User application

User application (PDF, 174.19 KB)

Real Time Remote Access (RTRA)

We are fully committed to protecting the confidentiality of the information provided by our clients. This information will be used only to support your client relationship with Statistics Canada. For more information about the protection of your privacy as a client, please visit Protecting your privacy as a client.

  • Applicant's family name:
  • Given name(s):
  • Preference of correspondence:
  • Organization/Affiliation:
  • Phone number:
  • E-mail address:
  • Sector:
  • Work address:
  • Rationale and objectives for access through RTRA:
  • Employment status:
  • Project Start Date:
  • Expected end or graduation date (if applicable):

Terms and Conditions

The statistical work outlined in this proposal will be used to support the mandate of the organization. The person (or persons) named in the proposal is (or are) authorized to perform the work on behalf of the organization. The individual agrees to abide by the Statistics Canada Open Licence agreement which governs the use of information produced by Statistics Canada and provided by the RTRA system.

Persons engaged in the course of carrying out this contract may not use the RTRA system for any other purpose except that which was agreed upon in this contract and by the RTRA Contact during the signing of the RTRA Licence Agreement, including the condition that user accounts cannot be shared with any other individual.

The researcher understands that any contravention of the RTRA terms and conditions or the Statistics Canada Open Licence agreement will result in his/her access being revoked for an indeterminate period of time. The organization sponsoring the researcher may also be subject to revocation of their access.

Affirmation

I have read the Statistics Canada Open Licence agreement and RTRA terms and conditions and agree to abide by them.

  • Applicant's Signature
  • Date

Senior RTRA Contact

  • Name
  • Division/Faculty
  • Organization
  • Phone number
  • Senior RTRA Contact's Signature
  • Date

Statistics Canada: Final Approval

  • Signature
  • Date

Approved by: Chief, Data Access Division

Date modified:

Application for organizations

Application for organizations (PDF, 754.56 KB)

Real Time Remote Access (RTRA)

We are fully committed to protecting the confidentiality of the information provided by our clients. This information will be used only to support your client relationship with Statistics Canada. For more information about the protection of your privacy as a client, please visit Protecting your privacy as a client.

  • Organization name:
  • Sector:
    • Drop down: Federal/Non-Profit/Private
  • Preference of correspondence:
    • Drop down: English/French
  • E-mail address:
  • Phone number:
  • Address:
  • Rationale and objectives for access through RTRA:
  • Subscription type:
    • Drop down: Limited/Unlimited
  • Subscription start date:
  • Subscription end date:

Senior RTRA Contact

The Senior RTRA Contact must be someone who has the authority to agree to the Purchase Confirmation, as well as the RTRA Terms and Conditions.

  • Name:
  • E-mail address:
  • Phone number:
  • Mailing address:

Terms and Conditions

The statistical work outlined in this proposal will be used to support the mandate of the organization. The users within the organization agree to abide by the Statistics Canada Open Licence agreement which governs the use of information produced by Statistics Canada and provided by the RTRA system.

The Senior RTRA Contact is authorized to perform work on behalf of the organization and has the authority to agree to the Purchase Confirmation, as well as the RTRA Terms and Conditions.

Organizations engaged in the course of carrying out this contract may not use the RTRA system for any other purpose except that which is agreed upon in this contract, including the condition that user accounts cannot be shared with any other individual.

The Senior RTRA Contact understands that any contravention of the RTRA terms and conditions or the Statistics Canada Open Licence agreement will result in access being revoked for an indeterminate period of time. The organization sponsoring researchers who contravene the RTRA terms and conditions or the Statistics Canada Open Licence agreement may also be subject to revocation of their access.

Affirmation

I have read the Statistics Canada Open Licence agreement and RTRA terms and conditions and agree to abide by them.

  • Senior RTRA Contact's Signature
  • Date

Statistics Canada: Final Approval

  • Signature
  • Date

Approved by: Chief, Data Access Division

Date modified:

2020 Annual Industrial Consumption of Energy Survey

Why do we conduct this survey?

This survey is conducted by Statistics Canada in order to collect the necessary information to support the Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP). This program combines various survey and administrative data to develop comprehensive measures of the Canadian economy.

The statistical information from the IBSP serves many purposes, including:

  • obtaining information on the supply of and/or demand for energy in Canada
  • enabling governmental agencies to fulfill their regulatory responsibilities in regards to public utilities
  • enabling all levels of government to establish informed policies in the energy area
  • assisting the business community in the corporate decision-making process.

Your information may also be used by Statistics Canada for other statistical and research purposes.

Your participation in this survey is required under the authority of the Statistics Act.

Other important information

Authorization to collect this information

Data are collected under the authority of the Statistics Act, Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985, Chapter S-19.

Confidentiality

By law, Statistics Canada is prohibited from releasing any information it collects that 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 purposes only.

Record linkages

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

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, Québec, 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, specifying the organizations with which you do not want Statistics Canada to share your data and mailing it to the following address:

Chief Statistician of Canada
Statistics Canada
Attention of Director, Enterprise Statistics Division
150 Tunney's Pasture Driveway
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0T6

You may also contact us by email at statcan.esdhelpdesk-dsebureaudedepannage.statcan@statcan.gc.ca or by fax at 613-951-6583.

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 New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government, the Quebec Forest Industry Council, the ministère des Finances du Québec, the ministère de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques du Québec, the ministère de l’Énergie et des Ressources naturelles du Québec, Transition énergétique Québec, the Manitoba Department of Growth, Enterprise and Trade, Alberta Energy, the British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, the Canada Energy Regulator, Natural Resources Canada and Environment and Climate Change 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.

Business or organization and contact information

1. Please verify or provide the business or organization's legal and operating name and correct where needed.

Note: Legal name modifications should only be done to correct a spelling error or typo.

Legal Name

The legal name is one recognized by law, thus it is the name liable for pursuit or for debts incurred by the business or organization. In the case of a corporation, it is the legal name as fixed by its charter or the statute by which the corporation was created.

Modifications to the legal name should only be done to correct a spelling error or typo.

To indicate a legal name of another legal entity you should instead indicate it in question 3 by selecting 'Not currently operational' and then choosing the applicable reason and providing the legal name of this other entity along with any other requested information.

Operating Name

The operating name is a name the business or organization is commonly known as if different from its legal name. The operating name is synonymous with trade name.

  • Legal name
  • Operating name (if applicable)

2. Please verify or provide the contact information of the designated business or organization contact person for this questionnaire and correct where needed.

Note: The designated contact person is the person who should receive this questionnaire. The designated contact person may not always be the one who actually completes the questionnaire.

  • First name
  • Last name
  • Title
  • Preferred language of communication
    • English
    • French
  • Mailing address (number and street)
  • City
  • Province, territory or state
  • Postal code or ZIP code
  • Country
    • Canada
    • United States
  • Email address
  • Telephone number (including area code)
  • Extension number (if applicable)
    The maximum number of characters is 5.
  • Fax number (including area code)

3. Please verify or provide the current operational status of the business or organization identified by the legal and operating name above.

  • Operational
  • Not currently operational
    Why is this business or organization not currently operational?
    • Seasonal operations
      • When did this business or organization close for the season?
        • Date
      • When does this business or organization expect to resume operations?
        • Date
    • Ceased operations
      • When did this business or organization cease operations?
        • Date
      • Why did this business or organization cease operations?
        • Bankruptcy
        • Liquidation
        • Dissolution
        • Other - Specify the other reasons for ceased operations
    • Sold operations
      • When was this business or organization sold?
        • Date
      • What is the legal name of the buyer?
    • Amalgamated with other businesses or organizations
      • When did this business or organization amalgamate?
        • Date
      • What is the legal name of the resulting or continuing business or organization?
      • What are the legal names of the other amalgamated businesses or organizations?
    • Temporarily inactive but will re-open
      • When did this business or organization become temporarily inactive?
        • Date
      • When does this business or organization expect to resume operations?
        • Date
      • Why is this business or organization temporarily inactive?
    • No longer operating due to other reasons
      • When did this business or organization cease operations?
        • Date
      • Why did this business or organization cease operations?

4. Please verify or provide the current main activity of the business or organization identified by the legal and operating name above.

Note: The described activity was assigned using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

This question verifies the business or organization's current main activity as classified by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). 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 is designed to provide common definitions of the industrial structure of the three countries and a common statistical framework to facilitate the analysis of the three economies. NAICS is based on supply-side 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.

The target entity for which NAICS is designed are businesses and other organizations engaged in the production of goods and services. They include farms, incorporated and unincorporated businesses and government business enterprises. They also include government institutions and agencies engaged in the production of marketed and non-marketed services, as well as organizations such as professional associations and unions and charitable or non-profit organizations and the employees of households.

The associated NAICS should reflect those activities conducted by the business or organizational units targeted by this questionnaire only, as identified in the 'Answering this questionnaire' section and which can be identified by the specified legal and operating name. The main activity is the activity which most defines the targeted business or organization's main purpose or reason for existence. For a business or organization that is for-profit, it is normally the activity that generates the majority of the revenue for the entity.

The NAICS classification contains a limited number of activity classifications; the associated classification might be applicable for this business or organization even if it is not exactly how you would describe this business or organization's main activity.

Please note that any modifications to the main activity through your response to this question might not necessarily be reflected prior to the transmitting of subsequent questionnaires and as a result they may not contain this updated information.

The following is the detailed description including any applicable examples or exclusions for the classification currently associated with this business or organization.

Description and examples

  • This is the current main activity.
  • This is not the current main activity.

Please provide a brief but precise description of this business or organization's main activity.

e.g., breakfast cereal manufacturing, shoe store, software development

Main activity

5. You indicated that is not the current main activity. Was this business or organization's main activity ever classified as: ?

  • Yes
    When did the main activity change?
    Date
  • No

6. Please search and select the industry classification code that best corresponds to this business or organization's main activity.

Select this business or organization's activity sector (optional)

  • Farming or logging operation
  • Construction company or general contractor
  • Manufacturer
  • Wholesaler
  • Retailer
  • Provider of passenger or freight transportation
  • Provider of investment, savings or insurance products
  • Real estate agency, real estate brokerage or leasing company
  • Provider of professional, scientific or technical services
  • Provider of health care or social services
  • Restaurant, bar, hotel, motel or other lodging establishment
  • Other sector

Electricity generation

1. Did this business generate electricity?

Electricity:
A form of energy generated by friction, induction or chemical change that is caused by the presence and motion of elementary-charged particles.
Electricity Generation:
Please provide the total amount of electricity generated including what was consumed by the plant and sold.
Note: If the plant consumed any of the electricity it generated, please include the quantity consumed in question 5.
  • Yes
  • No

2. How much electricity did this business generate?

Note: Report the total quantity of electricity generated; regardless of whether it was consumed by this business or sold to others.

  • Quantity generated

Unit of measure

  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Kilowatt-hour (kWh)
  • Megawatt-hour (MWh)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)

Type of energy consumed

3. Which types of energy were consumed by the business?

Include energy consumed: as fuel for the production process (also heating, on-site transportation, to produce steam for own use); to produce electricity; to produce steam for sale or transfer to another business; and for non-energy use (such as atomization, as feedstock to produce other products, as a reducing agent or used in gasoline blends).

Select all that apply.

Electricity:
A form of energy generated by friction, induction or chemical change that is caused by the presence and motion of elementary-charged particles. The electricity that is consumed can either be received by the establishment (purchased) or produced by the establishment (self-generated).
Natural gas:
A mixture of hydrocarbons, comprised principally of methane (CH4), originating in the gaseous phase or in solution with crude oil in porous geologic formations beneath the earth's surface.
Propane:
A gaseous, straight-chained hydrocarbon. A colourless, paraffinic gas extracted from natural gas or refinery gas streams, consisting of molecules composed of three atoms of carbon and eight atoms of hydrogen (C3H8). Used primarily in residential and commercial heating and cooling, as transportation fuel and petrochemical feedstock.
Middle distillates (diesel, light fuel oil, kerosene)
Diesel:
All grades of distillate fuel used for diesel engines, including those with low sulphur content (lower than 0.05%). Exclude diesel used for transportation off the plant site.
Light fuel oil:
A light petroleum distillate used for power burners. Include fuel oil no. 2, fuel oil no. 3, furnace fuel oil, gas oils and light industrial fuel.
Kerosene and other middle distillates:
Include kerosene (a light petroleum distillate that is used in space heaters, cook stoves and water heaters, and is suitable for use as a light source when burned in wick-fed lamps; also known as stove oil), fuel oil no. 1 and mineral lamp oil. Exclude gasoline used for transportation off the plant site.
Heavy fuel oil (Canadian/Foreign):
All grades of residual type fuels, including those with low sulphur content. Usually used for steam and electric power generation, and diesel motors. Include heavy fuel oil nos. 4, 5, 6 and bunker C.
Wood and wood waste:
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, shavings, lumber rejects, forest residues, charcoal and pulp waste from the operation of pulp mills, sawmills and plywood mills.
Spent pulping liquor (Black liquor):
A recycled by-product formed during the pulping of wood in the paper-making process. It is primarily made up of lignin and other wood constituents, and chemicals that are by-products of the manufacture of chemical pulp. It is burned as fuel or in a recovery boiler which produces steam which can be used to produce electricity.
Refuse:
Solid or liquid waste materials used as a combustible energy source. Include the burning of wastepaper, packing materials, garbage and other industrial, agricultural and urban refuse. It is often used to generate electricity. Please specify type.
Steam:
A gas resulting from the vaporization of a liquid or the sublimation of a solid, generated by condensing or non condensing turbines. The steam that is consumed can either be produced by the establishment (self-generated) or received by the establishment (purchased). Report purchased or self-generated steam used as fuel for the production process, used to produce electricity and used for a non-energy use (such as atomization or as feed in process application). However, steam consumed as a motive force to move liquid and gas streams, or steam used to moisturize feed for another process should not be reported.
Special note:
The consumption of fuels used to generate steam for use within the establishment (self-generated steam) should be reported under "as fuel" for those fuels. For example, if 100 cubic metres of heavy fuel oil was used to produce self-generated steam, the consumption of 100 cubic metres should be included under "as fuel" for heavy fuel oil.
Coal:
A readily combustible, black or brownish-black rock-like substance, whose composition, including inherent moisture, consists of more than 50% by weight and 70% by volume of carbonaceous material. It is formed from plant remains that have been compacted, hardened, chemically altered and metamorphosed by heat and pressure over geologic time without access to air.
Bituminous coal (Canadian/Foreign):
A dense, black coal, often with well-defined bands of bright and dull material with a moisture content usually less than 20%. It has a higher heating value and higher volatile matter and ash content than sub-bituminous coal; the heating value of bituminous coal typically ranges from 23.3 to 30.2 terajoules per kilotonne. Used in making coke, in steam and electricity production, as well as in the production of steel. Metallurgical coal is typically bituminous coal.
Sub-bituminous coal (Canadian/Foreign):
A black coal used primarily for thermal generation. It has a high moisture content, between 15% and 40% by weight. Its sulphur content is typically quite low; its ash content is also usually low, but volatile matter is usually high and can exceed 40% of the weight. Heating value varies from 16.3 terajoules per kilotonne to slightly over 20.9 terajoules per kilotonne.
Lignite:
Low-rank, brown coals which are distinctly brown and woody or claylike in appearance, and which contain relatively high moisture contents (between 30% and 70% of the fuel by weight). Used almost exclusively for electric power generation.
Anthracite:
A hard, black, lustrous coal containing a high percentage of fixed carbon, a low percentage of volatile matter, little moisture content, low sulfur, low ash and a high heating value at or above 27.7 terajoules per kilotonne that burns with a nearly smokeless flame. Generally used in the production of steel.
Coal coke (Canadian/Foreign):
A hard, porous product made from the carbonization (baking) of bituminous coal in ovens in substoichiometric atmosphere at high temperatures to the extent that the volatile matter of the coal is released and the coal passes through a "plastic stage" to become metallurgical coke. Often used as a fuel and a carbon input (reducing agent) in smelting iron ore in an integrated steel mill (blast furnace). Coke breeze and foundry coke are included in this category.
Coal tar:
Organic material separated from coke oven gas evolved during coking operations (a black and viscous liquid). This category includes pyridine, tar acids, naphthalene, creosote oil and coal pitch.
Light coal oil:
Condensable products (primarily benzene, toluene, xylene and solvent naphtha) obtained during distillation of the coke oven gas, following removal of the coal tar.
Coke oven gas:
Obtained as a by-product of solid fuel carbonization and gasification operations carried out by coke producers and iron and steel plants.
Petroleum coke (Canadian/Foreign):
A final product, often called a "waste product", of the petroleum refining process, which is the output of the refinery after all of the distillates and oils have been distilled from crude oil, leaving a product that has the appearance of coal. There are various types, e.g., "sponge", "shot", and "fluid" coke, which are differentiated according to size. Petroleum coke is a residue high in carbon content and low in hydrogen that is the final product of thermal decomposition in the condensation process in cracking. It is typically high in sulfur, low in volatile matter, low in ash and low in moisture. It may be sold as is or further purified by calcining for specialty uses, including anode production. It may also be burned as fuel in various processes, ranging from power plants to cement kilns. Heating value is typically around 40 terajoules per kilotonne.
Refinery fuel gas:
Any un-separated mixture of gases produced in refineries by distillation, cracking, reforming and other processes. The principal constituents are methane, ethane, ethylene, normal butane, butylenes, propane, propylene, etc. Also known as still gas. Still gas is used as a refinery fuel and a petrochemical feedstock.
Coke on catalyst (Catalyst coke):
In many catalytic operations (e.g., catalytic cracking), carbon is deposited on the catalyst, thus deactivating the catalyst. The catalyst is reactivated by burning off the carbon, which is used as a fuel in the refining process. This carbon or coke is not recoverable in a concentrated form.
Bitumen emulsion (Orimulsion):
A thick oil and water emulsion. It is made by mixing bitumen with about 30% water and a small amount of surfactant. Behaves similarly to fuel oil and was developed for industrial use.
Ethane:
A normally gaseous, straight-chain hydrocarbon. A colourless, paraffinic gas extracted from natural gas or refinery gas streams, consisting of molecules composed of two atoms of carbon and six atoms of hydrogen (C2H6). Ethane is used as petrochemical feedstock in production of chemicals and plastics and as a solvent in enhanced oil recovery process.
Butane:
A normally gaseous hydrocarbon. A colourless, paraffinic gas extracted from natural gas or refinery gas streams, consisting of molecules composed of four atoms of carbon and ten atoms of hydrogen (C4H10). Butane is used primarily for blending in high-octane gasoline, for residential and commercial heating, and in the manufacture of chemicals and synthetic rubber.
Naphtha:
A feedstock destined primarily for the petrochemical industry (e.g., ethylene manufacture or aromatics production). Naphtha specialties comprise all finished products within the naphtha boiling range of 70°C to 200°C that are used as paint thinners, cleaners or solvents. Include gas oil used as petrochemical feedstocks.
By-product gas:
A mixture of hydrocarbons and hydrogen produced from chemical processes such as ethane cracking.
Flared gas:
Gas that is being burned as a means of disposal to the environment usually when it contains odorous or toxic components. Flared gas should be reported "as non-energy use".
Other:
Any energy commodity consumed not otherwise identified above. Specify in the space provided along with the unit of measure.
  • Electricity - self-generated or purchased
  • Natural gas
  • Propane
  • Diesel consumed on site
  • Light fuel oil
  • Kerosene and other middle distillates
  • Heavy fuel oil
  • Wood and wood waste
  • Spent pulping liquor
  • Steam - self-generated or purchased
  • Coal - Bituminous
  • Coal - Sub-bituminous
  • Coal - Anthracite
  • Coal - Lignite
  • Coal coke
  • Coal tar
  • Light coal oil
  • Coke oven gas
  • Petroleum coke
  • Refinery fuel gas
  • By-product gas
  • Coke on catalyst
  • Bitumen emulsion (orimulsion)
  • Ethane
  • Butane
  • Naphtha
  • Flared gas
  • Refuse - Specify the type of refuse consumed:
  • Other - Specify other energy consumed not listed:

Electricity consumed

4. What unit of measure will you use to report electricity?

Unit of Measure

  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Kilowatt-hour (kWh)
  • Megawatt-hour (MWh)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)

5. What was the quantity of self-generated and purchased electricity consumed as fuel?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Electricity:
A form of energy generated by friction, induction or chemical change that is caused by the presence and motion of elementary-charged particles. The electricity that is consumed can either be received by the establishment (purchased) or produced by the establishment (self-generated).
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the plant consumed self-generated electricity, please ensure you reported the total amount of electricity that was generated in question 1.
If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
What was the quantity of self-generated and purchased electricity consumed as fuel?
  Quantity of self-generated electricity consumed Quantity of purchased electricity consumed
As fuel for the production process    

Natural gas consumed

6. What unit of measure will you use to report natural gas?

Unit of Measure

  • 100 cubic feet (Ccf)
  • Cubic foot (ft3)
  • Cubic metre (m3)
  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Litre (L)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

7. What was the quantity of natural gas consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Natural gas:
A mixture of hydrocarbons, comprised principally of methane (CH4), originating in the gaseous phase or in solution with crude oil in porous geologic formations beneath the earth's surface.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. Some examples of natural gas used for non-energy use are:
  • used as a reducing agent to produce direct reduced iron (DRI)
  • used as feed to produce hydrogen and ammonia.
What was the quantity of natural gas consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  
For non-energy use  

Propane consumed

8. What unit of measure will you use to report propane?

Unit of Measure

  • 33-Pound cylinder
  • Cubic metre (m3)
  • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
  • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Kilogram (kg)
  • Litre (L)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Pound (lb)
  • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

9. What was the quantity of propane consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Propane:
A gaseous, straight-chained hydrocarbon. A colourless, paraffinic gas extracted from natural gas or refinery gas streams, consisting of molecules composed of three atoms of carbon and eight atoms of hydrogen (C3H8). Used primarily in residential and commercial heating and cooling, as transportation fuel and petrochemical feedstock.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam.
What was the quantity of propane consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  
For non-energy use  

Diesel consumed on-site

10. What unit of measure will you use to report diesel?

Unit of Measure

  • Cubic metre (m3)
  • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
  • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Litre (L)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

11. What was the quantity of diesel consumed on-site for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Diesel:
All grades of distillate fuel used for diesel engines, including those with low sulphur content (lower than 0.05%). Exclude diesel used for transportation off the plant site.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam.
What was the quantity of diesel consumed on-site for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  
For non-energy use  

Light fuel oil consumed

12. What unit of measure will you use to report light fuel oil?

Unit of Measure

  • Cubic metre (m3)
  • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
  • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Litre (L)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

13. What was the quantity of light fuel oil consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Light fuel oil:
A light petroleum distillate used for power burners. Include fuel oil no. 2, fuel oil no. 3, furnace fuel oil, gas oils and light industrial fuel.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam.
What was the quantity of light fuel oil consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  

Kerosene and other distillates consumed

14. What unit of measure will you use to report kerosene and other middle distillates?

Unit of Measure

  • Cubic metre (m3)
  • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
  • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Litre (L)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

15. What was the quantity of kerosene and other middle distillates consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Kerosene and other middle distillates:
Include kerosene (a light petroleum distillate that is used in space heaters, cook stoves and water heaters, and is suitable for use as a light source when burned in wick-fed lamps; also known as stove oil), fuel oil no. 1 and mineral lamp oil. Exclude gasoline.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam
What was the quantity of kerosene and other middle distillates consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  

Heavy fuel oil consumed

16. What unit of measure will you use to report heavy fuel oil?

Unit of Measure

  • Barrel (Bbl)
  • Cubic metre (m3)
  • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
  • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Litre (L)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

17. What was the quantity of imported and Canadian heavy fuel oil consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Heavy fuel oil (Canadian/Foreign):
All grades of residual type fuels, including those with low sulphur content. Usually used for steam and electric power generation, and diesel motors. Include heavy fuel oil nos. 4, 5, 6 and bunker C.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam.
What was the quantity of imported and Canadian heavy fuel oil consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity of imported heavy fuel oil consumed Quantity of Canadian heavy fuel oil consumed
As fuel for the production process    
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business    
To produce electricity    
For non-energy use    

Wood and wood waste consumed

18. What unit of measure will you use to report wood and wood waste?

Unit of Measure

  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Kilogram (kg)
  • Long ton (LT)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Pound (lb)
  • Short ton (ST)

19. What was the quantity of wood and wood waste consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Wood and wood waste:
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, shavings, lumber rejects, forest residues, charcoal and pulp waste from the operation of pulp mills, sawmills and plywood mills.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
What was the quantity of wood and wood waste consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  

Spent pulping liquor consumed

20. What unit of measure will you use to report spent pulping liquor?

Unit of Measure

  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Kilogram (kg)
  • Long ton (LT)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Pound (lb)
  • Short ton (ST)

21. What was the quantity of spent pulping liquor consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Spent pulping liquor (Black liquor):
A recycled by-product formed during the pulping of wood in the paper-making process. It is primarily made up of lignin and other wood constituents, and chemicals that are by-products of the manufacture of chemical pulp. It is burned as fuel or in a recovery boiler which produces steam which can be used to produce electricity.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
What was the quantity of spent pulping liquor consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  

Steam consumed

22. What unit of measure will you use to report steam?

Unit of Measure

  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Kilogram (kg)
  • Long ton (LT)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Pound (lb)
  • Short ton (ST)

23. What was the quantity of self-generated and purchased steam consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Steam:
A gas resulting from the vaporization of a liquid or the sublimation of a solid, generated by condensing or non condensing turbines. The steam that is consumed can either be produced by the establishment (self-generated) or received by the establishment (purchased). Report purchased or self-generated steam used as fuel for the production process, used to produce electricity and used for a non-energy use (such as atomization or as feed in process application). However, steam consumed as a motive force to move liquid and gas streams, or steam used to moisturize feed for another process should not be reported.
Special note:
The consumption of fuels used to generate steam for use within the establishment (self-generated steam) should be reported under "as fuel" for those fuels. For example, if 100 cubic metres of heavy fuel oil was used to produce self-generated steam, the consumption of 100 cubic metres should be included under "as fuel" for heavy fuel oil.
What was the quantity of self-generated and purchased steam consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity of self-generated
steam consumed
Quantity of purchased
steam consumed
As fuel for the production process    
To produce electricity    
For non-energy use    

Bituminous coal consumed

24. What unit of measure will you use to report bituminous coal?

Unit of Measure

  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Kilogram (kg)
  • Long ton (LT)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Pound (lb)
  • Short ton (ST)

25. What was the quantity of imported and Canadian bituminous coal consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Bituminous coal (Canadian/Foreign):
A dense, black coal, often with well-defined bands of bright and dull material with a moisture content usually less than 20%. It has a higher heating value and higher volatile matter and ash content than sub-bituminous coal; the heating value of bituminous coal typically ranges from 23.3 to 30.2 terajoules per kilotonne. Used in making coke, in steam and electricity production, as well as in the production of steel. Metallurgical coal is typically bituminous coal.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
What was the quantity of imported and Canadian bituminous coal consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity of imported
bituminous coal
consumed
Quantity of Canadian
bituminous coal
consumed
As fuel for the production process    
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business    
To produce electricity    
For non-energy use    

Sub-bituminous coal consumed

26. What unit of measure will you use to report sub-bituminous coal?

Unit of Measure

  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Kilogram (kg)
  • Long ton (LT)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Pound (lb)
  • Short ton (ST)

27. What was the quantity of imported and Canadian sub-bituminous coal consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Sub-bituminous coal (Canadian/Foreign):
A black coal used primarily for thermal generation. It has a high moisture content, between 15% and 40% by weight. Its sulphur content is typically quite low; its ash content is also usually low, but volatile matter is usually high and can exceed 40% of the weight. Heating value varies from 16.3 terajoules per kilotonne to slightly over 20.9 terajoules per kilotonne.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
What was the quantity of imported and Canadian sub-bituminous coal consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity of imported
sub-bituminous coal
consumed
Quantity of Canadian
sub-bituminous coal
consumed
As fuel for the production process    
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business    
To produce electricity    
For non-energy use    

Imported anthracite coal consumed

28. What unit of measure will you use to report imported anthracite coal?

Unit of Measure

  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Kilogram (kg)
  • Long ton (LT)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Pound (lb)
  • Short ton (ST)

29. What was the quantity of imported anthracite coal consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Anthracite:
A hard, black, lustrous coal containing a high percentage of fixed carbon, a low percentage of volatile matter, little moisture content, low sulfur, low ash and a high heating value at or above 27.7 terajoules per kilotonne that burns with a nearly smokeless flame. Generally used in the production of steel.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
What was the quantity of imported anthracite coal consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  
For non-energy use  

Canadian lignite coal consumed

30. What unit of measure will you use to report Canadian lignite coal?

Unit of Measure

  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Kilogram (kg)
  • Long ton (LT)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Pound (lb)
  • Short ton (ST)

31. What was the quantity of Canadian lignite coal consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Lignite:
Low-rank, brown coals which are distinctly brown and woody or claylike in appearance, and which contain relatively high moisture contents (between 30% and 70% of the fuel by weight). Used almost exclusively for electric power generation.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
What was the quantity of Canadian lignite coal consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  
For non-energy use  

Coal coke consumed

32. What unit of measure will you use to report coal coke?

Unit of Measure

  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Kilogram (kg)
  • Long ton (LT)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Pound (lb)
  • Short ton (ST)

33. What was the quantity of imported and Canadian coal coke consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Coal coke (Canadian/Foreign):
A hard, porous product made from the carbonization (baking) of bituminous coal in ovens in substoichiometric atmosphere at high temperatures to the extent that the volatile matter of the coal is released and the coal passes through a "plastic stage" to become metallurgical coke. Often used as a fuel and a carbon input (reducing agent) in smelting iron ore in an integrated steel mill (blast furnace). Coke breeze and foundry coke are included in this category.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
 
What was the quantity of imported and Canadian coal coke consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity of imported coal
coke consumed
Quantity of Canadian coal
coke consumed
As fuel for the production process    
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business    
To produce electricity    
For non-energy use    

Coal tar consumed

34. What unit of measure will you use to report coal tar?

Unit of Measure

  • Barrel (Bbl)
  • Cubic metre (m3)
  • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
  • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Litre (L)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

35. What was the quantity of coal tar consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Coal tar:
Organic material separated from coke oven gas evolved during coking operations (a black and viscous liquid). Include pyridine, tar acids, naphthalene, creosote oil and coal pitch.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
What was the quantity of coal tar consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  
For non-energy use  

Light coal oil consumed

36. What unit of measure will you use to report light coal oil?

Unit of Measure

  • Barrel (Bbl)
  • Cubic metre (m3)
  • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
  • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Litre (L)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

37. What was the quantity of light coal oil consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Light coal oil:
Condensable products (primarily benzene, toluene, xylene and solvent naphtha) obtained during distillation of the coke oven gas, following removal of the coal tar.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
What was the quantity of light coal oil consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  
For non-energy use  

Coke oven gas consumed

38. What unit of measure will you use to report coke oven gas?

Unit of Measure

  • Cubic metre (m3)
  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Litre (L)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

39. What was the quantity of coke oven gas consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Coke oven gas:
Obtained as a by-product of solid fuel carbonization and gasification operations carried out by coke producers and iron and steel plants.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
What was the quantity of coke oven gas consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  
For non-energy use  

Petroleum coke consumed

40. What unit of measure will you use to report petroleum coke?

Unit of Measure

  • Cubic metre (m3)
  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Kilogram (kg)
  • Litre (L)
  • Long ton (LT)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Pound (lb)
  • Short ton (ST)
  • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

41. What was the quantity of imported and Canadian petroleum coke consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Petroleum coke (Canadian/Foreign):
A final product, often called a "waste product", of the petroleum refining process, which is the output of the refinery after all of the distillates and oils have been distilled from crude oil, leaving a product that has the appearance of coal. There are various types, e.g., "sponge", "shot", and "fluid" coke, which are differentiated according to size. Petroleum coke is a residue high in carbon content and low in hydrogen that is the final product of thermal decomposition in the condensation process in cracking. It is typically high in sulfur, low in volatile matter, low in ash and low in moisture. It may be sold as is or further purified by calcining for specialty uses, including anode production. It may also be burned as fuel in various processes, ranging from power plants to cement kilns. Heating value is typically around 40 terajoules per kilotonne.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
Amount consumed for non-energy use:
The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
What was the quantity of imported and Canadian petroleum coke consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity of imported
petroleum coke consumed
Quantity of Canadian
petroleum coke consumed
As fuel for the production process    
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business    
To produce electricity    
For non-energy use    

Refinery fuel gas consumed

42. What unit of measure will you use to report refinery fuel gas?

Unit of Measure

  • Cubic metre (m3)
  • Gigajoule (GJ)
  • Litre (L)
  • Metric tonne (MT)
  • Million Btu (MBtu)
  • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

43. What was the quantity of refinery fuel gas consumed for each of the following purposes?

Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

Refinery fuel gas:
Any un-separated mixture of gases produced in refineries by distillation, cracking, reforming and other processes. The principal constituents are methane, ethane, ethylene, normal butane, butylenes, propane, propylene, etc. Also known as still gas. Still gas is used as a refinery fuel and a petrochemical feedstock.
Amount consumed as fuel:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
  • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
  • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
Amount consumed to produce electricity:
The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
What was the quantity of refinery fuel gas consumed for each of the following purposes?
  Quantity consumed
As fuel for the production process  
To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
To produce electricity  

By-product gas consumed

44. What was the quantity of by-product gas consumed as fuel?

e.g., for the production process, heating, on-site transportation, to produce steam for own use

    By-product gas:
    A mixture of hydrocarbons and hydrogen produced from chemical processes such as ethane cracking.
    Amount consumed as fuel:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
    • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
    • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
    Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
    • Quantity consumed

    Unit of Measure

    • Cubic metre (m3)
    • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
    • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

    Coke on catalyst consumed

    45. What unit of measure will you use to report coke on catalyst?

    Unit of Measure

    • Cubic metre (m3)
    • Gigajoule (GJ)
    • Kilogram (kg)
    • Litre (L)
    • Long ton (LT)
    • Metric tonne (MT)
    • Million Btu (MBtu)
    • Pound (lb)
    • Short ton (ST)
    • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

    46. What was the quantity of coke on catalyst consumed for each of the following purposes?

    Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

    Coke on catalyst (Catalyst coke):
    In many catalytic operations (e.g., catalytic cracking), carbon is deposited on the catalyst, thus deactivating the catalyst. The catalyst is reactivated by burning off the carbon, which is used as a fuel in the refining process. This carbon or coke is not recoverable in a concentrated form.
    Amount consumed as fuel:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
    • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
    • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
    Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
    Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
    Amount consumed to produce electricity:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
    Amount consumed for non-energy use:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
    What was the quantity of coke on catalyst consumed for each of the following purposes?
      Quantity consumed
    As fuel for the production process  
    To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
    To produce electricity  
    For non-energy use  

    Bitumen emulsion (orimulsion) consumed

    47. What unit of measure will you use to report bitumen emulsion (orimulsion)?

    Unit of Measure

    • Cubic metre (m3)
    • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
    • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
    • Gigajoule (GJ)
    • Litre (L)
    • Million Btu (MBtu)
    • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

    48. What was the quantity of bitumen emulsion (orimulsion) consumed for each of the following purposes?

    Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

    Bitumen emulsion (Orimulsion):
    A thick oil and water emulsion. It is made by mixing bitumen with about 30% water and a small amount of surfactant. Behaves similarly to fuel oil and was developed for industrial use.
    Amount consumed as fuel:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
    • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
    • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
    Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
    Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
    Amount consumed to produce electricity:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
    Amount consumed for non-energy use:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
    What was the quantity of bitumen emulsion (orimulsion) consumed for each of the following purposes?
      Quantity consumed
    As fuel for the production process  
    To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
    To produce electricity  
    For non-energy use  

    Ethane consumed

    49. What unit of measure will you use to report ethane?

    Unit of Measure

    • Cubic metre (m3)
    • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
    • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
    • Gigajoule (GJ)
    • Kilogram (kg)
    • Litre (L)
    • Metric tonne (MT)
    • Million Btu (MBtu)
    • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

    50. What was the quantity of ethane consumed for each of the following purposes?

    Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

    Ethane:
    A normally gaseous, straight-chain hydrocarbon. A colourless, paraffinic gas extracted from natural gas or refinery gas streams, consisting of molecules composed of two atoms of carbon and six atoms of hydrogen (C2H6). Ethane is used as petrochemical feedstock in production of chemicals and plastics and as a solvent in enhanced oil recovery process.
    Amount consumed as fuel:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
    • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
    • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
    Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
    Amount consumed for non-energy use:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
    What was the quantity of ethane consumed for each of the following purposes?
      Quantity consumed
    As fuel for the production process  
    For non-energy use  

    Butane consumed

    51. What unit of measure will you use to report butane?

    Unit of Measure

    • Cubic metre (m3)
    • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
    • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
    • Gigajoule (GJ)
    • Kilogram (kg)
    • Litre (L)
    • Metric tonne (MT)
    • Million Btu (MBtu)
    • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

    52. What was the quantity of butane consumed for each of the following purposes?

    Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

    Butane:
    A normally gaseous hydrocarbon. A colourless, paraffinic gas extracted from natural gas or refinery gas streams, consisting of molecules composed of four atoms of carbon and ten atoms of hydrogen (C4H10). Butane is used primarily for blending in high-octane gasoline, for residential and commercial heating, and in the manufacture of chemicals and synthetic rubber.
    Amount consumed as fuel:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
    • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
    • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
    Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
    Amount consumed for non-energy use:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
    What was the quantity of butane consumed for each of the following purposes?
      Quantity consumed
    As fuel for the production process  
    For non-energy use  

    Naphtha consumed

    53. What was the quantity of naphtha consumed for non-energy use?

    e.g., atomization, as feed to produce other products, as a reducing agent or used in gasoline blends

    Naphtha:
    A feedstock destined primarily for the petrochemical industry (e.g., ethylene manufacture or aromatics production). Naphtha specialties comprise all finished products within the naphtha boiling range of 70°C to 200°C that are used as paint thinners, cleaners or solvents.
    Amount consumed for non-energy use:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
    • Quantity consumed

    Unit of Measure

    • Cubic metre (m3)
    • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
    • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
    • Gigajoule (GJ)
    • Litre (L)
    • Million Btu (MBtu)
    • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

    Flared gas consumed

    54. What was the quantity of flared gas consumed for non-energy use?

    e.g., atomization, as feed to produce other products, as a reducing agent or used in gasoline blends

    Flared gas:
    Gas that is being burned as a means of disposal to the environment usually when it contains odorous or toxic components. Flared gas should be reported "as non-energy use".
    Amount consumed for non-energy use:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
    • Quantity consumed

    Unit of Measure

    • Cubic metre (m3)
    • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
    • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

    Refuse consumed

    55. What unit of measure will you use to report the type of refuse?

    i.e., the refuse you specified in Question 3

    Unit of Measure

    • 100 cubic feet (Ccf)
    • Barrel (Bbl)
    • Cubic foot (ft3)
    • Cubic metre (m3)
    • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
    • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
    • Gigajoule (GJ)
    • Kilogram (kg)
    • Litre (L)
    • Long ton (LT)
    • Metric tonne (MT)
    • Million Btu (MBtu)
    • Pound (lb)
    • Short ton (ST)
    • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

    56. What was the quantity of the type of refuse consumed for each of the following purposes?

    i.e., the refuse you specified in Question 3.

    Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

    Refuse:
    Solid or liquid waste materials used as a combustible energy source. Include the burning of wastepaper, packing materials, garbage and other industrial, agricultural and urban refuse. It is often used to generate electricity. Please specify type.
    Amount consumed as fuel:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
    • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
    • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
    Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
    Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
    Amount consumed to produce electricity:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
    Amount consumed for non-energy use:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam.
    What was the quantity of the type of refuse consumed for each of the following purposes?
      Quantity consumed
    As fuel for the production process  
    To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
    To produce electricity  
    For non-energy use  

    Other energy consumed

    57. What unit of measure will you use to report the other energy ?

    i.e., the other energy you specified in Question 3.

    Unit of Measure

    • 100 cubic feet (Ccf)
    • 33-Pound cylinder
    • Barrel (Bbl)
    • Cubic foot (ft3)
    • Cubic metre (m3)
    • Imperial gallon (imp. gal.)
    • U.S. gallon (U.S. gal)
    • Gigajoule (GJ)
    • Kilogram (kg)
    • Litre (L)
    • Long ton (LT)
    • Metric tonne (MT)
    • Million Btu (MBtu)
    • Pound (lb)
    • Short ton (ST)
    • Thousands of cubic metres (000m3)

    58. What was the quantity of the other energy consumed for each of the following purposes?

    i.e., the other energy you specified Question 3.

    Use the unit of measure you selected in the question above.

    Other:
    Any energy commodity consumed not otherwise identified on the questionnaire. Include gasoline used on site but exclude gasoline used for transportation off the plant site. Specify in the space provided along with the unit of measure.
    Amount consumed as fuel:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used to:
    • power production processes, heating, on-site transportation
    • produce steam for own use (e.g., steam which is then used to heat the plant, to generate electricity or for non-energy use).
    Note: If the energy commodity was used to produce steam for own use, please also respond to the consumption of self-generated steam question.
    Amount consumed to produce steam for sale:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used to produce steam which is used internally by your plant is reported consumed "as fuel".
    Amount consumed to produce electricity:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.
    Amount consumed for non-energy use:
    The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than as fuel in the plant production process or to produce electricity or steam. For example, anthracite used for non-energy use are used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal.
    What was the quantity of the other energy consumed for each of the following purposes?
      Quantity consumed
    As fuel for the production process  
    To produce steam for sale or transfer to another business  
    To produce electricity  
    For non-energy use  

    Steam sales

    59. Did this business produce steam to sell or transfer to others?

    • Yes
    • No

    60. What was the quantity of steam sold or transferred to other businesses in the industries below?

    Report in gigajoules.

    Steam sales: Please report the amount of steam sold or transferred to another plant in Gigajoules (GJ).

    What was the quantity of steam sold or transferred to other businesses in the industries below?
      Quantity in gigajoules
    Residential  
    Agriculture  
    Paper manufacturing  
    Chemical manufacturing  
    All other manufacturing  
    Public administration  
    Commercial and institutional  
    Total  

    Changes or events

    61. Indicate any changes or events that affected the reported changes in your energy consumption for this business or organization, compared with the last reporting period.

    Select all that apply.

    Reasons for changes in energy consumption: This section aims to reduce the necessity for further inquiries. Statistics Canada compares responses to this questionnaire with those from previous years. Please indicate the reasons that best describe significant changes in your energy consumption from the previous year along with an explanation.

    • Fuel switch - Specify the fuel switch:
    • Fuel price changes - Specify the fuel price changes:
    • Technology changes - Specify the technology changes:
    • Process changes - Specify the process changes:
    • Awareness of energy efficiency - Specify the awareness of energy efficiency:
    • New contract or loss of contract - Specify the new contract or loss of contract:
    • Plant expansion or contraction - Specify the plant expansion or contraction:
    • Change in product line - Specify the change in product line:
    • Other - Specify the other changes or events:
    • No changes or events

    Contact person

    1. Statistics Canada may need to contact the person who completed this questionnaire for further information.

    Is the Provided Given Name, Provided Family Name the best person to contact?

    • Yes
    • No

    Who is the best person to contact about this questionnaire?

    • First name
    • Last name
    • Title
    • Email address
    • Telephone number (including area code)
    • Extension number (if applicable)
      The maximum number of characters is 5.
    • Fax number (including area code)

    Feedback

    1. How long did it take to complete this questionnaire?

    Include the time spent gathering the necessary information.

    • Hours
    • Minutes

    2. Do you have any comments about this questionnaire?

    CVs for operating revenue - Specialized design services - 2019

    CVs for operating revenue - Specialized design services - 2019
    Table summary
    This table displays the results of CVs for operating revenue - Specialized design services. The information is grouped by Regions (appearing as row headers), CVs for operating revenue, calculated using percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
    Geography CVs for operating revenue
    percent
    Canada 0.02
    Newfoundland and Labrador 0.00
    Prince Edward Island 0.00
    Nova Scotia 0.03
    New Brunswick 0.02
    Quebec 0.03
    Ontario 0.02
    Manitoba 0.02
    Saskatchewan 0.02
    Alberta 0.03
    British Columbia 0.04
    Yukon 0.00
    Northwest Territories 0.00
    Nunavut 0.00

    Canadian Statistics Advisory Council 2020 Annual Report - Towards a Stronger National Statistical System

    Release date: October 23, 2020

     PDF version (1.27 MB)

    Message from the Canadian Statistics Advisory Council

    The Canadian Statistics Advisory Council (CSAC) was created as part of a suite of amendments to the Statistics Act in 2017 designed to enhance the independence of Statistics Canada, Canada's national statistical organization. In June 2019, the first slate of Council members was appointed by the Governor in Council.

    As with any newly created body, part of our first year has involved establishing ourselves as a group, defining our agenda and finding our voice. CSAC's statutory mandate includes providing advice to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry and to the Chief Statistician of Canada. It also requires us to produce an annual report on the state of Canada's statistical system. Our mission is to provide impartial and independent advice to ensure the quality, relevance and accessibility of the national statistical system.

    We are grateful to Statistics Canada, the Chief Statistician of Canada who is an ex-officio member of the Council, and his excellent team for responding to our many requests for information with both written and oral presentations. We would like to offer our very particular thanks to Melanie Forsberg, Robert Andrew Smith and Kacie Ha of the CSAC Secretariat for their advice and assistance. We are also especially grateful for the work of Dr. Teresa Scassa, the Council's initial chairperson, who shaped and guided the work of the committee.

    The COVID-19 pandemic altered the course of our work, as it did for all Canadians and people around the world. The pandemic brought into stark relief many of the statistical challenges that Statistics Canada has faced as an agency and Canada has faced as a nation. Decision makers were hampered by a lack of timely, consistent and disaggregated data in areas such as health care and on racialized Canadians and Indigenous peoples. This situation highlighted the broader need for high-quality statistical information to address nationwide health issues and socioeconomic inequities. Collecting these data while respecting the privacy of Canadians' personal information remains of key importance.

    We trust that our report and recommendations will be accepted by the Minister on behalf of the Government of Canada, and will provide Canadians with a better understanding of the need to strengthen Canada's national statistical system, and ensure more evidence-based decision making, resulting in benefits to all Canadians.

    Signed: The Canadian Statistics Advisory Council

    • Annette Hester
    • Dr. Céline Le Bourdais
    • David Chaundy
    • Gail Mc Donald
    • Gurmeet Ahluwalia
    • Dr. Howard Ramos
    • Jan Kestle
    • Dr. Michael C. Wolfson

    Executive summary

    Statistics Canada's central role as an independent national statistical organization has never been more critical to meeting the need for timely and high-quality statistics in Canada. Having an independent and trusted source of official statistics provides a solid foundation for government accountability and evidence-based decision making by both the public and the private sectors for the benefit of all Canadians.

    The fast pace of social and economic change is affecting the kinds of data and analyses Canadians need. There has also been a dramatic shift in how Canadians receive information, with a proliferation of information from new sources, such as social media. New tools are being used to collect, process, transform and visualize information. For Canada to succeed in this dynamic digital economy, Statistics Canada must play a central leadership role, coordinating with governments and organizations to produce coherent and trusted national statistical information.

    Canadians have provided personal data to Statistics Canada for over 100 years. The confidentiality of their information is protected under the Statistics Act, and, under federal data protection laws, Statistics Canada must respect the privacy of Canadians. There should be no conflict between respect for the privacy of Canadians and the need for Canadians to provide data to Statistics Canada.

    Recommendation 1:
    Including statistical data requirements in planning federal government programs

    There is presently no standard or coordinated way to assess priority data requirements within the federal government. There needs to be a fundamental shift in how statistical data needs in Canada are assessed. This includes greater consideration of how social, health, economic, environmental and energy factors collectively contribute to the well-being of Canadians and Canadian society.

    It is recommended that the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

    1.1 Ensure that statistical data requirements and funding are explicitly included in the planning for all federal government programs.

    Recommendation 2:
    Addressing critical data gaps

    Critical data gaps and a lack of coordinated data in Canada seriously undermine the ability of decision makers and governments at all levels, as well as the general public, to understand and address key social, health, economic, environmental and energy issues facing Canadians.

    Two priority areas are gaps in health and health care data in Canada, and gaps in data by race and Indigenous peoples—while respecting existing and future processes with Indigenous jurisdictions—on topics including gender, disabilities, education, employment, health, income, justice, safety, the environment, energy, community infrastructure and social well-being.

    It is recommended that the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

    2.1 invest in coordinating data collection across federal, provincial, territorial and other levels of government and organizations to build a truly national data infrastructure (including, in accordance with Recommendation 1, providing Statistics Canada with the necessary funds to develop modern real-time software and communications technologies to collect these data)

    2.2 implement in the various fiscal arrangements with the provinces and territories adequate and effective mechanisms (which could include funding, incentives and penalties) to ensure that nationally consistent data can and do flow to Statistics Canada, pursuant to its mandate.

    Recommendation 3:
    Rectifying serious imbalances in funding national statistical programs

    Statistics Canada is given the resources to produce economic indicators for about 20 key areas of economic activity. There are imbalances and inefficiencies in how data needs in other domains are addressed. Many of the agency's key social statistics programs, and certain economic, environmental and energy programs, are largely dependent on ad hoc funding and cost-recovery transfers from federal departments. Stable core funding for these programs is essential to support a national data strategy that includes all factors affecting society and the economy.

    It is recommended that the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

    3.1 consider options to ensure that Statistics Canada's core funding includes resources for social, economic, environmental and energy statistics programs, including the long-form census questionnaire, household surveys, administrative data, research and analysis, without having to rely on ad hoc cost-recovery transfers from departments.

    Recommendation 4:
    Ensuring the privacy of Canadians and the need for Canadians to provide data to Statistics Canada

    Statistics Canada has the legal authority to collect federal, provincial and territorial data under the Statistics Act. Most jurisdictions include provisions in their data protection laws to permit data sharing for statistical purposes. The act also gives the agency the authority to collect data from private sector sources, in conjunction with government data, to provide a multifaceted statistical portrait of the country. The confidentiality of this information is protected under the Statistics Act.

    There should be no conflict between respect for the privacy of Canadians and the need for Canadians to provide data to Statistics Canada.

    It is recommended that

    4.1 Statistics Canada and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry work with the Minister of Justice, informed by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and by Indigenous jurisdictions, to ensure that federal, provincial and territorial data protection laws and policies are attentive to the imperative of data sharing for statistical purposes, and to ensure that there are no legislative ambiguities with regard to Statistics Canada's authority under the Statistics Act to collect data from federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions

    4.2 Statistics Canada and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry start a dialogue with Canadians on the importance of data for evidence-based decision making, and on how the collection of these data must respect data protection laws and the confidentiality of Canadians' personal information

    4.3 Statistics Canada proceed, with support from the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, with its projects to develop new data sources from financial and credit institutions, in accordance with the agency's methodological framework on necessity and proportionality, and inform Canadians why these data are needed and how they will be collected and stored.

    Recommendation 5:
    Modernizing microdata access

    The need for a modern infrastructure to access Statistics Canada's microdata, including secure remote access, has never been greater, as duly authorized researchers undertake statistical analysis to inform governments and Canadians.

    It is recommended that the Chief Statistician

    5.1 give high priority to and accelerate the modernization of the Microdata Access Program, including providing secure remote access by duly authorized researchers to its anonymized microdata and streamlining the current authentication process for granting secure access to Statistics Canada's microdata.

    1. Introduction

    Statistics Canada's central role as an independent national statistical organization has never been more critical to meeting the need for timely and high-quality statistics in Canada. Having an independent and trusted source of official statistics provides a solid foundation for government accountability and evidence-based decision making by both the public and the private sectors for the benefit of all Canadians. These decisions affect everybody's daily lives, including their health, where they live, where they work and their wages.

    Fundamental to public trust is the clear independence of the country's national statistical office, where high-quality statistics and pertinent statistical analyses are produced with objective methods and with outputs that are accessible to everyone. The requirement that statistical information not be subject to political pressure and not serve special interests must be well recognized. This way, even people who may not trust their government can trust the statistical results and, just as importantly, entrust their information to Statistics Canada.

    Canadians have provided personal data to Statistics Canada for over 100 years. The confidentiality of their information is protected under the Statistics Act, and, under federal data protection laws, Statistics Canada must also respect the privacy of Canadians. There should be no conflict between respect for the privacy of Canadians and the need for Canadians to provide data to Statistics Canada.

    "Statistics Canada's central role as an independent national statistical organization has never been more critical to meeting the need for timely and high-quality statistics in Canada."

    The fast pace of social and economic change is affecting the kinds of data and analyses Canadians need. For example, with the growth of online shopping, Statistics Canada requires new methods to measure consumer spending. Data on consumer spending are used to produce the Consumer Price Index, which Canadians depend on as a measure of inflation that affects wages, pensions, the cost of goods and interest rates. There has also been a dramatic shift in how Canadians receive information, with a proliferation of information from new sources, such as social media. New tools are being used to transform and visualize information, with significant increases in the flows of information, the extent of interconnectedness, and the development of increasingly powerful artificial intelligence software.

    Not all available data sources are of good quality, nor do they all take measures to protect the privacy of personal information. Big datasets (usually characterized by their high volumes of data, speed of updates and variety of formats) and web-scraped data (data extracted from websites) are important new sources of data. However, their value for statistical analysis often has significant limitations, such as the underrepresentation of people with certain social or economic characteristics.

    For Canada to succeed in this dynamic digital economy, Statistics Canada's role is key. The agency not only has the mandate to produce high-quality national social and economic measures, as well as more disaggregated statistical portraits, it also must play a central leadership role in coordinating data collection and integration with governments and organizations to produce coherent national statistical information for the benefit of all Canadians. This includes supporting leading-edge analysis of this statistical information.

    Statistics Canada is responding to these challenges by developing, piloting and deploying new data sources, collection techniques and modelling to add depth and agility to its statistical programs. It has also engaged with Canadians in new ways—for example, using social media to encourage participation in web panel surveys and crowdsourcing surveys. At the same time, the federal government needs to seriously commit to starting a dialogue to address persistent, systemic data gaps. In some key sectors, fragmented data and an unwillingness to share data across jurisdictions have hampered Statistics Canada's ability to create needed nationwide datasets on a timely basis to address the country's most complex and dynamic challenges.

    2. National data strategy

    Recommendation 1:
    Including statistical data requirements in planning federal government programs

    There is presently no standard or coordinated way to assess priority data requirements within the federal government. There needs to be a fundamental shift in how statistical data needs in Canada are assessed. This includes greater consideration of how social, health, economic, environmental and energy factors collectively contribute to the well-being of Canadians and Canadian society.

    It is recommended that the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

    1.1 Ensure that statistical data requirements and funding are explicitly included in the planning for all federal government programs.

    Nationwide data are a key strong foundation for decision makers and governments at all levels, as well as the general public, to understand and address important social, health, economic, environmental and energy issues facing Canadians.

    Canada does not have a proactive national data strategy that considers the information needs of both today and the future and that puts in place new data sources to inform and anticipate emerging issues and concerns. Throughout its history, Statistics Canada has continually modernized its statistical programs to provide Canadians with the nationwide data and statistical information they need.

    Its current modernization initiative is in response to a rapidly evolving digital economy and society. However, there are important data gaps in sectors such as health, energy and the environment, and a lack of sociodemographic detail, including about racialized and Indigenous groups, in social and economic indicators.

    New governance mechanisms are required to formally open new dialogues on national data needs and how to best collect and share this information. This must be led by Statistics Canada, in accordance with its mandate, with the full support and funding of the federal government. It must also include all levels of government and statistical organizations. Without a national data strategy, bureaucratic inertia and other hindrances to collecting and sharing statistical information across jurisdictions will continue to outweigh efforts to develop needed nationwide data accessible to all Canadians.

    A national data strategy could include First Nations, Inuit and Métis organizations that are planning, implementing and exercising control over the delivery of services to their communities. The nature of the data and analytical skills they require is changing and is more specific to regional and local issues that affect their peoples. Collection for new data needs could be done in partnership with Statistics Canada and other departments. This includes, for example, the need for data to support indicators of well-being, resiliency, understanding, and measurable progress on reconciliation and economic measures.

    Statistics Canada is well positioned to lead the various dialogues on national data and information needs. Its proven operational infrastructure provides an essential foundation, given that the agency has developed statistical data from hundreds of federal, provincial and territorial administrative data files. Its expertise in developing high-quality data using standardized concepts and classifications is recognized internationally. Statistics Canada also has the ability, with the required confidentiality protections in place, to combine and link these data with data from other sources to produce the statistical information needed to address national data gaps.

    "Nationwide data are a key strong foundation for decision makers, governments and the general public to understand and address important social, health, economic, environmental and energy issues facing Canadians."

    Statistics Canada must build on the new avenues of collaboration created as governments and experts came together in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This involves working with governments at all levels, other organizations, and new public and private sector partners to produce nationally comparable data that are representative of all Canadians. It also involves developing a close relationship with Canadians to better understand how to maintain their trust as an independent national statistical office and being transparent with regard to the privacy and confidentiality of Canadians' personal information.

    Statistical data requirements and funding should be explicitly included in the planning for all federal government programs. There is presently no standard or coordinated way to assess priority data requirements within the federal government. Statistics Canada works closely with most federal departments and organizations in reviewing their data needs. However, these discussions tend to involve only one or two departments at a time, reducing the scope and richness of the information collected. Statistics Canada is also often not actively consulted in the planning of new federal programs, limiting the statistical measures that should be produced.

    The federal government should enable Statistics Canada to work collectively with all departments to establish, maintain and act upon a national data strategy that recognizes the interactions between economic, social, health, environmental and energy issues. Data and statistical information should be formally integrated in federal planning processes to more aptly measure, monitor and evaluate federal program outcomes.

    2.1 Critical data gaps

    Recommendation 2:
    Addressing critical data gaps

    Critical data gaps and a lack of coordinated data in Canada seriously undermine the ability of decision makers and governments at all levels, as well as the general public, to understand and address key social, health, economic, environmental and energy issues facing Canadians.

    Two priority areas are gaps in health and health care data in Canada, and gaps in data by race and Indigenous peoples—while respecting existing and future processes with Indigenous jurisdictions—on topics including gender, disabilities, education, employment, health, income, justice, safety, the environment, energy, community infrastructure and social well-being.

    It is recommended that the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

    2.1 invest in coordinating data collection across federal, provincial, territorial and other levels of government and organizations to build a truly national data infrastructure (including, in accordance with Recommendation 1, providing Statistics Canada with the necessary funds to develop modern real-time software and communications technologies to collect these data)

    2.2 implement in the various fiscal arrangements with the provinces and territories adequate and effective mechanisms (which could include funding, incentives and penalties) to ensure that nationally consistent data can and do flow to Statistics Canada, pursuant to its mandate.

    It is essential that the country's decision makers have high-quality data and statistical information that represent all regions of Canada and the full range of experiences of individual Canadians. Statistics Canada's current statistical output is vast. Users can access statistical tables, data files and analyses on just about any topic of interest.

    At the same time, these data do not always tell the whole story. Information that spans the social, economic and geographic spectrum is often not available. The rapid rise of the digital economy and the impacts of climate change on the environment are examples of areas where new types of data are required to measure impacts on Canadian society and on the Canadian economy. Understanding the barriers faced by racialized groups and Indigenous Peoples also requires more detailed and disaggregated data on employment, income, health and justice.

    This year's report focuses on two areas where critical data gaps have long existed. These have become especially evident recently, with the COVID-19 pandemic and increased global awareness of racial inequities.

    Data gaps on health and health care

    Experts have been saying for years that national health data in Canada are seriously deficient, resulting in inadequate measures of the population's health status and the functioning of the health care sector. Rectifying this situation must be a top national statistics priority. Federally, health data are collected primarily by Statistics Canada (health status and health care) and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (health system performance).

    A substantial amount of health data presently exists within provincial and territorial jurisdictions, and it is increasing as hospitals and community clinics adopt new technologies to collect and use health information. This information has tremendous potential for national research on health care and population health. Yet Canada-wide health data are largely fragmented, often unavailable and inconsistent.

    This became quickly apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, when key health data were seriously lacking and inadequate for providing decision makers with the statistical indicators they needed. For example, basic information on COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths, as well as more detailed information such as that found in hospital records, suffered from delays, incomplete and missing data, and inconsistent definitions across jurisdictions.

    These data gaps and inconsistencies have led to serious shortcomings in the timeliness, completeness and quality of Canadian health care and health outcome data. In turn, this has greatly impaired the ability of governments at all levels to monitor and assess the evolution of the pandemic, let alone address serious health issues in Canada.

    Barriers to national health data

    Provincial, territorial and regional health authorities collect institution-specific health data primarily to administer health care services within their own jurisdictions. Consistency across regions in concepts, definitions, specific data elements collected and completeness of records is often not a priority. It takes months and sometimes longer for information as basic as that from death certificates to become part of the nationwide data that are needed to track deaths related to the pandemic. The methods used to collect medical records from hospitals and community clinics also range widely, from faxed documents to electronic records transferred directly to centralized health care databases. As well, the various software systems designed to collect and retain information such as medical records are often incompatible, limiting the information public health agencies have on important areas.

    "Serious shortcomings in the timeliness, completeness and quality of Canadian health care and health outcome data have greatly impaired the ability of governments at all levels to monitor and assess the evolution of the pandemic, let alone address serious health issues in Canada."

    Some health authorities have invoked provincial data protection laws as barriers to sharing certain information outside their borders. However, the sharing of identifiable data with Statistics Canada is permitted under their data protection laws, in accordance with the Statistics Act. There is also a strong reticence on the part of many provincial and territorial health organizations and communities to share data across health care systems within Canada. Some health officials do not feel that their programs should be subject to scrutiny outside their jurisdiction.

    A national health data infrastructure is essential both for supporting health policies and the health care Canadians receive and, more specifically, for managing emergencies such as the current pandemic. The federal government transfers billions of dollars annually to the provinces and territories to help fund health care services, with increases likely in the future for long-term care and possibly pharmacare. The funding of these services must include a provision for nationally comparable health data to measure the state of health and health care in Canada, and the functioning of the health care sector.

    Data gaps on racialized groups and Indigenous peoples

    The ability to address barriers faced by racialized groups and Indigenous peoples in Canada is seriously hampered by the lack of timely, consistent and disaggregated data.

    While the data gaps are not new, recent events in Canada and the United States have brought them to the forefront. For example, the data needed to properly examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and well-being of racialized groups, particularly Black Canadians, and Indigenous communities have not been available. Public outcry has increased following the deaths of Black people at the hands of police officers in the United States and Canada. Supporters of movements such as Black Lives Matter and Indigenous Lives Matter are demanding reforms to address systemic discrimination in areas such as health, employment, housing and justice.

    Canada is among the world's most ethnically diverse countries. More than one-fifth of Canadians identify as belonging to a visible minority group. This proportion is projected to increase, as they represent a large majority of new immigrants to Canada, particularly in large cities.

    Despite their growing numbers, there have been relatively few national studies of how these groups are faring in Canada. With the census as the main source of information, reports tend to be descriptive profiles of immigrants, visible minorities and Indigenous groups, including general analyses of changes in housing, employment and income. Much of the information available to decision makers is highly aggregated, partial and anecdotal.

    "The ability to address barriers faced by racialized groups and Indigenous peoples in Canada is seriously hampered by the lack of timely, consistent and disaggregated data."

    Canada needs much more comprehensive data to inform the current debates on the barriers many Canadians face to fully engage in all aspects of society and the economy. It is essential to look beyond the census for high-quality statistical information disaggregated by racialized and Indigenous groups that integrate elements such as family, housing, education, employment, income and well-being.

    Surveys generally do not have a large enough sample size to produce detailed disaggregated data, though the Canadian Community Health Survey, the Indigenous Peoples Survey, and more recently, the Labour Force Survey do provide general trends for visible minorities and for Indigenous people living off reserve.

    To make inroads in developing a national infrastructure for data by race and by Indigenous group, the focus must include governments' administrative data in areas such as labour, education, health, housing and justice. While a large number of federal, provincial and territorial government departments and organizations already share their administrative data with Statistics Canada, few of these sources include data by racialized and Indigenous groups.

    There is pressure from many Canadians and decision makers for government departments to begin incorporating information on race and on Indigenous peoples into their datasets for statistical purposes. Some Canadians may hesitate to share this information with government authorities, but, at the same time, many within these groups have long called for authorities such as police forces to collect this information.

    There have been encouraging initiatives. Statistics Canada is presently in discussions with the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information on how nationally standardized concepts and definitions must be applied to their planned collection of race-based health data. Also, Statistics Canada and the country's police chiefs have agreed to collect this information when compiling information on victims and accused people to address data gaps for Indigenous peoples and other sociodemographic groups. Statistics Canada has also created the Advisory Committee on Ethnocultural and Immigration Statistics and the Working Group on Black Communities in Canada to counsel the agency.

    Statistics Canada is engaging with national Indigenous organizations to provide statistical capacity building that is grounded in the needs of Indigenous peoples. Efforts are being made to identify where data gaps exist and how Statistics Canada data sources and expertise can help improve data quality and access, and support decision making. Statistics Canada's "Statistics on Indigenous peoples" web portal enables users to access data on Indigenous communities on topics such as children and families, health and well-being, education, and work.

    Nevertheless, critical data gaps remain, and more needs to be done to address them.

    2.2 Serious imbalances in funding statistical programs

    Recommendation 3:
    Rectifying serious imbalances in funding national statistical programs

    Statistics Canada is given the resources to produce economic indicators for about 20 key areas of economic activity. There are imbalances and inefficiencies in how data needs in other domains are addressed. Many of the agency's key social statistics programs, and certain economic, environmental and energy programs, are largely dependent on ad hoc funding and cost-recovery transfers from federal departments. Stable core funding for these programs is essential to support a national data strategy that includes all factors affecting society and the economy.

    It is recommended that the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

    3.1 consider options to ensure that Statistics Canada's core funding includes resources for social, economic, environmental and energy statistics programs, including the long-form census questionnaire, household surveys, administrative data, research and analysis, without having to rely on ad hoc cost-recovery transfers from departments.

    It is important that public and private sector decision makers have high-quality data and statistical information that represent all regions of Canada and the full range of circumstances of individual Canadians. Stable core funding for Statistics Canada's programs is essential to having this information. Statistics Canada is given the resources to produce economic indicators for about 20 key areas of economic activity, such as the gross domestic product (GDP), consumer prices and employment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency has been able to continue producing these data, which are critical for assessing the economic impact of the crisis. However, there is an increasing focus on social and environmental data, which measure other important contributors to well-being, beyond the traditional economic measures. This is reflected in a growing international consensus on the need to go beyond the GDP, recognizing that social, health, economic and environmental factors all affect people's well-being. How these various factors interact and affect each other also has significant impacts on individuals, as well as on national and regional economies.

    Many of Statistics Canada's key social statistics programs, and certain economic, environmental and energy programs, are largely dependent on ad hoc funding and cost-recovery transfers from federal departments. Support for these programs is often based on the siloed needs of one or two departments. These programs' vulnerability to cuts can significantly affect important and more comprehensive data needs and areas of research. Stable core funding for these programs is essential to support a national data strategy that includes all factors affecting society and the economy.

    "Stable core funding for Statistics Canada's programs is essential to having high-quality data and statistical information that represent all regions of Canada and the full range of circumstances of individual Canadians."

    3. Privacy and data sharing

    Recommendation 4:
    Ensuring the privacy of Canadians and the need for Canadians to provide data to Statistics Canada

    Statistics Canada has the legal authority to collect federal, provincial and territorial data under the Statistics Act. Most jurisdictions include provisions in their data protection laws to permit data sharing for statistical purposes. The act also gives the agency the authority to collect data from private sector sources, in conjunction with government data, to provide a multifaceted statistical portrait of the country. The confidentiality of this information is protected under the Statistics Act.

    There should be no conflict between respect for the privacy of Canadians and the need for Canadians to provide data to Statistics Canada.

    It is recommended that

    4.1 Statistics Canada and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry work with the Minister of Justice, informed by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and by Indigenous jurisdictions, to ensure that federal, provincial and territorial data protection laws and policies are attentive to the imperative of data sharing for statistical purposes, and to ensure that there are no legislative ambiguities with regard to Statistics Canada's authority under the Statistics Act to collect data from federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions

    4.2 Statistics Canada and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry start a dialogue with Canadians on the importance of data for evidence-based decision making, and on how the collection of these data must respect data protection laws and the confidentiality of Canadians' personal information

    4.3 Statistics Canada proceed, with support from the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, with its projects to develop new data sources from financial and credit institutions, in accordance with the agency's methodological framework on necessity and proportionality, and inform Canadians why these data are needed and how they will be collected and stored.

    Statistics Canada has the authority under the Statistics Act to collect personal data to produce the social and economic statistical information that forms the foundation for data-driven decision making for the well-being of all Canadians. For over 100 years, Canadians have provided this information to Statistics Canada, which has maintained the confidentiality of these data and produced statistics without revealing identifiable information about individuals, in accordance with the Statistics Act.

    It is essential that citizens understand the importance of evidence-based decision making for Canada to succeed in the new data economy. Governments also need to recognize that traditional ways of collecting information are no longer sufficient. They must support Statistics Canada in its work to provide the key statistical information needed by governments and Canadians to address the increasingly complex and dynamic challenges they face.

    There should be a more extensive conversation with Canadians about the alignment between privacy and the need for data for effective decision making. This discussion would facilitate mutual understanding by Canadians and governments of the issues at hand and provide a forum for the exchanges that need to occur for Canada to truly benefit from an independent and trusted source of official statistics. The country needs a solid foundation for government accountability and evidence-based decision making by both the public and the private sectors.

    "There should be no conflict between respect for the privacy of Canadians and the need for Canadians to provide data to Statistics Canada."

    Statistics Canada has been working with expert groups in Canada and with national statistical offices from around the world to explore the possibility of producing high-quality statistics from digital administrative data—both data from governments (e.g., tax files, health care encounters, property tax assessments, driver's licences) and big data from the private sector (e.g., retail transactions, credit card transactions, mortgages, other debt). Being able to use these new, primarily electronic, sources of data will enable Statistics Canada to address the critical needs for new and more disaggregated data in Canada—data that are integrated across the social, health, economic, environmental and energy domains.

    Many countries are reviewing their data protection laws, given both the dramatic increase in the prevalence and use of personal information from administrative data, and growing concerns about the data holdings of multinational social media companies. In doing so, they recognize the importance of collecting personal information for specific legitimate purposes, when done under the country's legal authority and in a transparent manner. For example, the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation recognizes the need for national statistical offices to access personal information, permitting the flow of the information for statistical research for the public good, without requiring consent.

    In Canada, Statistics Canada's project to collect detailed data on banking and credit card transactions has drawn particular attention. These new sources of information are key to addressing emerging critical data gaps in Canada's economic and financial measures as a result of important changes to consumer patterns and debt. In response to concerns raised by some Canadians, Statistics Canada suspended its work to address them before proceeding with the project. The agency is also collaborating with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to address concerns as a result of complaints it received about this project. After investigating these complaints, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada concluded that Statistics Canada was not in contravention of the Privacy Act.

    The need for transparency on matters of privacy and confidentiality is essential to maintaining public trust. Statistics Canada must clearly inform Canadians why the information it collects is needed and explain the measures it takes to protect the confidentiality of Canadians' personal information. The need for transparency is especially heightened in this project, given the sensitivity of personal banking information and the volume and detail of information that may be collected.

    Moving forward, the agency needs to engage with a focus on guiding principles to meet the rapidly changing data context. Statistics Canada is working in consultation with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to develop a new methodology framework based on the principles of necessity and proportionality. This methodology framework, which the agency is sharing with the global statistical community, is a significant and thoughtful initiative.

    The framework recognizes Statistics Canada's legal authority under the Statistics Act to collect personal information for statistical purposes, and Statistics Canada's legal obligation under the same act to ensure the confidentiality of this information. The framework also recognizes the country's data protection laws. These include the federal Privacy Act, which sets out how personal information held by the federal government and federal public sector institutions is used, stored and shared, and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, which sets out how organizations engaged in commercial activities must handle personal information.

    3.1 Provincial and territorial data sharing

    The provinces and territories have a long history of sharing administrative data with Statistics Canada in areas such as vital statistics, education and justice. Statistics Canada has the authority to collect these data under the Statistics Act, and most provinces and territories have provisions in their data protection laws to enable them to share data for statistical purposes for the public good.

    For many years, some provincial and territorial health authorities have invoked provincial data protection laws as barriers to sharing certain health data. This has contributed in part to the poor state of national health data, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to questions about privacy issues during the pandemic, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada stated that, "During a public health crisis, privacy laws still apply, but they are not a barrier to appropriate information sharing."

    Discussions about data sharing must be broadened to include priority needs for national data. To make measurable progress, Statistics Canada must have federal government support to play a leadership role and build on the new avenues of government collaboration created in response to the pandemic.

    Many provinces and territories are reviewing their data protection laws to take into account new technologies for collecting and sharing personal information. Statistics Canada must work with them to ensure that revisions to data protection laws recognize the importance of official national statistics and that there are no legislative ambiguities with regard to Statistics Canada's legal authority to collect data from their jurisdictions.

    4. Microdata access

    Recommendation 5:
    Modernizing microdata access

    The need for a modern infrastructure to access Statistics Canada's microdata, including secure remote access, has never been greater, as duly authorized researchers undertake statistical analysis to inform governments and Canadians.

    It is recommended that the Chief Statistician

    5.1 give high priority to and accelerate the modernization of the Microdata Access Program, including providing secure remote access by duly authorized researchers to its anonymized microdata and streamlining the current authentication process for granting secure access to Statistics Canada's microdata.

    The need for a modern infrastructure to access Statistics Canada's microdata, including secure remote access, has never been greater, as duly authorized researchers look to inform governments and Canadians on issues such as the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    To meet the specific information needs of Canadians, the agency has introduced web portals to transform complex data into easy-to-understand visuals. The "COVID-19: A data perspective" portal is a good example. Created in response to the pandemic, it provides governments and Canadians access in one place to a wide array of relevant health, social and economic statistical information with tables, infographics, interactive maps, data visualizations and statistical analyses.

    For many years, Statistics Canada has provided students and researchers with a range of ways to access data, with strict security restrictions for access to confidential microdata. Non-confidential Public Use Microdata Files are used extensively by postsecondary students through the Data Liberation Initiative. Students and duly authorized researchers can also use the online Real Time Remote Access system available for most social surveys. The output is largely descriptive and useful for general findings and preliminary research activities. It presently requires knowledge of SAS programming, which limits access to the data for some researchers.

    Confidential microdata can be accessed through Statistics Canada's Research Data Centres (RDCs). These are secure facilities located on university campuses that offer access to Statistics Canada's more detailed—and therefore most analytically powerful—data holdings. They include detailed microdata from Statistics Canada's household surveys, census data and an increasing number of administrative datasets such as the cancer registry. Since the opening of the first RDC in 2000, the Canadian Research Data Centre Network has expanded and now includes over 30 secure data laboratories in which over 2,000 duly authorized researchers across Canada conduct advanced quantitative social science and health research.

    Secure access to anonymized business and economic microdata is provided to government researchers through the Canadian Centre for Data Development and Economic Research Program at Statistics Canada headquarters in Ottawa.

    4.1 Modernizing the Microdata Access Program

    The RDCs, with their physical data laboratories, have become outdated and are no longer able to adequately support Canada's research and analysis needs. The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear the need for Statistics Canada to transition from the RDCs' physical infrastructure to new distributed modes of access. Once a world leader, Statistics Canada has fallen behind. The agency is currently modernizing its microdata access infrastructure with more sophisticated datasets, secure remote access technologies and expansion of secure access to anonymized business data in the RDCs. This is a long-awaited initiative that will greatly improve the quality and depth of research and analysis in Canada across all sectors. However, the timeline of well into 2022 for full implementation of secure remote microdata access is too long and should be accelerated.

    "The modernization of Statistics Canada's microdata access infrastructure is a long-awaited initiative that will greatly improve the quality and depth of research and analysis in Canada across all sectors; however, its timeline for full implementation is too long and should be accelerated."

    With the wealth of statistical information, data expertise and technical savvy found in public, academic and private institutions across the country, there are tremendous opportunities to transform how data are developed and used in Canada. Researchers in Canada currently have secure access to a vast amount of data from a wide range of sources, including from government administrative data sources, universities and the private sector. The explosion of big data and data analytics is also generating a growing pool of talented data scientists. A modernized research data access program will greatly facilitate and support the statistical research required to address the increasingly complex and multifaceted issues faced by Canadians.

    Statistics Canada must also modernize and streamline its administrative processes, such as the authentication of researchers. Statistics Canada should look to international models such as that used in the Netherlands, where the authentication process includes a class of "duly authorized researchers" who may be required to take training on privacy and security and must be affiliated with a government department, university or institute for scientific research. As in Canada, research must be for statistical purposes as opposed to private commercial research.

    There is also interest from national and regional Indigenous organizations in developing and implementing information and research data centres in their communities. This would provide Indigenous peoples with better access to Statistics Canada microdata and other Indigenous microdata on the health, social and economic well-being of Indigenous communities. Analytic capacity would also be expanded to include the use of new data, analytic techniques and technology to support research, planning and development and to build statistical capacity to assist vulnerable Indigenous communities.

    Definitions

    Administrative data
    are holdings of individual records collected by government departments and other organizations for the purpose of administering benefits, services and taxes. Under provisions of the Statistics Act, administrative data can be shared with Statistics Canada for statistical purposes.
    Microdata
    are individual records containing information collected from the census, surveys, administrative data and other sources. They may represent an individual, a household, a business or an organization. The confidentiality of identifiable information about individuals is protected under the Statistics Act.
    Nationwide data
    are data collected from the census, surveys, administrative data and other sources that represent all Canadians, including at the individual and household levels. They include pooled and integrated administrative data collected from provincial and territorial jurisdictions. The data are aggregated to produce national social and economic statistics, such as employment rates, life expectancy and gross domestic product. These data can be grouped by social and economic characteristics and can be analyzed statistically to examine issues such as socioeconomic inequalities and health outcomes.
    Necessity and proportionality
    refer to principles applied to the collection of information. The agency considers needs for data to ensure the well-being of the country (necessity), and it also tailors the volume and detail of the data collected to meet these needs (proportionality).
    Statistical information
    is the added value to statistics resulting from quantitative interpretation, modelling and analysis. This can take many forms, including charts, interactive visualizations and analytical articles.

    Endnotes

    1. "Factors associated with COVID-19-related death using OpenSAFELY," Nature, July 2020.
    2. The Employment Equity Act defines members of visible minorities as "persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour." Many data users use visible minority as a proxy for race.
    3. "Commissioner publishes framework to assessprivacy-impactful initiatives inresponse to COVID-19."
    4. Statistics Netherlands, "Microdata: Conducting your own research."

    Quarterly Survey of Financial Statements: Weighted Asset Response Rate - third quarter 2020

    Weighted Asset Response Rate
    Table summary
    This table displays the results of Weighted Asset Response Rate. The information is grouped by Release date (appearing as row headers), 2019, Q3 and Q4 and 2020, Q1, Q2 and Q3 calculated using percentage units of measure (appearing as column headers).
    Release date 2019 2020
    Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3
    quarterly (percentage)
    November 20, 2020 80.0 67.4 84.4 76.3 55.6
    August 25, 2020 80.0 67.4 82.3 59.1 ..
    June 9, 2020 80.0 67.4 67.8 .. ..
    February 25, 2020 75.4 62.4 .. .. ..
    November 26, 2019 64.9 .. .. .. ..
    .. not available for a specific reference period
    Source: Quarterly Survey of Financial Statements (2501)

    Canadian Classification of the Functions of Government (CCOFOG) Methodology

    Universe

    CCOFOG data are prepared for all general government sectors: the federal general government sector, the provincial general and territorial government sector, the local general government sector, the colleges and universities sector and the health, school board and Canada and Quebec Pension Plan sectors. Canadian Classification of the Functions of Government (CCOFOG) coding is applied at the program level for the general ledger accounts, specified purpose accounts, special funds and income statements of specific entities, such as colleges and universities. A complete list of government entities is available at Public Sector Universe.

    Data composition

    The published CCOFOG data represent only expenses, but exclude consumption of fixed capital. No estimates of the acquisition of non-financial assets are prepared at this time.

    Coding process

    The CCOFOG classification has three levels. The highest level is referred to as the division and has 10 separate categories. The second level is referred to as the group and the lowest level is referred to as the class. The classifications are available at Canadian Classification of Functions of Government (CCOFOG) 2014.

    The primary mandate of a government's program, together with additional information provided by the Canadian Government Finance Statistics (CGFS) coding, is used to assign the CCOFOG classification. When a program has multiple mandates suggesting multiple CCOFOG codes be used, available information is used to determine the main proportion of the observed expense and the entire expenditure is assigned to that CCOFOG classification. However, in certain cases, a proportion of the expenses are redistributed to other CCOFOG codes to better reflect the nature of the expenditure.

    In general, special funds usually have a single function and thus a single CCOFOG code is assigned. For example, a social housing authority would have all expenses coded to 71069 – Housing, other than public debt transactions, which would be assigned to 7017.

    General principles

    CCOFOG provides a consistent way to compare government expenditures across jurisdictions and through time. The aim is to classify expenditures according to their function, or socioeconomic objective, reflecting the aims the associated government wants to achieve.

    The 2014 Government Finance Statistics Manual, published by the International Monetary Fund, provides an overview of the COFOG assignment rules in Chapter 6 and its annex. Canada rigorously adheres to the guidelines described in the manual.

    As a practical matter individual governments, federal, provincial, or local, typically report their expenditures by department or agency and, within these structures, by economic class of expenditure (compensation of employees, use of goods and services, social benefits, etcetera). Each government's organizational structure may change over time and is unlikely to line up well with that of other governments. This issue is important within Canada and it is especially acute when it comes to comparing government expenditures across different countries. CCOFOG statistics promote comparability by providing a single, purpose-oriented classification for the expenditures of all jurisdictions and holding this classification constant through time.

    It is also important, when making inter-governmental comparisons between countries or between governments within Canada, to use consolidated rather than unconsolidated statistics. This is especially true for expenditures on large expense categories such as health and education where inter-governmental transfers are substantial.

    The consolidated provincial, territorial and local government (PTLG) estimates are often used for provincial and territorial comparisons. These estimates combine provincial and territorial governments, health and social service institutions, universities and colleges, municipalities and other local public administrations and school boards. Importantly, this aggregation removes interparty transactions. The PTLG aggregation is most often used for comparability purposes since there can be different delineations of responsibilities between provincial and local levels of government across provinces.

    The consolidated Canadian general government estimates combine the federal government with PTLG data. They exclude data for the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans as well as those for federal and provincial government business enterprises.

    Statement outlining results, risks and significant changes in operations, personnel and program

    A) Introduction

    Statistics Canada's mandate

    Statistics Canada ("the agency") is a member of the Innovation, Science and Industry portfolio.

    Statistics Canada's role is to ensure that Canadians have access to a trusted source of statistics on Canada that meets their highest priority needs.

    The agency's mandate derives primarily from the Statistics Act. The Act requires that the agency collects, compiles, analyzes and publishes statistical information on the economic, social, and general conditions of the country and its people. It also requires that Statistics Canada conduct the census of population and the census of agriculture every fifth year, and protects the confidentiality of the information with which it is entrusted.

    Statistics Canada also has a mandate to co-ordinate and lead the national statistical system. The agency is considered a leader, among statistical agencies around the world, in co–ordinating statistical activities to reduce duplication and reporting burden.

    More information on Statistics Canada's mandate, roles, responsibilities and programs can be found in the 2020–2021 Main Estimates and in the Statistics Canada 2020–2021 Departmental Plan.

    The Quarterly Financial Report:

    • should be read in conjunction with the 2020–2021 Main Estimates;
    • has been prepared by management, as required by Section 65.1 of the Financial Administration Act, and in the form and manner prescribed by Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat;
    • has not been subject to an external audit or review.

    Statistics Canada has the authority to collect and spend revenue from other federal government departments and agencies, as well as from external clients, for statistical services and products.

    Basis of presentation

    This quarterly report has been prepared by management using an expenditure basis of accounting. The accompanying Statement of Authorities includes the agency's spending authorities granted by Parliament and those used by the agency consistent with the Main Estimates for the 2020–2021 fiscal year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic (the pandemic) and limited sessions in the spring for Parliament to study supply, the Standing Orders of the House of Commons were amended to extend the study period into the fall. The agency is expected to receive the remainder of the full supply for the 2020-21 Main Estimates in December 2020. This quarterly report has been prepared using a special purpose financial reporting framework designed to meet financial information needs with respect to the use of spending authorities.

    The authority of Parliament is required before moneys can be spent by the Government. Approvals are given in the form of annually approved limits through appropriation acts or through legislation in the form of statutory spending authority for specific purposes.

    The agency uses the full accrual method of accounting to prepare and present its annual departmental financial statements that are part of the departmental results reporting process. However, the spending authorities voted by Parliament remain on an expenditure basis.

    B) Highlights of fiscal quarter and fiscal year-to-date results

    This section highlights the significant items that contributed to the net increase in resources available for the year, as well as actual expenditures for the quarter ended September 30. The pandemic has significantly affected the department's supply in the current fiscal year given that Main Estimates has not yet been approved by Parliament. Therefore the authorities available for use is not comparable to previous fiscal years.

    Comparison of gross budgetary authorities and expenditures as of September 30, 2019, and September 30, 2020, in thousands of dollars
    Description for Chart 1: Comparison of gross budgetary authorities and expenditures as of September 30, 2019, and September 30, 2020, in thousands of dollars

    This bar graph shows Statistics Canada's budgetary authorities and expenditures, in thousands of dollars, as of September 30, 2019 and 2019:

    • As at September 30, 2019
      • Net budgetary authorities: $524,960
      • Vote netting authority: $120,000
      • Total authority: $644,960
      • Net expenditures for the period ending September 30: $280,632
      • Year-to-date revenues spent from vote netting authority for the period ending September 30: $32,079
      • Total expenditures: $312,711
    • As at September 30, 2020
      • Net budgetary authorities: $591,289
      • Vote netting authority: $120,000
      • Total authority: $711,289
      • Net expenditures for the period ending September 30: $320,562
      • Year-to-date revenues spent from vote netting authority for the period ending September 30: $12,727
      • Total expenditures: $333,289

    Chart 1 outlines the gross budgetary authorities, which represent the resources available for use for the year as of September 30.

    Significant changes to authorities

    Total authorities available for 2020–2021 have increased by $66.3 million, or 10.3%, from the previous year, from $645.0 million to $711.3 million (Chart 1). An additional $44.9 million in authorities available for use to make up the full supply is expected to be received in December 2020. Based on the full supply, this net increase is mostly the result of the following:

    • An increase of $80.5 million for the 2021 Census of Population program for new cyclical funding received to cover planning and developmental activities;
    • An increase of $22.2 million for the ratification of collective agreements;
    • An increase of $13.8 million for Enabling Vision for Data-Driven Economy and Society, an initiative approved in 2018–2019 which will change the way the federal government collects, uses and shares data while ensuring the privacy of Canadians remains protected;
    • A decrease of $2.1 million for the Survey of Financial Security and Annual Household wealth.

    The variance is also explained by the reception of authorities at different quarters throughout the year.

    In addition to the appropriations allocated to the agency through the Main Estimates, Statistics Canada also has vote net authority within Vote 1, which entitles the agency to spend revenues collected from other federal government departments, agencies, and external clients to provide statistical services. The vote netting authority is stable at $120 million when comparing the second quarter of fiscal years 2019–2020 and 2020–2021.

    Significant changes to expenditures

    Year-to-date net expenditures recorded to the end of the second quarter increased by $40 million, or 14.3% from the previous year, from $280.6 million to $320.6 million (see Table A: Variation in Departmental Expenditures by Standard Object).

    Statistics Canada spent approximately 54.2% of its authorities by the end of the second quarter, compared with 53.5% in the same quarter of 2019–2020.

    Table A: Variation in Departmental Expenditures by Standard Object (unaudited)
    Table summary: This table displays the variance of departmental expenditures by standard object between fiscal 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. The variance is calculated for year to date expenditures as at the end of the second quarter. The row headers provide information by standard object. The column headers provide information in thousands of dollars and percentage variance for the year to date variation.
    Departmental Expenditures Variation by Standard Object: Q2 year-to-date variation between fiscal year 2019–2020 and 2020–2021
    $'000 %
    Note: Explanations are provided for variances of more than $1 million.
    (01) Personnel  18,582  6.7
    (02) Transportation and communications -5,335 -77.4
    (03) Information -722 -18.0
    (04) Professional and special services -1,024 -7.9
    (05) Rentals  6,557  58.4
    (06) Repair and maintenance  437  182.9
    (07) Utilities, materials and supplies -51 -17.2
    (08) Acquisition of land, buildings and works  90  3000.0
    (09) Acquisition of machinery and equipment  1,773  153.4
    (10) Transfer payments - N/A
    (12) Other subsidies and payments 271 97.1
    Total gross budgetary expenditures  20,578  6.6
    Less revenues netted against expenditures:
    Revenues -19,352 -60.3
    Total net budgetary expenditures  39,930 14.2

    Personnel: The increase is mainly due to the ratification of collective agreements and an overall increase in the agency's activities, partially offset by the reduction of seasonal, term and contract employees and students resulting from the pandemic.

    Transportation and communications: The decrease is mainly due to postage costs of the 2019 Census Test that occurred last fiscal year, as well as travel being significantly reduced this fiscal year due to the pandemic.

    Professional and special services: The decrease is mainly due to some surveys being delayed to the next fiscal year.

    Rentals: The increase is mainly due to the cost of software licence maintenance being higher than last fiscal year, and to additional costs for logistical requirements for the Census 2021.

    Acquisition of machinery and equipment: The increase is mainly due to the purchase of equipment, such as monitors and fingerprint scanners for the Census program, and to the acquisition cost of new software licences.

    Revenues: The decrease is mainly due to timing differences in the receipt of funds for scheduled key deliverables and a decrease in cost recovery work and payments from clients due to the pandemic.

    C) Risks and uncertainties

    Statistics Canada is currently expending significant effort in modernizing its business processes and tools, in order to maintain its relevance and maximize the value it provides to Canadians. As a foundation piece for some of these efforts, the agency is working in collaboration with Shared Services Canada and Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Office of the Chief Information Officer, to ensure the agency has access to adequate information technology services and support to attain its modernization objectives and successfully transition its infrastructure and applications to the cloud. Activities and related costs are projected based on various assumptions that can change, depending on the nature and degree of work required to accomplish the initiatives.

    Statistics Canada is facing fiscal pressures due to the sudden impact of the global pandemic. The agency faced significant reductions in its cost recovery activities in the first half of the year as well as increased operational costs associated with the delivery of the 2021 Census Program under a pandemic environment. Risks and uncertainties are being mitigated by the agency's proactive planning assumptions review, mitigation strategies and engagement with central agencies and partners.

    D) Significant changes to operations, personnel and programs

    The agency is planning changes in operations and program activities with financial implications including:

    • The Census program is ramping down operations from the 2016 Census of Population while ramping up for the 2021 Census which is in the advanced planning stage. As such, expenditures for this program are increasing. The program is also facing unanticipated financial pressures as it will be incurring additional expenditures due to new strategies adapted for the pandemic and economic increases that have materialized higher than planned;
    • New efforts and collaboration to provide data and insights related to the impact of the pandemic on the society and economy;
    • Reductions in the agency's cost recovery activities as a result of the pandemic. The revenue levels for 2020–2021 will be lower than 2019–2020.

    Approval by senior officials

    Approved by:

    Anil Arora, Chief Statistician
    Monia Lahaie, Chief Financial Officer
    Ottawa, Ontario
    Signed on: November 23, 2020

    Appendix

    Statement of Authorities (unaudited)
    Table summary: This table displays the departmental authorities for fiscal years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. The row headers provide information by type of authority, Vote 105 – Net operating expenditures, Statutory authority and Total Budgetary authorities. The column headers provide information in thousands of dollars for Total available for use for the year ending March 31; used during the quarter ended September 30; and year to date used at quarter-end of both fiscal years.
      Fiscal year 2020–2021 Fiscal year 2019–2020
    Total available for use for the year ending March 31, 2021Tablenote 1 Used during the quarter ended September 30, 2020 Year-to-date used at quarter-end Total available for use for the year ending March 31, 2020Tablenote 1 Used during the quarter ended September 30, 2019 Year-to-date used at quarter-end
    in thousands of dollars
    Tablenote 1

    Includes only Authorities available for use and granted by Parliament at quarter-end.

    Return to tablenote 1 referrer

    Vote 1 — Net operating expenditures  515,210   144,146   282,522   453,408   123,280   244,902 
    Statutory authority — Contribution to employee benefit plans  76,079   19,020   38,040  71,552 17,865  35,730 
    Total budgetary authorities  591,289   163,166   320,562   524,960   141,145   280,632 
    Departmental budgetary expenditures by Standard Object (unaudited)
    Table summary: This table displays the departmental expenditures by standard object for fiscal years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. The row headers provide information by standard object for expenditures and revenues. The column headers provide information in thousands of dollars for planned expenditures for the year ending March 31; expended during the quarter ended September 30; and year to date used at quarter-end of both fiscal years.
      Fiscal year 2020–2021 Fiscal year 2019–2020
    Planned expenditures for the year ending March 31, 2021 Expended during the quarter ended September 30, 2020 Year-to-date used at quarter-end Planned expenditures for the year ending March 31, 2020 Expended during the quarter ended September 30, 2019 Year-to-date used at quarter-end
    in thousands of dollars
    Expenditures:
    (01) Personnel  571,289   150,469   294,126   547,364   138,125   275,544 
    (02) Transportation and communications  22,460   1,375   1,562   18,654   3,579   6,897 
    (03) Information  24,913   2,063   3,296   9,151   2,827   4,018 
    (04) Professional and special services  57,029   6,568   12,022   39,089   7,507   13,046 
    (05) Rentals  13,357   8,550   17,790   12,903   5,890   11,233 
    (06) Repair and maintenance  881   29   676   678   142   239 
    (07) Utilities, materials and supplies  2,119   157   245   2,238   162   296 
    (08) Acquisition of land, buildings and works  671   84   93   625  3  3
    (09) Acquisition of machinery and equipment  18,429   748   2,929   14,086   359   1,156 
    (10) Transfer payments 100 - -  100  - -
    (12) Other subsidies and payments 41  166   550  72 7  279 
    Total gross budgetary expenditures  711,289   170,209   333,289   644,960   158,601   312,711 
    Less revenues netted against expenditures:
    Revenues 120,000  7,043   12,727  120,000  17,456   32,079 
    Total revenues netted against expenditures 120,000  7,043   12,727  120,000  17,456   32,079 
    Total net budgetary expenditures  591,289   163,166   320,562   524,960  141,145  280,632 

    Annual Greenhouse, Sod and Nursery Survey - 2019

    Why are we conducting this survey?

    This survey collects up-to-date information on the production and value of greenhouse plants and vegetables, and on the production of nursery stock and sod in Canada.

    Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, producer associations, and provincial agriculture departments use the data to perform market trend analysis and to study domestic production and imports. The data are also used to calculate farm cash receipts.

    Your information may also be used by Statistics Canada for other statistical and research purposes.

    Your participation in this survey is required under the authority of the Statistics Act.

    Other important information

    Authorization to collect this information

    Data are collected under the authority of the Statistics Act, Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985, Chapter S-19.

    Confidentiality

    By law, Statistics Canada is prohibited from releasing any information it collects that 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 purposes only.

    Web scraping

    We may also visit your website to search for additional information using automated methods; being careful not to impede the functionality of your website.

    Record linkages

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

    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 statistical agencies of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. The shared data will be limited to information pertaining to business establishments located within the jurisdiction of the respective province.

    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, specifying the organizations with which you do not want Statistics Canada to share your data and mailing it to the following address:

    Chief Statistician of Canada
    Statistics Canada
    Attention of Director, Enterprise Statistics Division
    150 Tunney's Pasture Driveway
    Ottawa, Ontario
    K1A 0T6

    You may also contact us by email at statcan.esdhelpdesk-dsebureaudedepannage.statcan@statcan.gc.ca or by fax at 613-951-6583.

    For this survey, there are Section 12 agreements with the Prince Edward Island statistical agency as well as with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and The Prince Edward Island Department of Agriculture and Land.

    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.

    Business or organization and contact information

    1. Verify or provide the business or organization's legal and operating name and correct where needed.

    Note: Legal name modifications should only be done to correct a spelling error or typo.

    Legal Name

    The legal name is one recognized by law, thus it is the name liable for pursuit or for debts incurred by the business or organization. In the case of a corporation, it is the legal name as fixed by its charter or the statute by which the corporation was created.

    Modifications to the legal name should only be done to correct a spelling error or typo.

    To indicate a legal name of another legal entity you should instead indicate it in question 3 by selecting 'Not currently operational' and then choosing the applicable reason and providing the legal name of this other entity along with any other requested information.

    Operating Name

    The operating name is a name the business or organization is commonly known as if different from its legal name. The operating name is synonymous with trade name.

    • Legal name
    • Operating name (if applicable)

    2. Verify or provide the contact information of the designated business or organization contact person for this questionnaire and correct where needed.

    Note: The designated contact person is the person who should receive this questionnaire. The designated contact person may not always be the one who actually completes the questionnaire.

    • First name
    • Last name
    • Title
    • Preferred language of communication
      • English
      • French
    • Mailing address (number and street)
    • City
    • Province, territory or state
    • Postal code or ZIP code
    • Country
      • Canada
      • United States
    • Email address
    • Telephone number (including area code)
    • Extension number (if applicable)
      The maximum number of characters is 10.
    • Fax number (including area code)

    3. Verify or provide the current operational status of the business or organization identified by the legal and operating name above.

    • Operational
    • Not currently operational
      Why is this business or organization not currently operational?
      • Seasonal operations
        • When did this business or organization close for the season?
          Date
        • When does this business or organization expect to resume operations?
          Date
      • Ceased operations
        • When did this business or organization cease operations?
          Date
        • Why did this business or organization cease operations?
          • Bankruptcy
          • Liquidation
          • Dissolution
          • Other
            Specify the other reasons why the operations ceased
      • Sold operations
        • When was this business or organization sold?
          Date
        • What is the legal name of the buyer?
      • Amalgamated with other businesses or organizations
        • When did this business or organization amalgamate?
          Date
        • What is the legal name of the resulting or continuing business or organization?
        • What are the legal names of the other amalgamated businesses or organizations?
      • Temporarily inactive but will re-open
        • When did this business or organization become temporarily inactive?
          Date
        • When does this business or organization expect to resume operations?
          Date
        • Why is this business or organization temporarily inactive?
      • No longer operating due to other reasons
        • When did this business or organization cease operations?
          Date
        • Why did this business or organization cease operations?

    4. Verify or provide the current main activity of the business or organization identified by the legal and operating name above.

    Note: The described activity was assigned using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

    This question verifies the business or organization's current main activity as classified by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). 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 is designed to provide common definitions of the industrial structure of the three countries and a common statistical framework to facilitate the analysis of the three economies. NAICS is based on supply-side 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.

    The target entity for which NAICS is designed are businesses and other organizations engaged in the production of goods and services. They include farms, incorporated and unincorporated businesses and government business enterprises. They also include government institutions and agencies engaged in the production of marketed and non-marketed services, as well as organizations such as professional associations and unions and charitable or non-profit organizations and the employees of households.

    The associated NAICS should reflect those activities conducted by the business or organizational units targeted by this questionnaire only, as identified in the 'Answering this questionnaire' section and which can be identified by the specified legal and operating name. The main activity is the activity which most defines the targeted business or organization's main purpose or reason for existence. For a business or organization that is for-profit, it is normally the activity that generates the majority of the revenue for the entity.

    The NAICS classification contains a limited number of activity classifications; the associated classification might be applicable for this business or organization even if it is not exactly how you would describe this business or organization's main activity.

    Please note that any modifications to the main activity through your response to this question might not necessarily be reflected prior to the transmitting of subsequent questionnaires and as a result they may not contain this updated information.

    The following is the detailed description including any applicable examples or exclusions for the classification currently associated with this business or organization.

    Description and examples

    • This is the current main activity
    • This is not the current main activity

    Provide a brief but precise description of this business or organization's main activity
    e.g., breakfast cereal manufacturing, shoe store, software development

    Main activity

    5. You indicated that is not the current main activity.
    Was this business or organization's main activity ever classified as: ?

    • Yes
      When did the main activity change?
      Date
    • No

    6. Search and select the industry classification code that best corresponds to this business or organization's main activity.

    Select this business or organization's activity sector (optional)

    • Farming or logging operation
    • Construction company or general contractor
    • Manufacturer
    • Wholesaler
    • Retailer
    • Provider of passenger or freight transportation
    • Provider of investment, savings or insurance products
    • Real estate agency, real estate brokerage or leasing company
    • Provider of professional, scientific or technical services
    • Provider of health care or social services
    • Restaurant, bar, hotel, motel or other lodging establishment
    • Other sector

    7. You have indicated that the current main activity of this business or organization is: Main activity. Are there any other activities that contribute significantly (at least 10%) to this business or organization's revenue?

    • Yes, there are other activities
      • Provide a brief but precise description of this business or organization's secondary activity
        e.g., breakfast cereal manufacturing, shoe store, software development
    • No, that is the only significant activity

    8. Approximately what percentage of this business or organization's revenue is generated by each of the following activities?

    When precise figures are not available, provide your best estimates.

    Approximately what percentage of this business or organization's revenue is generated by each of the following activities
      Percentage of revenue
    Main activity  
    Secondary activity  
    All other activities  
    Total percentage  

    Type of production

    1. Which of the following products did you grow for sale in 2020?

    Please report Canadian production only.

    Select all that apply.

    Greenhouse products

    Seedlings, potted plants, bedding plants, cuttings and other propagating material, vegetables and fruit grown for sale in a permanent, artificially heated enclosed structure made of plastic, plexiglass, poly-film or glass.

    Any plants that you start cultivating in a greenhouse but are finished before sales in a nursery should be considered a nursery product.

    Nursery products

    A diverse range of non-edible, living plant material grown 'in field' or in containers outdoors and sold with their root system intact. Plants range from tree seedlings to full-grown trees.

    Include annual and perennial plants.

    Exclude field-grown cut flowers from this category.

    Field-grown cut flowers should be reported in its own category only, not in the 'nursery products' category. Cut flowers produced in, and sold from, a greenhouse should be reported in the 'greenhouse products' category.

    Christmas trees

    Include only the Christmas trees that were cut during the year.

    Exclude Christmas trees that were grown in a container with their root systems intact.

    Sod

    Grass or turf, which has its roots intact. Sod is grown 'in field' and sold as a single product.

    Greenhouse products

    Include vegetables, fruits, flowers and plants grown in heated structures.

    Exclude:

    • vegetables and fruit grown outdoors or in non-heated covering tunnels or cold frames
    • all cannabis production.

    Christmas trees

    Field-grown cut flowers

    Nursery products
    e.g., trees, shrubs and plants

    Sod

    Did not grow any products for sale in 2020.

    Greenhouse area - unit of measure

    2. What unit of measure will be used to report your greenhouse area?

    • Square feet
    • Square metres
    • Acres
    • Hectares

    Greenhouse area

    3. What was your greenhouse area under the following materials in 2020?

    Exclude non-heated covering tunnels, cold frames or any area surrounding a greenhouse.

    What was your greenhouse area under the following materials in 2020?
      Unit of measure
    Under glass  
    Poly-film  
    Rigid plastic, fibreglass or other enclosed area  
    Total greenhouse area  

    Greenhouse products - number of months in operation

    4. How many months was your greenhouse in operation in 2020?

    Report the number of months this operation was growing plants in a greenhouse.

    Months

    Greenhouse products

    5. Which of the following greenhouse products were grown for sale in 2020?

    Select all that apply.

    For this survey, we are only interested in flowers, plants, vegetables, fruits, tree seedlings and bedding plants grown in, and sold from, the greenhouse. Production of vegetables and fruits covered by cold frames or covering tunnels should not be included in the greenhouse section of the survey.

    Potted herbs

    Plants that will be maintained in a pot by the consumer after purchase should be reported inside the 'potted plants' section. Herb plants sold in a package ready to be consumed should be reported inside the vegetable section.

    Cut flowers

    Include only cut flowers produced in, and sold from, a greenhouse.

    Exclude field-grown cut flowers and dried cut flowers.

    Fruit and Vegetables

    Include products grown to completion in a greenhouse and sold from the greenhouse.

    Exclude greenhouse vegetables and/or fruit that are transplanted for field crops. Bedding plants (transplants) grown in a greenhouse that will be planted in your own fields so that they can be sold as fully grown harvested vegetables at a later date should be excluded; they are reported in Statistics Canada's annual Fruit and Vegetable Survey.

    Potted Plants - indoor and outdoor

    Any plants grown and sold in a pot from the greenhouse.

    Exclude Christmas trees sold in pots. Pots take many forms and sizes, such as baskets (wicker), peat pots, moss pots and plastic pots or ceramic pots.

    Cuttings and tree seedlings

    Plants (or sections of a plant) capable of developing into a greater number of plants or spreading out and affecting a greater area. Examples include Chrysanthemums, Poinsettias, Begonias, Petunias and shrubs.

    Exclude tree seedlings for reforestation.

    Bedding plants, also known as transplants

    Young plants that are bought and then transplanted into a garden, field, container or basket by the purchaser. These include ornamental bedding plants and vegetable bedding plants. For this survey, the term "ornamental" refers to flowers or plants cultivated for their beauty rather than use.

    Fruits and vegetables

    Potted plants — indoor or outdoor

    Include any prefinished or finished plants grown and sold in a pot.

    Cuttings and tree seedlings

    Exclude tree seedlings for reforestation.

    Bedding plants, transplants or plugs — ornamental or vegetable

    Include plants sold in cell packs or trays that are ready for transplanting by the purchaser.

    Cut flowers

    Exclude dried cut flowers.

    Greenhouse products - fruits and vegetables

    6. What was your greenhouse area for the following products in 2020?

    What was your greenhouse area under the following materials in 2020?
      Unit of measure
    Fruits and vegetables  
    Potted plants – indoor or outdoor  
    Cuttings and tree seedlings  
    Bedding plants, transplants or plugs  
    Cut flowers  
    Total greenhouse area used to grow greenhouse products  

    7. What area of your greenhouse was used to produce the following fruits and vegetables in 2020?

    For any multiple plantings of the same fruit or vegetable, count the area only once.

    Greenhouse vegetables and fruits are edible and ready to eat at the time of sale. They were grown into sellable products in a greenhouse, not in a field; and sold from the greenhouse by the producer. Field vegetable and fruit farmers should report their production in the Fruit and Vegetable Survey.

    Exclude tobacco, ginseng, asparagus, mushrooms, ornamental and vegetable bedding plants (young plants that are bought and transplanted into a garden, field, container or basket by the purchaser; also known as transplants).

    A number of greenhouses are expanding to the United States. For this survey, report Canadian production only.

    If you produced a multiple crop of the same greenhouse vegetable or fruit in the same greenhouse space, report the area only once. For example, if 1,000 square feet were used for the first tomato crop planting and then the same space was later used for the second tomato crop planting, you would report 1,000 square feet (not 2,000 square feet).

    If you produced two or more different types of vegetables or fruit in the same greenhouse space, you would count that area for each type of crop produced.

    For example, if you used 2,000 square feet to grow tomatoes for your first crop planting, and then switched to growing cucumbers in that same space half-way through the summer, you would report a total area of 4,000 square feet (2,000 square feet for growing tomatoes, plus 2,000 square feet for growing cucumbers).

    What area of your greenhouse was used to produce the following fruits and vegetables in 2020?
      Unit of measure
    Greenhouse tomatoes  
    Beefsteak tomatoes  
    Large tomatoes on the vine  
    Cherry and grape tomatoes  
    Other tomatoes  
    Total greenhouse tomatoes  
    Greenhouse cucumbers  
    English cucumbers  
    Mini cucumbers  
    Other cucumbers  
    Total greenhouse cucumbers  
    Other greenhouse fruits and vegetables  
    Greenhouse eggplants  
    Greenhouse Chinese vegetables  
    Greenhouse herbs  
    Sprouts grown in a controlled environment  
    Greenhouse microgreens and shoots  
    Greenhouse peppers  
    Greenhouse lettuce  
    Greenhouse beans (green and wax)  
    Other greenhouse fruit or vegetable 1  
    Other greenhouse fruit or vegetable 2  
    Other greenhouse fruit or vegetable 3  
    Total area of fruits and vegetables  

    8. For the following fruits and vegetables, what were the quantity sold (i.e., marketed production) and sales in 2020?

    For the following fruits and vegetables, what were the quantity sold (i.e., marketed production) and sales in 2020?
      Quantity sold Unit of measure Total Sales
    Greenhouse tomatoes      
    Beefsteak tomatoes      
    Large tomatoes on the vine      
    Cherry and grape tomatoes      
    Total greenhouse tomatoes      
    Greenhouse cucumbers      
    English cucumbers      
    Mini cucumbers      
    Total greenhouse cucumbers      
    Other greenhouse fruits and vegetables      
    Greenhouse eggplants      
    Greenhouse Chinese vegetables      
    Greenhouse herbs      
    Sprouts grown in a controlled environment      
    Greenhouse microgreens and shoots      
    Greenhouse peppers      
    Greenhouse lettuce      
    Greenhouse beans (green and wax)      
    Total gross sales of fruits and vegetables      

    9. Of the total gross sales reported at question 7, please provide the percentage breakdown of your greenhouse fruits and vegetables sales across the following distribution channels.

    Sales distribution of greenhouse vegetables and fruit (total gross sales)

    The sales of greenhouse vegetables and fruit that the operation produced and sold.

    Please report the value of greenhouse fruite and vegetable sales in a percentage (%). The sum of different markets should be equal to 100% of the value reported in in question 7.

    Wholesaler

    The organisation primarily engaged as the intermediary in the distribution of merchandise. Meaning that a wholesaler is a reseller of manufactured goods in whole (without transformation, and rendering services incidental to the sale of merchandise).

    A wholesaler provides the warehousing and trade abilities the manufacturer does not want to provide. It also prefers to sell batches, truckloads, pallets, etc. of goods. Often offers discounts as quantity increases. As a result, many wholesalers are therefore organized to sell merchandise in large quantities to retailers, and business and institutional clients.

    In addition, wholesalers may frequently perform one of the following related functions; breaking bulk, providing delivery services to customers, or operating warehouse facilities for storage of goods they sell, or marketing and support services such as packaging and labelling, inventory management, shipping, handling of warranty claims, in-store or co-op promotions and training.

    Of the total gross sales reported at question 7, please provide the percentage breakdown of your greenhouse fruits and vegetables sales across the following distribution channels.
      Percentage of total sales
    Sales to domestic wholesalers  
    Sales to mass market chain stores  
    Sales to other greenhouses  
    Sales of exports directly from your operation  
    Sales to the public from your greenhouse, roadside stand or other outlets  
    Sales through all other distribution channels  
    Total sales of fruits and vegetables  

    Greenhouse products - indoor and outdoor potted plants

    10. For the following indoor and outdoor potted plants, how many pots did this greenhouse produce and sell in 2020?

    Include only prefinished and finished potted plants grown and sold by this greenhouse operation.

    Exclude:

    • bedding plants or plugs sold in cell packs, flats or trays for transplanting
    • nursery-grown stock, such as potted shrubs or fall mums
    • Christmas trees sold in pots
    • plants purchased or imported by this operation for immediate resale.

    Include all ornamental potted plants (annuals, biennials and perennials) and all potted vegetable, fruit and herb plants that were produced and sold from your greenhouse in Canada.

    Plants grown in containers outdoors should be reported in the 'nursery products' category.

    Exclude anything produced outside Canada.

    Exclude Christmas trees sold in pots; bedding plants or plugs sold in cell packs, flats or trays; and other nursery stock (non-edible, living plant material grown outdoors 'in field' or in containers outdoors and sold with their root system intact).

    Any plant grown in a pot from the greenhouse with the intention of selling to the final consumer can be classified as a finished potted plant (including hanging potted plants, such as baskets (wicker), peat pots, moss pots and plastic pots or ceramic pots). Any plant sold in a pot before it has fully matured or is intended to be grown to maturity at another facility can be classified as a prefinished potted plant.

    For the following indoor and outdoor potted plants, how many pots did this greenhouse produce and sell in 2020?
      Number of pots produced and sold
    Azaleas  
    Lilies  
    Poinsettias  
    African Violets  
    Tropical foilage and green plants  
    Gerberas  
    Miniature Roses  
    Orchids  
    Kalanchoes  
    Chrysanthemums or Potted Mums  
    Primulas  
    Cyclamens  
    Tulips  
    Indoor hanging pots  
    Other indoor potted plants  
    Outdoor potted plants  
    Begonias  
    Chrysanthemums, garden  
    Geraniums, in pots only  
    New Guinea Impatiens / Hawkeri  
    Petunias  
    Herbaceous perennials  
    Argyranthemums  
    Outdoor hanging pots  
    Calibrachoas  
    Dahlias  
    Pansies  
    Rudbeckias  
    Heliopsis  
    Verbenas  
    Zinnias  
    Potted herb plants  
    Potted vegetable plants  
    Other outdoor potted plants  
    Total number of pots, indoor and outdoor, produced and sold  

    11. What were the total gross sales of prefinished and finished potted plants in 2020?

    Total gross sales

    Greenhouse products - cuttings and tree seedlings

    12. For the following cuttings, what was the total number of cuttings produced and sold in 2020?

    Include only cuttings produced by this greenhouse operation.

    Cuttings are sections of a plant stem capable of developing into a whole plant. Examples of species that may be sold as cuttings include murrayas, grevilleas, fuchsias, and gardenias.

    Exclude ornamental and vegetable bedding plants, also known as transplants, which are young plants that are bought and then transplanted into a garden, field, container or basket by the purchaser.

    For the following cuttings, what was the total number of cuttings produced and sold in 2020?
      Total number of cuttings produced and sold
    Chrysanthemum  
    Poinsettia  
    Geranium  
    Impatien  
    Other cuttings not listed  
    Total number of cuttings produced and sold  

    13. What were the total gross sales of cuttings in 2020?

    Total gross sales

    14. What was the total number of tree seedlings produced and sold in 2020?

    Include only tree seedlings produced by this greenhouse operation.

    Exclude:

    • nursery products grown in a cold-frame or non-heated tunnel
    • tree seedlings for reforestation.

    A tree seedling is a young tree grown from a seed in a nursery or greenhouse for transplanting typically at one or two years of age.

    Include tree seedlings produced only inside a greenhouse. Do not report tree seedlings produced in cold frames or covering tunnels.

    Number of seedlings

    15. What were the total gross sales of tree seedlings in 2020?

    Total gross sales

    Greenhouse products - bedding plants/transplants - vegetable and/or ornamental

    16. What were the number and total gross sales of bedding plants, transplants or plugs produced and sold in 2020?

    Include plants ready for transplanting by the purchaser into gardens, fields, containers and baskets.

    Report the number of individual plants. If the number is unknown, please estimate it by multiplying the number of trays by the average number of plants per tray.

    Bedding plants, also known as transplants, are young plants that are bought and then transplanted into a garden, field, container or basket by the purchaser. Ornamental bedding plants are cultivated for their flowers and beauty, rather than their use. Vegetable bedding plants are not yet edible at the time of sale from your greenhouse.

    Bedding plants may be sold in various containers, including plugs, cell packs, flats or trays. Report the number of individual plants. If this number is unknown, please estimate it by multiplying the number of trays by the average number of plants per tray.

    Exclude vegetable and herb plants not sold directly from the greenhouse (for example, plants being transplanted from the greenhouse to the field by the producer).

    What were the number and total gross sales of bedding plants, transplants or plugs produced and sold in 2020?
      Number of plants Total gross sales
    Ornamental bedding plants    
    Vegetable bedding plants    

    Greenhouse products - cut flowers

    17. For the following cut flowers, what was the total number of stems produced and sold in 2020?

    Exclude:

    • dried cut flowers
    • field-grown flowers (these will be reported in question 22)
    • flowers grown by another operation.

    Include only cut flowers that were produced in, and sold from, a greenhouse in Canada.

    Exclude cut flowers that were initially cultivated in a greenhouse but then grown into sellable products in a field; these should be reported in the 'field-grown cut flowers' section, which is its own category in this survey. Some operators may start seeds in their greenhouse but transplant the flowers in the field in May or June and cut and dry them in August.

    Exclude any cut flowers you purchased from other growers to re-sell from your own operation within a short period of time with minimal maintenance work (watering).

    For the following cut flowers, what was the total number of stems produced and sold in 2020?
      Number of stems produced and sold
    Alstroemerias  
    Chrysanthemums  
    Daffodils  
    Freesias  
    Gerberas  
    Irises  
    Lilies  
    Roses  
    Snapdragons  
    Tulips  
    Lisianthus  
    Other cut flowers not listed  
    Total number of stems produced and sold  

    18. What were the total gross sales of cut flowers grown by this greenhouse operation in 2020?

    Total gross sales

    Greenhouse products - flowers and plants

    19. What were your total gross sales of flowers and plants purchased from other greenhouses for immediate resale in 2020?

    Total gross sales

    Did not purchase and re-sell any flowers or plants

    Summary - flowers and plants

    20. This is a summary of your total gross sales of greenhouse flowers and plants in 2020?

    This is a summary of your total gross sales of greenhouse flowers and plants in 2020?
      Sales
    Total gross sales of potted plants  
    Total gross sales of cuttings  
    Total gross sales of tree seedlings  
    Total gross sales of ornamental bedding plants, transplants or plugs  
    Total gross sales of vegetable bedding plants, transplants or plugs  
    Total gross sales of cut flowers  
    Total sales of flowers and plants produced in your greenhouse  
    Total gross sales of flowers and plants purchased from other greenhouses for immediate resale  
    Total gross sales of greenhouse flowers and plants  

    Greenhouse products - flowers and plants

    21. Of your total gross sales [amount]$ reported, please provide the percentage breakdown of greenhouse flowers and plants sales across the following distribution channels.

    Sales distribution of greenhouse flowers and plants (total gross sales)

    The sales of greenhouse flowers and plants that the operation produced and purchased for immediate resales.

    Please report the value of greenhouse flower and plant sales in percentage (%). The sum of different markets should be equal to 100%.

    Wholesaler: the organisation primarily engaged as the intermediary in the distribution of merchandise. Meaning that a wholesaler is a reseller of manufactured goods in whole (without transformation, and rendering services incidental to the sale of merchandise).

    A wholesaler provides the warehousing and trade abilities the manufacturer does not want to provide. It also prefers to sell batches, truckloads, pallets, etc. of goods. Often offers discounts as quantity increases. As a result, many wholesalers are therefore organized to sell merchandise in large quantities to retailers, and business and institutional clients.

    In addition, wholesalers may frequently perform one of the following related functions; breaking bulk, providing delivery services to customers, or operating warehouse facilities for storage of goods they sell, or marketing and support services such as packaging and labelling, inventory management, shipping, handling of warranty claims, in-store or co-op promotions and training.

    Of your total gross sales [amount]$ reported, please provide the percentage breakdown of greenhouse flowers and plants sales across the following distribution channels.
      Percentage of total sales
    Sales to retail florists  
    Sales to domestic wholesalers  
    Sales to mass market chain stores  
    Sales to other greenhouses  
    Export sales made directly by your firm  
    Sales made directly to the public from your greenhouse or roadside stands  
    Sales to the government and other public institutions  
    Other methods of sales not listed  
    Total sales of flowers and plants  

    Christmas trees

    22. Please enter the total area used to grow Christmas trees, the number of trees produced and cut, and the total gross sales of trees in 2020?

    Include only the Christmas trees that were cut during the year.

    Exclude Christmas trees that were grown in a container with their root systems intact.

    When reporting the area, include the total area used to grow Christmas trees, regardless of whether the trees were cut or not. Include naturally established or planted areas, regardless of stage of growth, that are pruned or managed with the use of fertilizer or pesticides.

    When reporting the number of cut trees, exclude any Christmas trees that were grown in a container with their root systems intact.

    Conversions

    • 1 arpent = 0.9986 acres
    • 1 acre = 1.0014 arpent
    • 1 acre = 0.41 hectares
    • 1 hectare = 2.47 acres

    Total area

    Unit of measure

    • acres
    • hectares
    • arpents

    Number of cut trees

    Total gross sales

    Field-grown cut flowers

    23. Please report the total area used to grow field-grown flowers, the number of cut stems produced and sold, and the total gross sales of field-grown cut flowers in 2020?

    Include field-grown fresh and dried flowers, and any plant part used for floral or decorative purposes, such as seed heads, stalks and woody cuts.

    Exclude cut flowers grown in a greenhouse from start to finish.

    Total area

    Unit of measure

    • acres
    • hectares
    • arpents

    Number of cut stems

    Total gross sales

    Nursery products - nursery area

    24. What was the total nursery area used for growing nursery stock in 2020?

    What was the total nursery area used for growing nursery stock in 2020?
      Nursery area Unit of measure
    Field area used for growing nursery stock    
    Container area used for growing nursery stock    
    Total nursery area    

    Nursery products - nursery stock

    25. How many field-grown and container-grown plants did this operation produce and sell in 2020?

    Exclude:

    • stock purchased for immediate resale
    • Christmas trees without the root system intact
    • heated greenhouse production and unsold inventory.

    A tree seedling is a young tree grown from a seed in a nursery for transplanting typically at one or two years of age.

    Include only tree seedlings produced in a nursery.

    Exclude tree seedlings produced in and sold from a greenhouse.

    Exclude tree seedlings for reforestation.

    Note: tree seedlings may be reported as nursery products if they were conditioned outside for part of the production cycle, after having been cared for inside the greenhouse first.

    How many field-grown and container-grown plants did this operation produce and sell in 2020?
      Number of field-grown plants produced and sold Number of container-grown plants produced and sold
    Trees — conifer    
    Trees — fruit    
    Trees — shade or ornamental    
    Shrubs — evergreen and conifer    
    Shrubs — evergreen and broadleaf    
    Shrubs — deciduous    
    Vines    
    Perennials and annuals    
    Small fruit bushes    
    Tree seedlings    
    Other type of plants    
    Total number of field and container grown nursery stock    

    26. What were the total gross sales of field-grown and container-grown nursery stock in 2020?

    Exclude sales of stock purchased for immediate resale and revenue from landscaping activities.

    Exclude:

    • any nursery stock that was purchased for immediate resale
    • Christmas trees without the root system intact
    • any greenhouse production
    • unsold inventory
    • value received for landscaping services.

    Field-grown includes all bailed and burlapped, bare root field potted stock.

    Container-grown includes all containers sizes of less than one gallon; one gallon; two gallons; and greater than two gallons.

    Balled and burlapped is a method of transplanting that minimizes root disturbance. The tree is dug with a ball of soil around it and wrapped in burlap (method generally used for evergreens and deciduous plants in leaf).

    Bare root describes plants dug up, with the soil shaken off (method generally used for deciduous plants in a dormant condition).

    Field-potted describes stock which is grown in the field and placed into a pot when dug up for sale. Please report stock that was potted up from the field for a maximum of one full growing season; if potted up for more than one growing season, report under container.

    Container-grown is nursery stock grown in a container for a minimum of one growing season before time of sale.

    What were the total gross sales of field-grown and container-grown nursery stock in 2020?
      Total Gross Sales
    Total gross sales of field-grown stock  
    Total gross sales of container-grown stock  
    Total gross sales of stock grown by this nursery operation  

    27. What were the total gross sales of nursery stock purchased for immediate resale in 2020?

    Nursery stock for immediate resale is any nursery stock you purchased from other growers to re-sell from your own operation within a short period of time with minimal maintenance e.g., watering. Please enter your total sales of the nursery stock you purchased from other operations.

    Examples of stock that may be ready for immediate resale:
    Plants, flowers, bulbs, trees, shrubs, etc.

    Total gross sales

    Did not purchase and re-sell any nursery stock.

    28. This is a summary of your total gross sales of nursery stock in 2020.

    This is a summary of your total gross sales of nursery stock in 2020.
      Sales
    Total gross sales of stock grown by this nursery operation  
    Total gross sales of stock purchased for resale  
    Total sales of nursery stock  

    29. Of the total gross sales [amount]$ reported, please provide the percentage breakdown of nursery stock sales across the following distribution channels.

    Sales distribution of nursery stocks (total gross sales)

    The sales of nursery stocks that the operation produced and purchased for immediate resales.

    Please report the value of nursery stock sales in percentage (%). The sum of different markets should be equal to 100%.

    Of the total gross sales [amount]$ reported, please provide the percentage breakdown of nursery stock sales across the following distribution channels.
      Percentage of total sales
    Sales to the public  
    Sales to fruit growers  
    Sales to landscape contractors  
    Sales to garden centres  
    Sales to mass merchandisers  
    Sales to other growers  
    Export sales made directly by your operation  
    Sales to public agencies  
    Sales through other channels  
    Total sales of nursery products  

    Labour

    30. How many seasonal and permanent workers, paid or unpaid, were employed by your operation in 2020?

    Include all workers involved in growing, maintaining and harvesting on your operation, including the owners, family workers and foreign and seasonal workers. There must be at least one employee reported.

    Exclude labour for retail and clerical help, and contract work, e.g., truck driver or landscaper.

    How many seasonal and permanent workers, paid or unpaid, were employed by your operation in 2020?
      Greenhouse employees Nursery employees Total employees
    Seasonal employees — employed for less than 8 months      
    Full-time and part-time permanent employees — employed for 8 months or more      
    Total number of employees      

    31. Are any of the employees on your payroll?

    • Yes
    • No, only unpaid family labour is involved

    Operating expenses

    32. In 2020, what were your operating expenses?

    Growing on is a term used by operators when stock is cultivated in the greenhouse or the nursery for the purpose of growing it to greater proportions. The operators will plant a seed or seedling in their greenhouse and care for it, by maintaining it (transplanting, fertilizing, etc.) until it becomes a sellable product.

    Exclude any plant materials you may have purchased from other growers for immediate resale from your own operation (please report these purchases in row c).

    In 2020, what were your operating expenses?
      Greenhouse expenses Nursery expenses Total expenses
    Plant material      
    Purchases of plant material for growing on      
    Percentage of a. purchased from within your province      
    Purchases of plant material for immediate resale      
    Total plant material purchases      
    Payroll      
    Payroll      
    Fuel expenses      
    Natural gas      
    Heating oil      
    Other types of heating fuel      
    Total fuel expenses      
    Other expenses      
    Electricity expenses      
    Other crop expenses      
    Other operating expenses      
    Total operating expenses      

    Sod operations - area and sales

    33. What was the total sod area grown in 2020.

    Conversions

    • 1 arpent = 0.9986 acres
    • 1 acre = 1.0014 arpent
    • 1 acre = 0.41 hectares
    • 1 hectare = 2.47 acres

    Sod is grass or turf, which has its roots intact at the time of sale. Sod is grown in field and sold as a single product.

    Report all the area of land used for growing and maintaining sod.

    Include any sod grown that was not intended for sale within the survey year (the past calendar year).

    Area

    Unit of measure

    • acres
    • hectares
    • arpents

    34. Of the total sod area, how much was grown for sale in 2020?

    Report the area of sod intended to be sold within the survey year (the past calendar year).

    The area of sod grown for sale may be less than or equal to the total area of sod reported in the previous question.

    Area

    35. What were the total gross sales of sod grown on your operation in 2020?

    Exclude revenue from laying sod or reselling sod purchased from others.

    Total gross sales

    36. What were the total gross sales of sod purchased for immediate resale?

    Total gross sales

    Did not purchase and re-sell any sod.

    Summary - total sales of sod

    37. This is a summary of the total sales of sod in 2020.

    This is a summary of the total sales of sod in 2020.
      Sales
    Total gross sales of sod grown on your operation  
    Total gross sales of sod purchased for immediate resale  
    Total sales of sod  

    Sod operations - labour

    38. How many seasonal and permanent workers, paid or unpaid, were employed by your operation in 2020?

    Include all workers in this operation involved in growing, maintaining and harvesting sod on your operation, including the owners, family workers and foreign and seasonal workers. There must be at least one employee reported.

    Exclude all labour for retail and clerical help; laying sod; and contract work, e.g., truck driver or landscaper.

    How many seasonal and permanent workers, paid or unpaid, were employed by your operation in 2020?
      Number of employees
    Seasonal employees — employed for less than 8 months  
    Full-time and part-time permanent employees — employed for 8 months or more  
    Total number of employees  

    39. Are any of the employees reported in question 37 on your payroll?

    • Yes
    • No, only unpaid family labour is involved

    Sod operations - expenses

    40. Please provide your sod operating expenses in 2020.

    Please provide your sod operating expenses in 2020.
      Sod operating expenses
    Purchases of sod for immediate resale  
    Percentage of a. purchased from within your province  
    Payroll  
    Other sod operating expenses  
    Total sod operating expenses in 2020  

    Agricultural production

    41.

    • Field crops
    • Hay
    • Summerfallow
    • Potatoes
    • Fruit, berries and nuts
    • Vegetables
    • Sod
    • Nursery products
    • Greenhouse products
    • Cattle and calves
    • Include beef or dairy.
    • Pigs
    • Sheep and lambs
    • Mink
    • Fox
    • Hens and chickens
    • Turkeys
    • Maple taps
    • Honey bees
    • Mushrooms
    • Other
      Specify agricultural products
    • Not producing agricultural products

    Area in crops

    42. What area of this operation is used for the following crops?

    Report the areas only once, even if used for more than one crop type.

    Exclude land used by others.

    What area of this operation is used for the following crops?
      Area Unit of measure
    Field crops    
    Hay    
    Summerfallow    
    Potatoes    
    Fruit, berries and nuts    
    Vegetables    
    Sod    
    Nursery products    

    Greenhouse area

    43. What is the total area under glass, plastic or other protection used for growing plants?

    Total area

    Unit of measure

    • square feet
    • square metres

    Livestock (excluding birds)

    44. How many of the following animals are on this operation?

    Report all animals on this operation, regardless of ownership, including those that are boarded, custom-fed or fed under contract.

    Exclude animals owned but kept on a farm, ranch or feedlot operated by someone else.

    How many of the following animals are on this operation?
      Number
    Cattle and calves  
    Pigs  
    Sheep and lambs  
    Mink  
    Fox  

    Birds

    45. How many of the following birds are on this operation?

    Report all poultry on this operation, regardless of ownership, including those grown under contract.

    Include poultry for sale and poultry for personal use.

    Exclude poultry owned but kept on an operation operated by someone else.

    How many of the following birds are on this operation?
      Number
    Hens and chickens  
    Turkeys  

    Maple taps

    46. What was the total number of taps made on maple trees last spring?

    Total number of taps

    Honey bees

    47. How many live colonies of honey bees (used for honey production or pollination) are owned by this operation?

    Include bees owned, regardless of location.

    Number of colonies

    Mushrooms

    48. What is the total mushroom growing area (standing footage) on this operation?

    Include mushrooms grown using beds, trays, tunnels or logs.

    Total area

    Unit of measure

    • square feet
    • square metres

    Changes or events

    1. Indicate any changes or events that affected the reported values for this business or organization, compared with the last reporting period.

    Select all that apply.

    • Strike or lock-out
    • Exchange rate impact
    • Price changes in goods or services sold
    • Contracting out
    • Organizational change
    • Price changes in labour or raw materials
    • Natural disaster
    • Recession
    • Change in product line
    • Sold business or business units
    • Expansion
    • New or lost contract
    • Plant closures
    • Acquisition of business or business units
    • Other
      Specify the other changes or events:
    • No changes or events

    Contact person

    1. Statistics Canada may need to contact the person who completed this questionnaire for further information.
    Is the provided given names and the provided family name the best person to contact?

    • Yes
    • No

    Who is the best person to contact about this questionnaire?

    • First name:
    • Last name:
    • Title:
    • Email address:
    • Telephone number (including area code):
    • Extension number (if applicable):
      The maximum number of characters is 5.
    • Fax number (including area code):

    Feedback

    1. How long did it take to complete this questionnaire?

    Include the time spent gathering the necessary information.

    • Hours:
    • Minutes:

    2. Do you have any comments about this questionnaire?

    Residential and Non-residential Property Assessment Values at Current Prices 2019

    Investment, Science, and Technology Division

    Table of Contents

    1. Introduction
    2. Key definitions
      1. Price base date
      2. Volume state date
      3. Residential property
      4. Non-residential property
      5. Properties subject to municipal, provincial, territorial and federal payment-in-lieu
    3. Input data
      1. Data sources
      2. Unit reported
    4. Auxiliary Data
      1. Multiple Listing Service data
      2. Building permit and investment in construction data
      3. Census of Population
      4. Census of Agriculture
      5. List of CSDs from the Data Integration Infrastructure Division
    5. Classification
      1. Geography
      2. Property type
    6. Imputation for missing data
      1. Imputation of residential values
      2. Imputation of non-residential values
    7. Price adjustments
      1. Choice of Source Data Vintage
      2. Residential Price adjustment
        1. Overview of price adjustment methodology
        2. Calculating weighted monthly average resale price
        3. Residential price index for Nunavut
        4. Price adjustments when the following tax year's values are known
      3. Non-residential price adjustment
    8. Volume adjustments
      1. Residential volume adjustments
      2. Non-residential volume adjustments
    9. Removals and adjustments in accordance with typical property assessment and taxation practices
      1. Removal of CSDs on account of First Nations and other Aboriginal Groups
      2. Exclusion of exempt residential property
      3. Exclusions of schools, churches and hospitals
      4. Removal of properties subject to provincial-territorial and municipal payments-in-lieu of taxes
      5. Adjustments in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut
      6. Removal of machinery and equipment values in Alberta, Northwest Territories and Nunavut
      7. Removal of personal property values in Manitoba
      8. Mixed-use properties
    10. Quality control
      Annex 1. List of CSD types representing First Nations and other Aboriginal Groups

    1. Introduction

    The Property Values Program produces annual estimates of assessment values of properties at current prices across Canada. Finance Canada uses these estimates to determine fiscal capacity with respect to property taxes for the Equalization program and the Territorial Formula Financing (TFF) program. Footnote 1 In order to ensure comparability of the data, a number of adjustments are made, including: coding property categories to a common classification; adjusting to a common price base date and volume state (or stock) date; and imputation of missing property values in some areas. Additionally, other removals and adjustments are carried out in order to produce estimates of assessment values at current price that meet the requirements to determine fiscal capacity.

    This document presents these adjustments in more detail.

    2. Key definitions

    a. Price base date Footnote 2

    The price base date (also called the valuation date) corresponds to a fixed point in time as of when a property is valued.

    b. Volume state date

    The volume state date is the fixed point in time as of when the stock of properties is recorded, which also corresponds to the date where all properties are represented in an assessment roll data file.

    c. Residential property

    Defined as all types of property categorized as residential for assessment purposes in the majority of provinces and territories. It includes single and multi-unit properties, farm residences, cottages and vacation homes, mobile homes, and vacant lands which are lawfully usable for residential purposes.

    d. Non-residential property

    Defined as all types of property categorized as non-residential for assessment purposes in the majority of provinces and territories. It includes industrial, commercial and institutional properties, engineering construction and mining properties, and vacant lands which are lawfully usable for non-residential purposes.

    Agricultural properties Footnote 3 (not including farm residences, which are part of residential property) as well as machinery and equipment properties are excluded from final estimates.

    e. Properties subject to municipal, provincial, territorial and federal payment-in-lieu

    Defined as municipal, provincial, territorial and federal government-owned property for which owners remit payment-in-lieu of tax to municipal governments or local taxation authorities for receiving municipal services. A payment-in-lieu of taxes is made to compensate a local government for some or all of the tax revenue that it loses because of the nature of the ownership or use of a particular piece of real property. Usually, no property tax is collected for buildings owned by government.

    3. Input data

    a. Data sources

    Assessment data are collected from provincial, territorial and municipal assessment entities and are based on municipal assessment rolls. Data providers agree to provide the data on a regular basis either through formal agreements or responding per data request.

    Starting in January 2018, assessment roll microdata is gradually being received from every jurisdiction, to replace the use of assessment roll aggregate data. The objective is to receive microdata from each province and territory within two years.

    For the estimates released on November 20th 2020, microdata data were used to generate estimates for the following provinces and territories:

    • Nova Scotia
    • Ontario
    • British Columbia
    • Yukon Territory

    b. Unit reported

    Data are reported either at the municipality level, or at property or sub-property level.

    4. Auxiliary Data

    a. Multiple Listing Service data

    Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data are produced by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). The data are obtained via Haver Analytics, a company that is the sole distributer of CREA MLS data. MLS data are for resale homes and are comprised of dollar volume sales and number of units sold by real estate board. Data are available for all provinces and territories with the exception of Québec and Nunavut.

    b. Building permit and investment in construction data

    Data on the number of residential and non-residential building permits issued, investment in construction completion, by type of work (e.g., new unit, conversion, etc.), is obtained from Statistics Canada's Building and Demolition Permits (BDP) and Investment programs. The data are produced monthly, by jurisdiction.

    c. Census of Population

    Data from Census of population are available every five years. Between census years, yearly values, referred to as "Intercensal" values, are derived using linear interpolation. Footnote 4 These values are used at various stages of the production cycle such as for the imputation of missing values and for the estimation of farm residences.

    d. Census of Agriculture

    Similar to the Census of population, data from Census of Agriculture are available every five years. Yearly values ("Intercensal" values) are also derived using linear interpolation and used during the production cycle. Census of Agriculture values are used to estimate the values of farm residences in Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, provinces where such values are embedded in totals or are missing.

    e. List of CSDs from the Data Integration Infrastructure Division

    The list of Census Subdivisions (CSD) is produced, maintained and updated annually by the Data Integration Infrastructure Division at Statistics Canada.

    5. Classification

    a. Geography

    The municipalities covered by the collected data are assigned to Census Subdivisions (CSDs) updated annually by Statistics Canada's Data Integration Infrastructure Division, using the Standard Geographical Classification system. The assignment of CSDs is revised yearly to reflect changes (municipal amalgamations, legal status changes, etc.) that occur during the year.

    CSDs containing First Nations or other autonomous or self-governing areas are out of scope for Fiscal Arrangements purposes (see Annex 1); consequently, estimates are not produced for these CSDs.

    b. Property type

    Property type concordance tables are developed at the provincial and territorial level to classify properties according to property attributes found on the input data. With the arrival of assessment roll microdata, the classification of properties is more precise using new property attributes now present on the source files. New types of properties are introduced in the classification to better represent the data sources.

    6. Imputation for missing data

    There exist municipalities or regions that are not assessed by provincial or territorial assessment bodies, and therefore no property taxes are levied. As a result, assessment values are missing for some jurisdictions, mostly in unorganized areas. Footnote 5 Additionally, on occasion, some municipalities submit their assessment values to assessment bodies later than when the data are required. Missing property assessment values for these municipalities are imputed.

    For taxation year 2019, there were 149 jurisdictions with missing data that were imputed, 139 of which were in Newfoundland-and-Labrador, 8 were in Northwest Territories and 2 were in Saskatchewan.

    a. Imputation of residential values

    The imputed residential value for a CSD is calculated by multiplying the number of private dwellings by the average value of owner-occupied dwellings for the CSD from the intercensal Census of Population file.

    In order to produce an imputed value that best reflects the desired price base and volume state dates:

    • the number of private dwellings value is taken from the yearly intercensal file of the same year as the volume state date of the raw file; and
    • the average value of owner-occupied dwellings is taken from the yearly intercensal file or derived from assessed values of the same year as the price base date of the raw file.

    The resulting imputed values are then processed and adjusted Footnote 6 using the same methodology as for raw values.

    b. Imputation of non-residential values

    Unlike the imputation for residential property values where dwelling values from intercensal files can be used to estimate the value of residential properties, no similar direct indicator is available for non-residential properties. Therefore, non-residential values are imputed using data of CSDs with similar Census population counts within the same province or territory.

    Ratios of the total non-residential values over the total population are calculated using data from CSDs for each population class (see table 1 below) for each province and territory. These ratios Footnote 7 are then applied to the population count of the missing CSD to derive the imputed non-residential value. Most of the missing CSDs are from rural areas.

    Table 1 – Population class used for imputation on non-residential values Footnote 8
    Population Class Description
    1 Rural
    2 Small Sized Municipalities
    3 Medium Sized Municipalities
    4 Large Sized Municipalities

    7. Price adjustments

    Due to differences in assessment practices and frequency of revaluation practices, data received do not always align with the target price base date of July 1 of the year preceding the taxation year.

    a. Choice of Source Data Vintage

    In order to minimize price adjustments, the data from the file whose price base date most closely aligns with the target price base date is used to produce the estimates of a given taxation year. In the event that two input files have the same time interval between their price base date and the target price base date, the file with the closest volume state date is selected.

    b. Residential Price adjustment

    Price adjustments for residential properties are derived using monthly sales data for the resale housing market from MLS and FCIQ. Nunavut is the only region for which resale housing data does not exist; therefore, a residential price index is constructed for this territory.

    i. Overview of price adjustment methodology

    For a given province or territory, the price adjustment calculations are done at two geographic levels:

    • CSDs within a Census Metropolitan Area (CMA)
    • CSDs outside CMAs (or rest of the province)

    For Newfoundland and Labrador, Footnote 9 Prince Edward Island, Yukon and Northwest Territories, there are no data available at the CMA level; therefore, the price adjustment calculations are performed on the provincial and territorial totals.

    ii. Calculating weighted monthly average resale price

    In order to smooth seasonal fluctuations that can exist in monthly data, weighted monthly average prices are used in the calculation of the residential price adjustment. For a given month, twelve consecutive months of data (period beginning six months before and ending five months after the month) are used.

    For a given month k, the formula for calculating the weighted monthly average is as follows:

    Weighted_Monthly_Averagek=k-6k+5ResDollarVolkk-6k+5ResUnitSoldk

    Where ResDollarVol is the total dollar value of the monthly residential sales and ResUnitSold is the monthly total number of residential units sold.

    The residential price adjustments are performed at the CSD level. To arrive at the price adjusted assessment value, the ratio of the weighted monthly average for the month of the target price date over the weighted monthly average for the month of the price base date is calculated. The ratio that is applied to the assessment value of a given CSD is dependent on if the CSD is located in a CMA, and is dependent on the province or territory that it is located in.

    iii. Residential price index for Nunavut

    As resale data do not exist for Nunavut, Statistics Canada uses data for the region of northern Quebec (NQC) Footnote 10 as a proxy for this territory. Footnote 11 The property assessment data are provided by the provincial Government of Quebec.

    The Nunavut residential index is calculated using an unweighted average of residential and non-residential property values reported. Footnote 12

    An annual series is generated and converted into a monthly series by adding one twelfth of the dollar difference between two observations to each successive month between observed values (linear interpolation), creating a monthly index. Residential price-adjustments are then applied to Nunavut property values using the same algorithm (for ratios) designed for resale data.

    iv. Price adjustments when the following tax year's values are known

    In certain provinces and territories such as Prince-Edward-Island and New-Brunswick, assessment roll values are received yearly. In both these cases, the price base date is January 1st of the tax year. Recall that the target price base date is 6 month earlier, i.e. July 1st of the year preceding the tax year. Assessment values are therefore known for January 1st of the tax year and January 1st of the year preceding the tax year. In order to make better use of the assessment data available, a price index is developed using true assessment values on their price base date, which excludes the effect due to yearly changes in volume (new construction and demolition). This index is used to price adjust assessment values in Price-Edward-Island and New-Brunswick.

    c. Non-residential price adjustment

    Unlike residential properties, non-residential properties (more specifically industrial, commercial, and industrial (ICI)) are not often for sale. It is therefore comparatively more difficult to find appropriate market indicators to use for non-residential price adjustment. To overcome this, the correlation between residential and non-residential price changes was analysed.

    A regression analysis was performed and a model was constructed using aggregate raw data from four provinces: Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec and British Columbia. The reasons for using these specific four provinces are twofold: (1) these provinces evaluate their property stock on an annual basis, Footnote 13 and (2) they report data for both assessment values and numbers of properties. This level of detail allowed the derivation of the annual non-residential price movements.

    Based on the regression analysis using data from the four provinces mentioned above, the conclusion was to use the model coefficient of 0.73336 as a discount factor to the residential series and also to the residential price index in Nunavut. Footnote 14 The resulting series, generated by applying the discount factor to the residential series, is used for the price adjustment of non-residential values for all provinces and territories.

    8. Volume adjustments

    Volume adjustments ensure that properties reflect a common volume state date of January 1st of the taxation year. For assessment data that reflects a volume state date earlier or later than the target volume state date, the value of all completed construction that occurred in the period between the two dates is estimated using Statistics Canada's monthly Building and Demolition Permits (BDP) Program or from the Investment Program and then added or subtracted, as the case may be, from the total property values. This methodology is used for both residential and non-residential property values.

    a. Residential volume adjustments

    For residential properties, the volume adjustment is calculated by estimating the construction that was completed in between the volume state date and the target volume state date using the number of permits from the BDP survey and monthly resale values, or from using the investment in construction completion values.

    Based on an analysis of residential construction data, the assumption is made that a residential property being newly built can be considered to be a substantially finished (assessable) unit approximately three months after a building permit is issued. Therefore, for a given month, the BDP data used for the volume adjustment is that of the given month minus three (so for example for June we would use the March BDP data).

    For each month falling in the period between the volume state date and target volume state date, the number of permits is multiplied by the average monthly resale value from MLS (for all provinces and territories other than Nunavut), to obtain a monthly volume adjustment value. The monthly volume adjustment values are summed for each month to arrive at the total volume adjustment for the period. For Nunavut, the average assessment value for Northern Québec is used.

    Similarly, construction completion values represent the total investment in construction available upon completion of construction. Monthly values that fall between the volume state date and the target volume state date are summed for an estimated total volume adjustment for the period.

    Although the two methods are comparable, volume adjustments calculated using investment in construction completion values are slightly more accurate than those calculated using building permit values. When investment in construction completion values are available, they are used in the calculations over the use of building permit values. Residential volume adjustments account for approximately 2% of total values.

    Volume adjustments calculated using investment in construction completion values were used to produce residential estimates.

    b. Non-residential volume adjustments

    For non-residential construction, the assumption is that a property undergoing construction can be considered to be a substantially finished (assessable) unit approximately eight months after a building permit is issued. As non-residential construction projects vary significantly in scope, size, and values, using an average value is not recommended; therefore, the volume adjustment methodology for residential properties cannot be applied to the non-residential.

    Instead of using the number of permits, the total value of all permits issued, by month, is used. Consequently, "total values of the non-residential permits" that were issued during the period (using an 8-months lag to allow for construction to be completed) is used to obtain the volume adjustment value. This estimate of new property construction value is used to adjust the total estimates.

    As for residential volume adjustments, when non-residential investment in construction completion values are available, these used in the calculations of volume adjustments over the use of building permit values. Non-residential volume adjustments account for approximately 2% of total values.

    Volume adjustments calculated using investment in construction completion values were used to produce non-residential estimates.

    9. Removals and adjustments in accordance with typical property assessment and taxation practices

    a. Removal of CSDs on account of First Nations and other Aboriginal Groups

    Census subdivisions containing First Nations reserves, and autonomous or self-governing areas are removed as they are deemed out of scope. Such CSDs are identified based on their CSD type. Footnote 15 For taxation year 2019 estimates there were 14 CSDs that were classified as out of scope and removed from final estimates.

    b. Exclusion of exempt residential property

    In some provinces, certain properties are identified as exempt from property taxes as presented in the input files received from the assessment bodies. Any value associated with these properties are excluded from estimates for the purposes of fiscal arrangements.

    c. Exclusions of schools, churches and hospitals

    The most important non-residential properties which are generally exempt from property taxes are schools, churches and hospitals (S/C/H).

    Some provinces and territories provide detailed breakdowns of S/C/H in their assessment data. For these provinces and territories, the exact proportion of S/C/H is removed from the final estimates.

    For provinces and territories where the S/C/H breakdowns are not available, the proportion of the S/C/H assessment values relative to total assessment values for non-residential properties is estimated by calculating and applying the proportion of S/C/H property values from a similar reporting province or territory. It should be noted that values for engineering and mining properties are excluded from the total assessment value for non-residential properties used in the calculation of the S/C/H proportions.

    The list of provinces and territories used in the calculation of estimated S/C/H proportion depends on data availability and can change from one year to the next as microdata is received.

    d. Removal of properties subject to provincial-territorial and municipal payments-in-lieu of taxes

    Instead of regular property taxes, federal, provincial or municipal government usually remit a payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) for their exempt properties. However, only federal PILT property represents fiscal capacity for the consolidated provincial-territorial-municipal-local sector; provincial, territorial and municipal (PTM) PILT properties are excluded.

    When breakdowns of values of PILT properties are not available, as is the case for a number of provinces and territories, these values are estimated. The estimation of PM-PILT values takes into account the S/C/H values, some of which are also PTM-PILT properties, which have already been removed. Only the "remaining" PILT values are estimated and removed.

    Although the estimation methodology using aggregate assessment roll data is successful in estimating the remaining proportion to remove, the arrival of assessment roll microdata allows for a more precise estimation of remaining PILT proportions to remove.

    e. Adjustments in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut

    Unlike in provinces and the Yukon, property assessments in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut do not consistently follow market value standards.

    Land values within the municipal taxation areas (Iqaluit in Nunavut; Yellowknife, Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, Hay River, Norman Wells and Inuvik in NWT), reflect full market value, while land values in the remainder of the two territories (i.e. in the General Taxation Areas) are, according to the data provider, based on average regional development costs.

    Improvements (i.e. buildings) in both territories are assessed based on depreciated Edmonton construction costs, using Alberta's depreciation schedule. The value so determined for Yellowknife is then multiplied by a factor of 1.35, which is set out in regulations. According to the assessment data provider, this was done to reflect Yellowknife's actual construction costs relative to Edmonton's. Yellowknife's assessed building values therefore approximately reflect market value. Footnote 16

    Outside of Yellowknife, in the two territories, a discount factor of 0.666 has been applied to building values initially assessed at depreciated Edmonton construction costs. This factor is also set out in regulations and, according to the assessment data provider, was introduced to encourage development. Upon data entry, this embedded 0.666 scaling factor is removed from the building values in the Northwest Territories outside of Yellowknife and Nunavut.

    f. Removal of machinery and equipment values in Alberta, Northwest Territories and Nunavut

    Property values for machinery and equipment (M&E) components in the non-residential category are deemed to be out of scope.

    The data received from Northwest Territories and Nunavut contain a sizeable share of M&E components in the non-residential total. They are mainly embedded in the following three non-residential classes: mineral, transmission and hydrocarbon. The M&E components are removed by multiplying the reported improvement values by a deflationary factor for each of the previously mentioned three non-residential classes. These factors are provided yearly by the respondents. This treatment ensures that only real property values are included in final estimates, and that the M&E components are excluded.

    In Alberta, property values for the M&E components are reported separately by the data providers and are excluded from the final estimates.

    g. Removal of personal property values in Manitoba

    The assessment roll in Manitoba includes personal property such goods and chattels, which are not considered real property. Such property values are excluded from the estimate.

    h. Mixed-use properties

    Some properties are used for both residential and non-residential purposes. In cases where no further breakdowns are available, the values of mixed-use properties are redistributed between residential and non-residential property types according to the existing distribution of total residential and non-residential property values by CSD. In cases where further breakdowns are available, mostly in jurisdictions where microdata was received, the values are assigned according to the exact breakdown. The mixed-use properties represent 0.16% of the total valuation of properties in Canada.

    One of the most common cases of mixed-use type properties are of a building consisting of ground level commercial with one or more floors of residential units above.

    10. Quality control

    Statistics Canada's quality assurance framework requires an assessment of data relevance, accuracy, timeliness, accessibility, interpretability and coherence. The quality of the raw input data collected from provincial, territorial and municipal assessment departments and agencies cannot be evaluated in this framework. However, confrontational analysis is performed to compare the source data to existing statistical programs and public information such as annual reports obtained from Provincial websites. Any irregularities identified are carefully reviewed and analyzed before the official release of the data.

    Total adjusted residential estimates, for both taxable and exempt properties, are compared to Statistics Canada's Census of Population. The coherence of the values is examined by census coverage analysis, which compares the source data to private dwelling counts and values found in Statistics Canada's Census of Population.

    Annex 1. List of CSD types representing First Nations and other Aboriginal Groups Footnote 17

    The following are the list of CSD types representing First Nations and other Aboriginal groups presented by province and territory.

    Annex 1. List of CSD types representing First Nations and other Aboriginal Groups
    Province / Territory CSD Type CSD Type description Legal Code Legal Code description Number of CSDs
    NS IRI Indian reserve FL Federally legislated 2
    NB IRI Indian reserve FL Federally legislated 1
    ON IRI Indian reserve FL Federally legislated 1
    MB IRI Indian reserve FL Federally legislated 1
    SK IRI Indian reserve FL Federally legislated 3
    SK S-É Indian settlement U Not legal municipality - aboriginal geography 1
    AB IRI Indian reserve FL Federally legislated 1
    BC IGD Indian government district PL Provincially legislated - legal municipality 2
    BC IRI Indian reserve FL Federally legislated 5
    BC NL Nisga'a land FL Federally legislated 1