The Canadian
Integrated Approach
to Economic
Surveys
Marie Brodeur, Peter Koumanakos,
Jean Leduc, Éric Rancourt, Karen Wilson
Statistics Canada
International Workshop on Economic Census
Beijing, July 26-29, 2005
Overview of the presentation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Scope of the presentation
Background
Core Underlying Principles
Survey Characteristics
Business Register
Sampling
Achievements
Enterprise Financial Program
Management of UES
Future Directions
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1. Scope of the presentation
 Paper
provides details about our
complete integrated approach
 Systems
of National Accounts
 Business Register
 Unified enterprise Survey (UES)
Establishment level
 Enterprise level

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2. UES Background
Major project to improve provincial statistics
(1996)
 Reliable Annual Provincial Data for the
Allocation of HST Revenues (SNA I-O Tables)
 More detailed Industry & Commodity data
 Creation of Enterprise Statistics Division (ESD)
 UES Pilot (RY 1997) -- 7 surveys
 Gradual Expansion of Surveys; Covers 75% of
GDP

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3. Core Underlying Principles

Use of Single, Unduplicated Frame -- the BR

Expended coverage

Common Sample Design Methodology

Integrated Questionnaire -- common / simple
language; harmonized concepts / variables

Data collection at the Statistical Establishment
level
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3. Core Underlying Principles

Common generic processing systems and
methods

Centralized warehouse

Head Office Survey

Maximum Use of Tax Data

Annual Profiling of Large Enterprises

Enterprise Portfolio Managers
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4. Survey Characteristics
Separate Enterprise & Establishment Surveys
 42 Establishment Surveys
 Over 55,000 collection entities representing
about 68,000 establishments (17K replaced by
tax for RY 2004)
 Centralized Collection -- $3.5 million budget
 Smallest businesses estimated through tax

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5. Business Register (BR)
BR covers all sectors
 Incorporated and unincorporated businesses
 Complex and simple enterprises
 Structure





Legal
Operational
Statistical (Enterprise & Establishment)
Updated with Administrative Data
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6. Sampling
Time-in sample is managed by sample control
file (SCF)
 Stratified Random Sample
 Industry (NAICS 4)
 Province
 Size




1 Take-all stratum
2 Take-some strata (50% of units replaced by tax)
Take-none strata (under Royce-Maranda thresholds)
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Sampling Process
BR
(2.3M businesses)
Survey Universe File
(2M businesses)
Sample Control File
(700K businesses)
UES Sample
(70K businesses)
Survey Interface File
38K CEs / Questionnaires
Tax Est’d
(1.3M)
55K
CEs
Tax Replacements
17K CEs
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7. Achievements
 Timeliness
 Centralized
Processing Systems and
Databases
 Use of Tax Data
 Respondent Burden Reduction
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7a. Timeliness
 Very
problematic during start-up years
 Many
processing systems in development
 Problems with questionnaires
 Task
force created in 2001
 Target: 15 months after reference year
 For RY 2003, all surveys between 12-15
month period
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7b. Centralized Processing Systems
and Databases
 Develop


centralized systems
Move away from stand-alone
Single point of access for security
 Integrated
Questionnaire Metadata
System
 Edit and imputation
 Allocation and Estimation
 Data Warehouse
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Collection
Pre-Contact
(17K Businesses)
Score Function
Mailout
(38K CEs)
Edit / Verification
(BLAISE)
Receipt
(75% target)
“Clean” Records
Capture / Imaging
Delinquent Follow-Up
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Post-Collection Processing
“Clean” Records
Pre-Grooming
Tax
Data
Central Data
Store
USTART
Edit & Imputation
Allocation /
Estimation
Subject Matter
Review & Correction
Tool
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7c. Use of Tax data
 Significant
process since 1997
 Close to 600,000 small simple
establishments (under threshold) - Macro
adjustment
 17,000 additional simple establishments
 Tax data used in editing and imputation
 Result
 Almost
65% of units replaced by tax data
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7d. Respondent Burden Reduction
 Reduced
 From
size of questionnaires
12-14 pages to 4-5 pages
 Use
of the Chart of Accounts
 Related to the use of tax data
 Ombudsman function
 Enterprise Portfolio Managers
 Result
 40%
reduction of # of hours between 2000 to 2004
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8. Enterprise Financial Program
Monitor the size, the financial structure and
position of the corporate sector
 Business Register
 Survey of complex enterprises over $250
millions in revenues or assets
 Consolidated Balance Sheets and Income
Statements, corporate taxation
 Use of Tax data

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9. Management of the UES


ESD provides functional support and coordination
A series of committees is charged with process
clarification & decision making
Project Management Team
Operations Management Committee
Frame
Operations
Sampling
Tax Data
Operations
Content /
Collection
Processing
Operations
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10. Future Directions

SID/Culture Stats survey integration and
content harmonisation into UES

Change Management Team

Sign-off process

“Holistic Response Management” strategy

Business Register Redesign

Welcome new surveys
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