Results at a glance

Statistics Canada undertook and completed a number of important initiatives during the fiscal year 2018–19. Key accomplishments include the following:

• The agency made further progress on commitments from the mandate letter of the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. These included ensuring transparent data stewardship, co-leading the Data Strategy Roadmap for the Federal Public Service to help create the right environmental conditions for improving the quality of publicly available data in Canada, and implementing the updated legislation that governs Statistics Canada to reinforce the agency's independence.
• In the last year, the agency has put forward a number of measures with tangible results in timeliness, data detail and quality of information. This was achieved by going beyond the four pathfinder projects, responding to key issues faced by the country with high-quality and reliable data, updating measures such as the market basket measure, and providing information and statistics that allow Canadians to monitor progress on the 2030 goals and targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.
• With Budget 2018 investments, Statistics Canada advanced on a number of innovative projects and experimentation initiatives, such as addressing the opioid crisis, enhancing Canada's internal trade and economic globalization statistics, placing evidence at the centre of program evaluation, and designing and implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• The agency progressed on additional innovative projects, such as developing new data sources to measure the socioeconomic impact that new technologies have on businesses and the labour market, processing satellite images to enhance agricultural statistics, and processing initiatives to codify big data and become more efficient by using machine learning techniques to automate tasks. Canada became the first country to produce digital economy estimates at the provincial level, and the only country to produce such a long time series of these data.
• In the last year, Statistics Canada has enabled the policy work of other departments by developing and producing timely information such as
  • the cannabis consumption habits of Canadians for Health Canada, Public Safety Canada and the public
  • key principles of inclusion, participation and community, measured in terms of social and affordable housing in the Canadian Housing Survey
  • performance metrics, dashboards and maps displaying traffic for the Transportation Data and Information Hub in partnership with Transport Canada.
• The agency is working collaboratively with Indigenous organizations and communities and other partners to foster culturally based approaches for improving statistical literacy, increasing access to Indigenous data hubs, and providing technical support services and training in data analysis and integration. This will allow the statistical needs of Indigenous communities, organizations and leadership to be identified and addressed with support in building their own data and research capacities. Detailed statistics on Indigenous farm operators were published for the first time on January 17, 2019.
• The agency celebrated its 100th anniversary with various innovative activities—hosting a conference, "Statistics Canada, 100 Years and Counting," and producing an overview of the history of Statistics Canada—to commemorate the agency's contributions to Canada and its people.

For more information on Statistics Canada's plans, priorities and results achieved, see the Results: what we achieved section of this report.