For over a century, Statistics Canada has delivered high-quality data for Canadians to better understand their evolving society and economy. Distributing funds between levels of government, providing services to communities, driving and attracting business opportunities, negotiating wage rates, and keeping up with the cost of living—these are just a few of the decisions based on our work that affect all Canadians directly or indirectly.
At Statistics Canada, we listened to and consulted Canadians from coast to coast to coast in 2018–19 by conducting social media campaigns, web evaluation surveys and client satisfaction surveys. The message was loud and clear: while Canadians value our role as the authoritative, credible and independent provider of key facts and figures, they want us to do more. They want Statistics Canada to be even more relevant to their day-to-day realities and to support them and their organizations. They want us to fill important data gaps; provide more detailed data, whether it be for their neighbourhood or their industry sector; and maintain the high level of quality that ensures sound decision making—all while maintaining the trust of Canadians by protecting the privacy and confidentiality of the data they have entrusted us with.
Input from Canadians is the main driver of modernization efforts at Statistics Canada, and the impetus for experimenting with and piloting new ways to provide even greater value in the form of data, analytics and insights. The Government of Canada recognized the important role of Statistics Canada, and, based on the feedback of Canadians, it provided modest funding in Budget 2018 to fill important gaps in the areas of gender statistics and Indigenous statistical capacity development, and to build the necessary infrastructure for increased data analytics. Work has already begun in each of these areas, fuelling a culture of innovation and placing user needs at the centre of Statistics Canada's programs.
I invite Canadians to visit our website to have a first-hand look at the innovative products accessible to them on a vast range of topics, and to follow our progress as we respond to their evolving needs. I particularly invite Canadians to visit the Trust Centre, to see how we produce statistics that make a difference for all communities while maintaining our commitment to protecting the privacy of their data. We are building on our century-long tradition of responsibly providing facts that matter to us all.