Statistics Canada

Mandate

The mandate of Statistics Canada derives primarily from the Statistics Act. The Act requires the agency, under the direction of the Minister, to collect, compile, analyse and publish statistical information on the economic, social and general conditions of the country and its citizens. Statistics Canada is also mandated to provide coordination and leadership for the country's statistical system. Other federal legislation requires Statistics Canada to produce data for specific purposes.

How does Statistics Canada use S&T to deliver on its mandate?

The mission of Statistics Canada is to inform Canadians, businesses, and governments about the evolution of their society and economy and to promote a high-quality national statistical system.

The condition of a nation and its people can be assessed in many ways. Fundamental to these assessments is the availability of information on the many and diverse dimensions of the modern nation state, such as information on its population, its economy, its resources, and its social and cultural life. Under the Canadian Constitution, provision of statistics is a federal responsibility. By means of the Statistics Act, Parliament has designated Statistics Canada as the central agency responsible for producing such information.

The gathering of information involves a partnership with all Canadians. In this partnership, Canadians both contribute and benefit. Information is provided to Statistics Canada through surveys and access to administrative records, while Statistics Canada, after compiling and analysing this information, provides feedback through a myriad of information products.

Historically, Statistics Canada's program has been structured to provide macro-economic, micro-economic and socio-demographic statistics, and statistical information in public institutions and programs. Such information continues to be relevant. However, emerging issues prompt demands for new kinds of data, (for example, needs have been expressed for improved information on education and the transition from school to the workplace, the health of Canadians and the systems that support it, the effects of globalization, the functioning of Canada's economy, the factors affecting Canada's competitiveness in world markets, the impact of science and technology, the outcomes of government programs and the status of various subpopulations within Canadian society).

Maintaining the relevance of the Statistics Canada program by meeting such information needs will always be a primary goal for the agency. To maintain a high level of program relevance, Statistics Canada relies on two pivotal instruments. These are the advice and guidance it receives from external consultative bodies; and, the agency's rigorous planning and performance monitoring system and processes. The external consultative bodies are the National Statistics Council; professional advisory committees (including the Advisory Committee on Science and Technology Statistics); bilateral relationships with key federal departments; and the Federal-Provincial Consultative Council on Statistical Policy.

As part of ensuring the relevance of its products, the Agency co-ordinates the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI), which provides affordable access to statistical files and data bases in support of social science research and teaching. The DLI has a broader function in creating a sustainable base for public policy analysis in science and technology. The services of the DLI are described at http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/dli.htm

All of the program delivery of Statistics Canada is classified to science and technology for the purpose of the survey of federal science activities and the S&T activities are classified entirely to the social sciences. The S&T activities are divided into research and development (3% of expenditure) and related scientific activity (97% of expenditure), such as surveys and the analysis of administrative data.

As well as being the largest social science department or agency in the federal government, Statistics Canada maintains a growing program of science and technology statistics as part of the Information System for Science and Technology Project. It includes surveys of the activities of research and development, invention, innovation, technology diffusion and related human resource development, measures and analysis of linkages among actors in the S&T system, and analysis of outcomes. The program is progressing towards the analysis of the impact of S&T activity and it is guided in this by the document Science and Technology Activities and Impacts: A Framework for a Statistical Information System 1998.

Recent findings include the resources committed to biotechnology R&D, in industry and in the federal government, the rates of use and planned use of biotechnologies by firms, and the characteristics of firms principally engaged in biotechnology activities, as part of work in support of the development of the Canadian Biotechnology Strategy. Results on innovation in firms in key service industries were released, and there have been several measures of knowledge flows. These include the linkages between sectors and regions measured by co-authorship of scientific papers, the commercialization of intellectual property by universities and by federal government laboratories, and the flows and distribution of skilled people working in the area of science and technology. Some of this work has been in support of the two expert panels of the federal Advisory Council on Science and Technology, on skills, and on the commercialization of intellectual property by universities.

More generally, the survey of federal science activities provides information on what the government spends on science and technology, where it spends its S&T resources (sector and region), and on what it spends its resources (socio-economic objective). A longer-term objective of this and the rest of the S&T statistics program is to show what the government gets for its S&T spending. More information can be found at http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/scilist.htm

Future strategic directions in S&T

Strategic planning is part of program relevance and the mechanisms for ensuring relevance where given in the previous section. In the case of statistics on science and technology, the agency has prepared A Five-Year Strategic Plan for the Development of an Information System for Science and Technology. The plan takes the program from its developmental stage, funded by Industry Canada since 1996, to a new level as an integral and ongoing part of the work of the agency. The funding for this strategic development is part of a $20 million-a-year package to reduce gaps in the statistical system which has been coordinated by the federal Policy Research Committee.