments into industries in NAICS are similarity of input structures, labour skills and production processes.

NAICS can be used for classifying enterprises. However, when NAICS is used in this way, the following caveat applies: NAICS has not been specially designed to take account of the wide range of vertically- or horizontally-integrated activities of large and complex, multi-establishment companies and enterprises. Hence, there will be a few large and complex companies and enterprises whose activities may be spread over the different sectors of NAICS, in such a way that classifying them to one sector will misrepresent the range of their activities.

Please note that the 5-digit codes are not included in any Business Register tables.
For a list of changes between NAICS 2007 and NAICS 2012 please go to our website.

Revenue

Source

These revenues are derived mostly from administrative files from C.R.A. (Canada Revenue Agency). They are based on both corporations’ income tax revenues and GST sales remittances. These data are at first edited and imputed before being used as input for other processes.

For simple units, attached to only one legal entity, the revenue is derived from a regression-model using the GST sales as independent variable, the income tax revenue being the dependant variable.

For the complex units, aggregated revenue is first determined at the enterprise level. This value is afterward distributed at the establishment and location levels based on the profiled revenue distribution from the Business Register.

Available Data

CANSIM - Canadian Business Counts / Canadian Business Patterns

Location counts with employees by province/Canada, NAICS and employment size ranges are available on CANSIM tables 552.

Location counts without employees by province/Canada and NAICS are available on CANSIM tables 553.

Location counts by province/Canada, NAICS and employment size ranges are available on terminated CANSIM tables 551.

Tables with no confidential measures applied

Units: Location, establishment or enterprise counts
Geography: All geographies
Industry: All levels of NAICS
Employment Size Ranges: Standard 9 ranges or custom 13 or 21 ranges

Revenue Ranges

Units: Location, establishment or enterprise counts
Geography: Province and CA/CMA
Industry: NAICS-2, 3
Confidentiality measures: Rounding

Profit/Non Profit Data (December only)

Units: Establishment counts
Geography: Province
Industry: NAICS-2
Confidentiality measures: Suppression

Business Type and Public/Private Data (December only)

Units: Enterprise counts
Geography: Province and CMA (14)
Industry: NAICS-2
Confidentiality measures: Suppression

Contact Information

Contact us:

Business Register Dissemination Unit
Statistical Registers and Geography Division
Statistics Canada
Jean Talon Building, 8-A8
Tunney’s Pasture
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0T6

statcan.brd-information-dre-information.statcan@statcan.gc.ca

Fax: (613) 951-6274

Notes

Definition of commercial services

Commercial services cover several services such as:

Royalties and licences fees - receipts and payments for the authorised use of registered trademarks, and of propriety rights such as patents, copyrights and industrial process and designs. It also includes fees for the right to replicate, distribute or otherwise use software.

Management services - includes legal services, accounting services, business and management consulting fees, public relations services, and it also covers charges between related parties for managerial and administrative services.

Financial services - covers financial intermediation and auxiliary services, usually provided by banks and other financial intermediaries and auxiliaries. Included are services related to financial activities, such as advisory, custody and asset management services, merger and acquisition services, deposit taking and lending, letters of credit, credit card services, commissions and charges related to financial leasing, factoring, and clearing of payments.

Note: fees and commissions on securities (such as broking, placement of issues, futures trading) are excluded from this survey.

Telecommunications - encompasses the transmission of sound, images or other information by telephone, telex, telegram, radio and television cable and broadcasting, satellite, electronic mail, facsimile services etc., but does not include the value of the information transported.

Computer and information services – covers design, engineering and management of computer systems (exclusive of the value of hardware) and the development and production of original (customized) software. Covers on-line information retrieval services, including database services and computer assisted document searches and retrievals, and operations of internet service providers. Also covers news agency services (as syndicated reporting services to the media).

Research and development – covers charges related to systematic investigations through experiment or analysis to achieve a scientific or commercial advance for, or through, the creation of new or significantly improved products or processes.

Professional services - includes services such as architectural, engineering and specialized design services, scientific and technical services.

Insurance - covers claims received from non-resident insurers and premiums paid to non-resident insurers. Insurance comprises life, accident and health, property, casualty, freight and other forms of risk protection.

Commissions on trade - covers commissions on goods and service transactions between resident merchants, commodity brokers, dealers, manufacturers' sales branches and commission agents and non-residents. Include auction commissions. Excluded are commissions already recorded in the price of goods imported and exported through Customs.

Training - covers charges for employee training and development; also covers such services to the educational market as testing, consulting and the development and delivery/adaptation of course materials and systems. Educational equipment sales and replications of course material for general sale are excluded. Fees incurred for attending full time university and college programs are beyond the scope of this survey and should not be included.

Audiovisual and cultural services - receipts and payments for the production of films and videos; includes receipts or payments for post-production, motion picture laboratory, sound recording, broadcasting, performing arts, rentals and distribution rights sold to the media for a limited number of showings in specified areas.

A complete list of definitions for all services covered by this survey is available upon request.

Costs or revenues for transportation services (such as freight), travel expenses and fares, goods imported or exported, interest, or profits and losses should not be reported on this survey. Salaries paid to non-Canadian employees for whom you complete a T4 slip (Statement of remuneration paid) should not be reported on this survey.

The Canadian reporting entity

The Canadian reporting entity, as a statistical unit, is defined as the organisational unit of a business that directs and controls the allocation of resources relating to its domestic operations, and for which consolidated financial and balance sheet accounts are maintained from which international transactions, an international investment position and a consolidated financial position for the unit can be derived.
The Canadian reporting entity should provide a fully consolidated report including itself and all of its Canadian subsidiaries and associates.

Service transactions to include or to exclude depending of the entities involved

Please include commercial service transactions conducted between the Canadian reporting entity (surveyed by this questionnaire) and all foreign parties, related or not.

Do not include transactions conducted between one of your foreign related parties and another foreign entity. For example, if your foreign affiliated entity purchases a service from an unrelated entity from another country, that transaction should not be included. Do not include transactions conducted between one of your foreign related parties and a Canadian unrelated party.

Transactions between your Canadian entity and another Canadian entity owned by foreign interests are to be excluded as well. However, you should report transactions when your entity purchases (or sells) commercial services from (to) your foreign parent or from (to) a foreign affiliated or associated entity.

How to report transactions

Report all the international commercial service transactions by partner country. Sales of commercial services are to be reported in the top half of the questionnaire under "Total Revenues Earned on services sold to non-residents" while purchases of commercial services are reported under "Total Expenses Incurred on services purchased from non-residents".

Amounts reported should be rounded in thousands of Canadian dollars. For example, an amount of C$ 5,234,568.00 should be reported as "5,235" on the questionnaire. Amounts below C$ 500.00 are rounded to "0" and should, therefore, be omitted.
Allocate transactions to countries by using the country codes from the "yellow sheet" included with the questionnaire. If a country is not included on the list, write the name of the country instead.

When actual amounts are not available, please estimate your service expenses and revenues. Specify, in the "Comments" section that amounts are estimated.

If you are not sure if a transaction has to be reported on this survey, you could report the amount and provide a description of the transaction in the "Comments" section.

If, after reading this guide, you confirm that your enterprise has no transaction of commercial services then please report "0" at line 1 on both revenues and expenses sections, sign the form and return it to Statistics Canada.

Example:
An enterprise is providing commercial services to three foreign clients:

1. It charges C$50,000.00 to a subsidiary unit located in the United States for commercial services.
2. It charges C$100,000.00 to an unaffiliated unit located in the United States for commercial services.
3. It charges C$60,000.00 to a subsidiary company located in the United Kingdom for commercial services (report these transactions as revenue earned on services sold to non-residents since it is exporting commercial services).

The country code "USA" is entered on line 1 under the country code column and the country code "GBR" is entered on line 2 under the country code column.

The transactions with the two clients located in United States are summed and "150" is reported on line 1.

The revenues ("60") from the client located in United Kingdom are entered on line 2.

The total of all revenues ("210") is reported on line "Total revenues from all countries".

COMMERCIAL SERVICES TRANSACTIONS WITH NON-RESIDENTS
Table summary
This table displays the results of COMMERCIAL SERVICES TRANSACTIONS WITH NON-RESIDENTS. The information is grouped by COMMERCIAL SERVICES TRANSACTIONS WITH NON-RESIDENTS (Please report in thousands of Canadian dollars) (appearing as row headers), During current quarter, calculated using Country Code and (Cdn. $'000) units of measure (appearing as column headers).

COMMERCIAL SERVICES TRANSACTIONS WITH NON-RESIDENTS (Please report in thousands of Canadian dollars)
		During current quarter
		Country Code		(Cdn. $'000)
Revenues earned on services sold to non-residents	1	c1001	USA	c11001$	150
	2	c1002	GBR	c11002$	60
	3	c1003		c11003$
	4	c1004		c11004$
* Please une separate page(s) to report more than ten countries.	5	c1005		c11005$
	6	c1006		c11006$
	7	c1007		c11007$
	8	c1008		c10008$
	9	c1009		c10009$
	10	c1010		c10010$
Total revenues earned from all countries		c1099	TTL	c11099$	210

Environment, Energy and Transportation Statistics Division
Energy Section

Reporting Guide

This guide is designed to assist you as you complete the 2014 Annual Survey of Electric Power Thermal Generating Station Fuel Consumption. If you need more information, please call the Statistics Canada Help Line at the number below.

Help Line: 1-877-604-7828

Your answers are confidential.

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act.

Statistics Canada will use the information from this survey for statistical and research purposes.

Table of contents

Skip to text

General information: Purpose of survey, Data-sharing agreements and Data linkage
Reporting instructions
Cogeneration
Solid fuels used to generate electricity
Liquid fuels used to generate electricity
Gaseous fuels used to generate electricity
Other fuels used to generate electricity
Useful thermal energy
Units of measure
Reporting categories

Text begins

General information

Purpose of survey

The purpose of this survey is to obtain information on the supply of, and demand for, energy in Canada. This information serves as an important indicator of Canadian economic performance, and is used by all levels of government in establishing informed policies in the energy area. The private sector also uses this information in the corporate decision-making process. Your information may also be used by Statistics Canada for other statistical and research purposes.

Data-sharing agreements

To reduce respondent burden, Statistics Canada has entered into data-sharing agreements with provincial and territorial statistical agencies and other government organizations, which have agreed to keep the data confidential and use them only for statistical purposes. Statistics Canada will only share data from this survey with those organizations that have demonstrated a requirement to use the data.

Section 11 of the Statistics Act provides for the sharing of information with provincial and territorial statistical agencies that meet certain conditions. These agencies must have the legislative authority to collect the same information, on a mandatory basis, and the legislation must provide substantially the same provisions for confidentiality and penalties for disclosure of confidential information as the Statistics Act. Because these agencies have the legal authority to compel businesses to provide the same information, consent is not requested and businesses may not object to the sharing of the data.

For this survey, there are Section 11 agreements with the provincial and territorial statistical agencies of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon. The shared data will be limited to information pertaining to business establishments located within the jurisdiction of the respective province or territory.

Section 12 of the Statistics Act provides for the sharing of information with federal, provincial or territorial government organizations. Under Section 12, you may refuse to share your information with any of these organizations by writing a letter of objection to the Chief Statistician and returning it with the completed questionnaire. Please specify the organizations with which you do not want to share your data.

For this survey, there are Section 12 agreements with the statistical agencies of Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut as well as with the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Natural Resources, the Ministère de l'énergie et des ressources naturelles du Québec, the Manitoba Department of Mineral Resources, Alberta Energy, the British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines, the British Columbia Ministry of Natural Gas Development, the National Energy Board, Natural Resources Canada and Environment Canada.

For agreements with provincial and territorial government organizations, the shared data will be limited to information pertaining to business establishments located within the jurisdiction of the respective province or territory.

Data linkage

To enhance the data from this survey and to minimize the reporting burden, Statistics Canada may combine it with information from other surveys or from administrative sources.

Reporting instructions

This schedule is to be completed for the station or stations indicated on the affixed label to the questionnaire. Please report for the requested period: January to December 2014.

Report only the amount of fuel used for the generation of electricity.

Reported value ($) should be the total cost at the station gate.

If there are any stations on standby, please report them in the notes section.

If the information requested is unknown, please provide your best estimate.

Cogeneration

Cogeneration: A highly efficient means of generating heat and electric power at the same time from the same energy source. Cogeneration makes use of the excess heat, usually in the form of relatively low-temperature steam exhausted from the power generation turbines towards another purpose.

Type: Primary purpose
Electricity internal: electricity which is used only for internal purposes.
Electricity external: electricity which is sold / supplied to another company.
Industry internal: Fuels and processes used towards internal purposes that do not contribute towards the generation of electricity. (i.e. steam for drying paper)
Industry external: Fuels and processes used towards the generation of electricity.

Sub-Types
Combined cycle: burns fuel in a gas turbine or engine to generate electricity. The exhaust from the turbine or engine can provide usable heat or go to a heat recovery system to generate steam which then may drive a secondary steam turbine.
Steam turbine: burns fuel to produce steam, which generates power through a steam turbine. Exhaust (left over steam) can be used as low-pressure steam to heat water.
Combustion engine diesel: rely solely on heat and pressure created by the engine in its compression process for ignition. The compression that occurs is usually twice or more higher than a gasoline engine. Diesel engines will take in air only, and shortly before peak compression, a small quantity of diesel fuel is sprayed into the cylinder via a fuel injector that allows the fuel to instantly ignite.
Natural gas combustion turbine: involves a natural gas fired turbine, which runs a generator to produce electricity. The exhaust gas flows through a heat recovery boiler, which can convert the exhaust energy into steam or usable heat.

Solid fuels used to generate electricity

Any energy form consumed not otherwise identified on the questionnaire. Specify in the spaces provided.

Bituminous coal: A dense, black coal, often with well-defined bands of bright and dull material with a moisture content usually less than 20%. Used primarily for generating electricity, making coke and space heating.
Sub-bituminous coal: A black coal used primarily for thermal generation, with moisture content between 15% and 30%. (Canadian/Foreign) - It is important to distinguish between Canadian versus imported sub-bituminous as each carries a different content, depending on the location of the coal mine.
Lignite: A brownish-black coal of low rank containing 30% to 40% moisture and volatile matter. Used almost exclusively for electric power generation.
Wood (Report for "Dry" method): Wood and wood energy used as fuel, including round wood (cord wood), lignin, wood scraps from furniture and window frame manufacturing, wood chips, bark, sawdust, forest residues, charcoal and pulp waste.
Petroleum coke: (often abbreviated petcoke) is a barbonaceous solid derived from oil refinery coker units or other cracking processes. Other coke has traditionally been derived from coal.
Agriculture biomass: includes animal manure, cellulosic crop residue, fruit and vegetable culls and food-processing effluent. Potential energy crops include high-yielding, high-carbohydrate crops such as switchgrass and vegetable-oil crops such as canola and sunflower, and hydrocarbon plants such as milkweed and gumweed.
Other biomass: (food processing) can include residues that are produced during the processing of a product, such as cheese whey, canning factory residues, fruit pits, apple pomice and coffee grounds.
Other biomass: (type unknown) any other type of biomass not otherwise identified on the questionnaire. Specify in the spaces provided.
Municipal and other waste: can include residues that are produced during the processing of a product, such as paper, cardboard, rubber, leather, natural textiles, wood, brush, grass clippings, kitchen wastes and sewage sludge.

Liquid fuels used to generate electricity

Any energy form consumed not otherwise identified on the questionnaire. Specify in the spaces provided.

Biodiesel: refers to a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel consisting of short chain alkyl (methyl or ethyl) esters, made by transesterification of vegetable oil or animal fat (tallow), which can be used (alone, or blended with conventional petrodiesel) in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles.
Ethanol: (ethanol fuel) the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. It can be used as a fuel, mainly as a biofuel alternative to gasoline. It can be made from very common crops such as sugar cane and corn, it is an increasingly common alternative to gasoline in some parts of the world.
Other biofuel: any other type of biofuel not otherwise identified on the questionnaire. Specify in the spaces provided.
Light fuel oil (LFO): all distillate type fuels for power burners, fuel oil no. 1, fuel oil no. 2 (heating oil no. 2), fuel oil no. 3 (heating oil no. 3), furnace fuel oil, gas oils and light industrial fuel.
Heavy fuel oil (HFO): all grades of residual type fuels including low sulphur. Usually used for steam and electric power generation and diesel motors. Includes fuel oil nos. 4, 5 and 6. (Canadian/Foreign) - it is important to distinguish between Canadian versus imported Heavy Fuel Oil as each carries a different energy content, and is used to validate the integrity of Canada's Energy Balances.
Propane: is a three-carbon alkane, normally a gas, but compressible to a transportable liquid. It is derived from other petroleum products during oil or natural gas processing. It is commonly used as a fuel for engines, barbeques and home heating systems.
Diesel: all grades of distillate fuel used for diesel engines including low sulphur content (lower than 0.05%). Does not include diesel used for transportation off the plant site.
Spent pulping liquor: A by-product in the paper making process, containing carbohydrate and lignin decomposition products. Also known as black liquor.
Orimulsion: is a registered trademark name for a bitumen-based fuel that was developed for industrial use. Bitumen is a mixture of organic liquids that are highly viscous, black, sticky and entirely soluble in carbon disulfide and composed primarily of highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Currently orimulsion is used as a commercial boiler fuel in power plants worldwide.

Gaseous fuels used to generate electricity

Any energy form consumed not otherwise identified on the questionnaire. Specify in the spaces provided.

Waste gasification: the process of waste gasification involves converting the organic material within the waste into synthetic natural gas (syngas), which is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas. The syngas is used to produce electricity in the same way that natural gas is combusted for energy production-in combined-cycle mode.
Gasification: uses high temperatures in the presence of oxygen to convert solid biomass into gas (known as producer gas) to fuel a turbine to generate electricity.
Natural gas: a mixture of hydrocarbons (principally methane) and small quantities of various hydrocarbons existing in the gaseous phase or in solution with crude oil in underground reservoirs.
Coke oven gas: is obtained as a by-product of the manufacture of coke oven coke for the production of iron and steel.
Methane: is a chemical compound with the molecular formula CH4. It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Burning methane in the presence of oxygen produces carbon dioxide and water.
Refinery fuel gas: a gaseous mixture of methane, light hydrocarbons, hydrogen, and other miscellaneous species (nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, etc) that is produced in the refining of crude oil and/or petrochemical processes and that is separated for use as a fuel in boilers and process heaters throughout the refinery.

Other fuels used to generate electricity

Nuclear: is any nuclear technology designed to extract usable energy from atomic nuclei via controlled nuclear reactions. The most common method today is through nuclear fission, though other methods include nuclear fusion and radioactive decay.
Steam from waste heat: The amount of electricity generated when waste heat is recaptured to run a steam generator.

Useful thermal energy

Useful thermal energy produced: The amount of energy, in the form of heat, that is produced as a by-product of the generation of electricity and that is used for another application in a productive manner (e.g. the heating of industrial, commercial or residential space; steam used in an industrial process; etc.)

Units of measure

Reporting categories

Average heat content
The energy content one can expect to obtain from burning various raw materials.

Quantity
Please indicate the amount or volume of fuel used to generate electricity.

Total cost
Please indicate the fuel cost in thousands of Canadian dollars.

Generation
Please indicate the total electricity generated in MW.h

Total net electricity generation
Indicate the total (combined) amount of electricity generated, by all fuel types used, in MW.h

The data for this variable are reported using the following classification(s) and/or list(s):

• Membership in a First Nation or Indian band

'Membership in a First Nation or Indian band' refers to whether a person reported membership in a First Nation or Indian band. A band is defined as a body of Indians for whose collective use and benefit lands have been set apart or money is held by the Crown, or who have been declared to be a band for the purpose of the Indian Act. Many Indian bands have elected to call themselves a First Nation and have changed their band name to reflect this. With the 1985 amendment to the Indian Act of Canada (Bill C-31), many Indian bands exercised the right to establish their own membership code, whereby it was not always necessary for a band member to be a Registered Indian according to the Indian Act.

Citation note
The definition of band is based on that provided in "Words First - An Evolving Terminology Relating to Aboriginal Peoples in Canada" Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, October, 2002.

'Person' refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programmes.

The data for this variable are reported using the following classification(s) and/or list(s):

• Aboriginal identity

'Aboriginal identity' refers to whether the person reported identifying with the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. This includes those who reported being an Aboriginal person, that is, First Nations (North American Indian), Métis or Inuk (Inuit) and/or those who reported Registered or Treaty Indian status, that is registered under the Indian Act of Canada, and/or those who reported membership in a First Nation or Indian band. Aboriginal peoples of Canada are defined in the Constitution Act, 1982, Section 35 (2) as including the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.

'Person' refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programmes.

The data for this variable are reported using the following classification(s) and/or list(s):

• Aboriginal group
• Aboriginal group response

'Aboriginal group' refers to whether the person reported being an Aboriginal person of Canada, that is, First Nations (North American Indian), Métis or Inuk (Inuit). Aboriginal peoples of Canada are defined in the Constitution Act, 1982, Section 35 (2) as including the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada. A person may report being in more than one of these three specific groups.

Information on Aboriginal group may be supplied by someone other than the person himself or herself. For example, a parent may provide answers regarding his or her child.

'Person' refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programmes.

The data for this variable are reported using the following classification(s) and/or list(s):

• Aboriginal ancestry
• Aboriginal ancestry response
• Variant for analysis of single Aboriginal ancestry

'Aboriginal ancestry' refers to whether a person reported ancestry associated with the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Aboriginal peoples of Canada are defined in the Constitution Act, 1982, Section 35 (2) as including the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada. Ancestry refers to the ethnic or cultural origins of the respondent's ancestors, an ancestor being usually more distant than a grandparent. A person can have more than one ethnic or cultural origin.

'Person' refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programmes.

The data for this variable are reported using the following classification(s) and/or list(s):

• Calendar year

'Year of immigration' refers to the year in which the immigrant first obtained his or her landed immigrant/permanent resident status. A landed immigrant/permanent resident is a person who has been granted the right to live permanently in Canada by immigration authorities.

Note: In the 2011 National Household Survey, ‘Year of immigration’ is referred to as ‘Period of immigration’ when data are shown aggregated by periods of more than one year.

'Immigrant' refers to a person who is or has ever been a landed immigrant/permanent resident. A landed immigrant/permanent resident is a person who has been granted the right to live in Canada permanently by immigration authorities. Immigrants are either Canadian citizens by naturalization (the citizenship process) or permanent residents (landed immigrants) under Canadian legislation. Some immigrants have resided in Canada for a number of years, while others have arrived recently. Most immigrants are born outside Canada, but a small number are born in Canada.

The data for this variable are reported using the following classification(s) and/or list(s):

• 'Age' is expressed in individual years of age ranging from 0 (less than one year) to the maximum number on the file.
• Age categories by five-year age groups

'Age at immigration' refers to the age at which the immigrant first obtained landed immigrant/permanent resident status. A landed immigrant/permanent resident is a person who has been granted the right to live permanently in Canada by immigration authorities.

'Immigrant' refers to a person who is or has ever been a landed immigrant/permanent resident. A landed immigrant/permanent resident is a person who has been granted the right to live in Canada permanently by immigration authorities. Immigrants are either Canadian citizens by naturalization (the citizenship process) or permanent residents (landed immigrants) under Canadian legislation. Some immigrants have resided in Canada for a number of years, while others have arrived recently. Most immigrants are born outside Canada, but a small number are born in Canada.

The data for this variable are reported using the following classification(s) and/or list(s):

• North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 2007
• Variant: Labour Force Survey (LFS) Industries

'Industry' refers to a generally homogeneous group of economic producing units, primarily engaged in a specific set of activities. An activity is a particular method of combining goods and services inputs, labour and capital to produce one or more goods and/or services (products). In most cases, the activities that define an industry are homogeneous with respect to the production processes used.

Note: Though industry applies to establishments, a person can be assigned an industry classification based on the establishment where he or she is currently employed or where he or she has been employed in the past. Industry can be assigned based on the establishment associated with the person's main job or some other job. However, for industry to be collected through a survey, the person must be associated with an establishment.

'Employed person' refers to a person who, during the reference period: (a) did any work at all at a job or business, that is, paid work in the context of an employer-employee relationship, or self-employment. It also includes persons who did unpaid family work, which is defined as unpaid work contributing directly to the operation of a farm, business or professional practice owned and operated by a related member of the same household; or (b) had a job but were not at work due to factors such as their own illness or disability, personal or family responsibilities, vacation or a labour dispute. This category excludes persons not at work because they were on layoff or between casual jobs, and those who did not then have a job (even if they had a job to start at a future date).