Anil Arora
Chief Statistician of Canada, Statistics Canada
I am pleased to present Statistics Canada's 2020-21 Departmental Plan.
This report maps how the agency is fulfilling its mandate to provide Canadians with trustworthy and timely information during the coming year.
To remain vital, the agency must be ready to respond to Canada's rapidly changing environment and stay attuned to the needs of all data users. At Statistics Canada, this means working faster and better to produce high-quality results, while maintaining the public trust and data stewardship that have always been hallmarks of the agency.
The key priorities for 2020-21:
- Gear up for the 2021 Census of Population and Census of Agriculture. Every five years, the censuses provide a detailed portrait of Canadians and their communities. In 2020, we will make sure that all systems and processes are ready for Census Day.
- Modernize our operations. To better meet Canada's emerging and evolving data needs, we are investing in modern technical, secure infrastructure as well as machine learning, finding fresh ways to model and present data, and developing new recruitment strategies to attract the next generation of data scientists.
- Enhance our coverage of emerging social concerns. The agency is launching a new platform to deliver more data and analysis on important issues, such as hate crimes, housing affordability, climate change and Canadians' quality of life.
- Seek out data from alternative sources. Canadians have often asked why they are asked to provide the same data multiple times to government institutions. We are exploring greater use of administrative data—information already held by other organizations—to reduce costs and lessen the burden placed on Canadians and businesses.
- Encourage data literacy. In 2020, we will be working to ensure that both experts and non-expert users are better able to access and use our data. By capitalizing on data visualizations and social media outreach, the agency will reach more Canadians. By promoting data literacy, we will also ensure that Canadians can understand statistics and use them in their daily lives.
Throughout our long history, Statistics Canada has worked in partnership with Canadian businesses, governments, academia and private and public organizations. In the coming year, we are expanding these to access more data, and to strengthen our whole-of government approach to collecting, using and sharing data.
The trust that Canadians put in our agency is critical to our role as a national statistical office. We will continue to protect the information provided by Canadians, and to be transparent about the methods that we use to ensure that their information is both secure and kept confidential. We will further strengthen our privacy and confidentiality posture.
Please visit our website to learn more about our work, our initiatives and our ongoing commitment to provide high-quality data for Canadians. Your comments and feedback are essential in helping us continue to advance our work.