2006 submissions

Archived information

Archived information is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please "contact us" to request a format other than those available.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Fish Processing Sector: Economic Impact Study (2000–2009)
Update to the National Dose Registry Cancer Incidence and Mortality Study
Electricity and Useful Thermal Energy Production Data Linkage
A Study of Mortality and Cancer Incidence in Uranium Workers: Eldorado Nuclear Cohort Update
Commercial and Institutional Consumption of Energy Survey Data Linkage
Longitudinal Database of Employer Businesses in Canada (LEAP – T2), 1984 to 2004
Address Register: Adding Info-Direct and GST-HST New Housing Rebate Files
Workers' Compensation Benefits in Ontario and British Columbia
Canadian Research and Development Investments (2004), and Federal Science Expenditures (2004–2005), Intended to Directly Benefit Developing Countries
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA): Update of Business Performance Evaluation (2003–2007)


The Newfoundland and Labrador Fish Processing Sector: Economic Impact Study (2000–2009)

Purpose: To assist in evaluating current and potential future government interventions, the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador requires more information on the financial health of the fish processing sector in their province and the economic impact of this industry sector on the economy of the province. The study, to be carried out by the Newfoundland and Labrador Statistics Agency (NLSA), will establish a comprehensive profile of the financial performance in the fish processing sector; track performance indicators annually for the 2000 to 2009 period and identify changes that may reveal economic problems in the sector; and compare the relative performance of fish processing plants in Newfoundland and Labrador to those in other Maritime Provinces and in Quebec.

Description: Linkage of the subset of the Business Register related to the fish processing industry with the T4 Summary Tax File and the General Index of Financial Information (GIFI) T2 Corporate Tax Data File. The linkage will be carried out on an annual basis for reference years 2000 through 2009. This information is linked using the Business Number (BN), Statistical Enterprise Number (SNUM), Legal/Operating Name and Postal Code. Information for specific businesses will not be linked one year to another.

Output: Only aggregate data conforming to the confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act will be provided to NLSA who will then produce analytical findings and make them available in a report to the general public and use them to inform government policy.  Statistics Canada will announce the availability of the aggregate data annually in The Daily. The linked files will be retained until 2012, after which they will be destroyed.


Update to the National Dose Registry Cancer Incidence and Mortality Study

Purpose: To improve the quantification of risk estimates for cumulative exposure to low doses of radiation. The National Dose Registry (NDR) operated by Health Canada contains the radiation dose records of all monitored radiation workers in Canada from the 1940s to the present. Such workers include radiologists, dentists and hygienists, workers in the nuclear and radiochemical industries, personnel involved in maintenance or operation of nuclear-powered vessels, and accident or nuclear facility cleanup crews. Aircrews are also exposed to elevated levels of cosmic radiation during flight and are classified as “radiation workers. The larger cohort of this update study—which now contains approximately 500,000 workers—and the longer follow-up time will increase the power of the analysis and allow for a better quantification of the health risks. This study will allow for further investigation into the possibility of certain cancers, such as thyroid cancers, being associated with occupational radiation exposure. As well, this study will provide more information to help understand the current unexplained trend of increasing mortality due to cardiovascular disease and accidents. This information may allow for the examination of “acceptable cumulative dose” guidelines to ensure workers are protected.

Description: The NDR Cohort dose and work history file will be linked to the 1984-2004 Historic Summary Tax Files. No income data exists on this file. This linkage is carried out to assist in the evaluation of the death search by determining the status of the individuals (dead, alive or emigrated). Further linkages will then add the 1951-2004 mortality data from the Canadian Mortality Data Base and the 1969-2004 cancer data from the Canadian Cancer Data Base.

Output: An analysis file, without names or identifiers, will be released to Health Canada, with the consent of the provincial and territorial Vital Statistics and Cancer Statistics Registrars. The study findings will be reviewed by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, published in a report and in peer reviewed journals. Health Canada will provide selected data to the International Agency for Research on Cancer in order to undertake international cancer studies. The linked file will be retained until 2015, after which it will be destroyed.


Electricity and Useful Thermal Energy Production Data Linkage

Purpose: To analyze energy consumption and production patterns and to help in the assessment of how well companies involved in cogeneration are increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse emissions. Data will be used by Natural Resources Canada to aid the development and refinement of programs available to businesses, institutions and organizations to increase their energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Cogeneration is defined as the simultaneous generation of electricity and useful thermal energy such as steam in one process and from the same fuel source. The cogeneration information was collected from respondents that previously identified themselves in the Commercial and Institutional Consumption of Energy Survey as being involved in this type of activity. The information was collected separately in order to minimize response burden for those not involved in cogeneration activities, which represented the majority of units in the survey population. The cogeneration data will be linked with data provided on energy consumption.

Description: Survey respondents provided informed consent for Statistics Canada to link the Electricity and Useful Thermal Energy Production Survey data with their data previously provided on the Commercial and Institutional Consumption of Energy Survey.

Output: All output from this linkage activity will conform to the confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act. A file without personal identifiers will be shared with Natural Resources Canada’s Office of Energy Efficiency and will include only information from respondents who consented both to linking and to sharing. The resulting linked file will be retained by Statistics Canada for a period up to five years. Natural Resources Canada will retain a copy of the linked files indefinitely. This file will not contain any personal identifiers.


A Study of Mortality and Cancer Incidence in Uranium Workers: Eldorado Nuclear Cohort Update

Purpose: To shed further light on the relationship between radon progeny exposure and cancer risk. Lung cancer has long been known to be an occupational hazard for underground miners with high exposures to radon. Although this lung cancer risk is generally associated with uranium mining, in fact many other underground mines and human dwellings in the temperate zones have potential exposure to radon and the attendant risks. Thus, any improvements in radiation risk estimates could benefit a much larger population than the underground mining occupational group, although this occupational group numbers in the hundreds of thousands in North America and in the millions world wide.

Description: The cohort file of approximately 19,000 male and female uranium workers will be linked to the summary file of tax filers for 1984 to 1999. This file does not contain tax information but provides an indication of the vital status of individuals such as, alive, deceased or emigrated. The cohort will then be linked to the Canadian Mortality Database for the years 1940 to the most current year available and then to the Canadian Cancer Database for the years 1969 to the most current year available. The final linkage would involve updating the work history and exposure history information for the workers in the cohort.

Output: All identifiers will be removed from the analysis files after the linkages have been completed and replaced with a Statistics Canada assigned number. The identifiers will be stored separately on a password protected file. Only aggregate data that conform to the confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act would be released outside of Statistics Canada. Aggregate tables would be prepared which would include standardized mortality ratios and standardized cancer morbidity incidence ratios. The linked file will be retained for a period of ten years (2011) to allow for peer-review of the papers generated, publication of the papers, the follow-up of any unexpected result(s) requiring further resolution, and in the event a further update is requested. The composite linked records generated for this study will also be retained as part of the Personal Information Bank STC PPU 076 - Long-term Medical Follow-up Study Files.


Commercial and Institutional Consumption of Energy Survey Data Linkage

Purpose: To analyze energy consumption patterns and to assess how well Canada is fulfilling its commitments both to increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse emissions that contribute to climate change. Data will be used to develop and refine programs available to help businesses, institutions and organizations increase their own energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Description: Where the respondent was not knowledgeable about their energy consumption, data were provided by their landlord, property manager or other knowledgeable contact (as identified by the respondent), and subsequently linked to the other information provided by the respondent.

Survey respondents provided written informed consent to Statistics Canada to obtain their energy consumption data from the contact person they specified on the questionnaire and for their data to be combined with the energy consumption data provided by their contact. The contact person, business or institution also provided written informed consent to combine the energy consumption data they provided with the data provided by the respondent.

Output: All output from this linkage activity will conform to the confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act. A file without personal identifiers will be shared with the Natural Resources Canada, the Office of Energy Efficiency and will include only information from respondents who consented both to linking and to sharing. The resulting linked file will be retained by Statistics Canada for a period up to five years.


Longitudinal Database of Employer Businesses in Canada (LEAP – T2), 1984 to 2004

Purpose: To support research that may help better understand the potential impacts of changes in tax and monetary policy as well as other policies which generate major changes in business conditions, such as trade policy or industry regulation or deregulation. Research will be carried out on economic issues that influence the performance of both large and small Canadian firms. More particularly on key policy-related questions, including the implications of rising debt for employment and survival among small firms, the effect of exchange rate movements on firm survival in the manufacturing and services sector, and the impact of tax policy on firm birth and death rates. Results may also support policy development to assist new and smaller firms in their financing decisions.

Description: The linkage involves matching the Longitudinal Employment Analysis Program (LEAP) database to selected T2 corporate tax data files for the period 1984 to 2004. The LEAP provides longitudinal firm-level information on employment, payroll, firm size, and firm industry. The T2 Corporate Tax File includes limited financial information from the T2 Corporate Tax Data System. The linkage will be carried out using common business identifiers, which will remain on the file in a scrambled form. The use of scrambled identifiers will allow users to differentiate units and follow them longitudinally, but not to specifically identify them. This linkage activity will be performed once.

Output: Only aggregate data conforming to the confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act will be released outside of Statistics Canada. Papers will be published in Statistics Canada's Analytical Studies Research Paper Series, as well as in academic journals, and presented at professional conferences.

The linked file will be retained until December 31, 2013 , after which it will be destroyed.


Address Register: Adding Info-Direct and GST-HST New Housing Rebate Files

Purpose: The purpose of the Address Register (AR) is to improve the data quality and reduce the cost of the quinquennial Census of Population and of other household surveys conducted by Statistics Canada. The AR contains the address, postal code and a geographic location code for 12 million residential dwellings and the telephone number of the dwelling where publicly available. The AR contains no names of individuals. It is used only for statistical purposes, and is not available to anyone outside Statistics Canada.

The AR was initially created from addresses compiled during the 1986 Census of Population. The majority of its updates have come from subsequent Census activities. Between censuses, a number of sources of information such as telephone billing files are used to update the AR.

Adding publicly-available telephone numbers from the Info-Direct database will provide more current telephone numbers related to the list of addresses. Addresses from the GST-HST New Housing Rebate files will aid in identifying addresses in areas of new construction.

Description: The AR does not contain names or other personal identifiers. The linkage is based on the address information (civic number, street name, street type, street direction, apartment identifier, municipal name, province and postal code). Any names found on any source files are not used in the linkage process or stored within the AR.

Output: No information from this linkage activity will be released outside of Statistics Canada. The AR is only used to support activities within the Agency.


Workers' Compensation Benefits in Ontario and British Columbia

Purpose: To compare the outcomes of two different designs of workers' compensation programs for work-related injuries, namely those of Ontario and British Columbia. Findings from the study will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs in reducing the adverse financial consequences of wage-loss on Canadians who suffer work-related injuries, and their families. Because workers' compensation programs for injured workers share similarities across provinces, the results of the study will be relevant nation-wide.

The study has two components. Part 1 will determine whether there are significant differences in labour market re-entry and post-injury earnings for individuals sustaining permanent impairments and receiving benefits from the different programs. Part 2 will examine individuals experiencing a temporary disability arising from a work-related injury to determine if there are long-term labour-market earnings losses resulting from these temporary disabilities, and which factors impact on long-term earnings. In both parts of the study, the earnings dynamics at both the family and individual level will be investigated, and regional as well as gender differences will be explored.

Description: The project involves a one-time linkage of administrative data on short- and long-term disability beneficiaries from the Ontario Workplace Safety & Insurance Board and the British Columbia Workers' Compensation Board, for selected injury years between 1986 and 2002, linked to the 20% Longitudinal Administrative Databank (LAD) for selected years in the 1982 to 2003 period. The files will be linked deterministically using Social Insurance Number, but the number will not be stored on the linked file.

Output: Only aggregate data that conform to the confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act will be released outside of Statistics Canada. The availability of the analysis files will be announced in The Daily. Findings will be disseminated in Statistics Canada publications, to the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, the British Columbia Workers' Compensation Board, the Institute for Work and Health, the U.S. National Institutes of Safety and Health, and in peer-reviewed international scientific journals. The linked files, stripped of identifiers, will be retained until May 2011, after which they will be destroyed.


Canadian Research and Development Investments (2004), and Federal Science Expenditures (2004–2005), Intended to Directly Benefit Developing Countries

Purpose: The Government of Canada has established that at least 5 per cent of research and development (R&D) investments in Canada, ought to be dedicated to work intended to directly benefit developing countries. Statistics Canada has conducted two new surveys which, linked to ongoing surveys, will provide an estimate of current R&D levels, and shed light on such questions as whether major exporters are most likely to perform R&D that directly benefits developing countries; on whether the size of the R&D performer impacts on the proportion of R&D performed for developing countries; and, on how federal spending on science and technology (S&T) is being directed towards benefiting developing countries. Findings may assist the Office of the National Science Advisor, and science policy departments, in developing programs that will contribute to meeting the 5 per cent target. Understanding the business objectives of the R&D performers may also contribute to the formulation of policy intended to meet the challenge of Canada ranking in the top five countries in the world, by 2010, in terms of R&D performance. Canada plays an innovative role by carrying out the two new surveys, and findings may be sought as well by international organizations.

Description: Linkage of the following 2004 and 2004-2005 surveys: Research and Development in Canadian Industry Intended to Directly Benefit Developing Countries Survey (RDCI-DBDC), linked to the Research and Development in Canadian Industry Survey (RDCI); and the Federal Science Expenditures Intended to Directly Benefit Developing Countries Survey (FSE-DBDC), linked to the Federal Science Expenditures and Personnel Survey (FSEP). Respondents to the RDCI-DBDC were informed of the intent to combine their data with that provided in the RDCI; similarly for the FSE-DBDC and FSEP surveys.

Output: Only aggregate data and analysis conforming to the confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act will be released outside of Statistics Canada. Availability of the data will be announced in The Daily and custom tabulations will be provided to the Office of the National Science Advisor. Statistics Canada will retain the linked data for an indeterminate period.


Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA): Update of Business Performance Evaluation (2003–2007)

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of ACOA's programs and activities, the usefulness of the Agency's efforts to assist small businesses, and determine more effective means of providing assistance to the small business community. ACOA assists businesses by providing loans, as well as a broad range of programs and services, for purposes of establishing, expanding, or modernising businesses, and for the development of human resources. Information resulting from the linkage will be used by ACOA to examine the performance of those businesses which received financial assistance under the Agency's programs, and compare it to the performance of other firms in the Atlantic region. Employment dynamics, businesses entering and exiting, selected financial statistics, as well as measures of labour productivity will be analyzed. Findings from this ongoing evaluation may lead to improved help for businesses, and possible employment creation.

Description: The evaluation does a cross-sectional linkage of historical and current participation data from ACOA's programs, to Statistics Canada's Business Register, the Longitudinal Employment Analysis Program (LEAP) database, the General Index of Financial Information (GIFI), the Exporter Registry, and the Research and Development universe database, on an annual basis, for reference years 2003 to 2007. This information is linked using the Business Number (BN), Statistical Enterprise Number (SNUM) and Legal/Operating Name and Postal Code.

Output: Only aggregate data at the province and industry sector levels, conforming to the confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act are released to ACOA, which publishes in their annual Performance report to Parliament, summarized versions of research studies on entrepreneurial start-ups, employment patterns and growth in Atlantic Canada. The report is available on their website at www.acoa.ca. The annually linked files are retained for a period of one year, after which they are destroyed.

Date modified: