Supplement to Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact Assessment related to the Canadian Agricultural Partnership Survey

Date: August 2023

Program manager: Director, Centre for Special Business Projects
Director General, Agriculture, Energy and Environment Statistics

Reference to Personal Information Bank (PIB):

Information collected through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership Survey (CAPS) is described in the Agriculture Statistics Class of Records (Record Number: StatCan AGR 450).

The inclusion of sociodemographic content does not require the development of a PIB given no information about identifiable individuals is being collected, and the information will not serve to make administrative decisions about individuals. Only aggregate level sociodemographic information is collected, which renders it un-identifiable and un-retrievable.

Description of statistical activity

Under the authority of the Statistics Act^{Footnote 1}, Statistics Canada is conducting the Canadian Agricultural Partnership Survey (CAPS). The data collected through this voluntary business survey is used to produce statistical information on agricultural organizations receiving funding through the cost-shared program of the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) initiative with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), as well as to demonstrate outcomes and impacts of the program on the participants, their businesses, and the overall agriculture sector.

Funded by federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) governments, the CAP aims to strengthen and grow Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector with:

• simplified and streamlined programs and services that are easier to access
• improvements to programs that help manage significant risks that threaten the viability of farms
• strategic initiatives
• federal activities and programs

AAFC will use the data to better understand the characteristics of agricultural organizations engaged in the CAP and provide a better understanding of how the CAP program and its activities serve agricultural operators in order to better serve farmers, food processors and Canadian families, such as: trade and market expansion to address emerging opportunities and needs; advancing science, innovation and sustainable growth; reflecting diversity of communities; enhancing collaboration across jurisdictions; and securing support and public trust.

The survey is to be completed by the owner or an operator of the organization (e.g., senior manager, operations manager, or anyone else in an equivalent position in the organization) who would be able to report on the organization's participation in the CAP.

Due to the need for more disaggregated data on the characteristics of employees of Canadian agricultural organizations that have participated in the CAP to address potential inequalities and disparities that may disproportionately affect underrepresented population groups, a section will be added to the 2023 CAPS requesting aggregate sociodemographic information about the organization's workers (owners and employees).

In some cases, the respondent for the organization might not have the requested information about the sociodemographic characteristics of workers; therefore, the respondent is instructed to answer these questions to the best of their knowledge.

All the questions in the sociodemographic section have the option of "Prefer not to say" or "Don't know" as a response.

Respondents will be asked to provide their best estimate of the number workers in the organization who identify as being a part of the following groups:

• Women
• Indigenous Identity (First Nations, Métis, Inuit)
• Youth (age 40 or younger)
• Persons with a disability
• LGBTQ2+
• Racialized group

The questions requesting this information have been drafted in collaboration with Statistics Canada's Harmonized Content^{Footnote 2} team to meet the needs of this business survey. These questions are designed to collect information on ownership and employee characteristics that can lead to the production of statistical information to gain better insights on the experiences of specific population groups such as women, Indigenous peoples, racialized populations, youth, and people living with disabilities. Better data, analysis and information can highlight inequities and promote fairness and inclusion in delivery of programs, services, and policy decisions.

Reason for supplement

While the Generic Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) addresses most of the privacy and security risks related to statistical activities conducted by Statistics Canada, and while the sociodemographic information being collected is aggregated, this supplement was conducted due to the potentially sensitive  nature of this information about employees of businesses, such as sexual and gender diversity, Indigenous identity, ethnicity, and disability indirectly from the business survey respondent which, when combined with other information, may have the potential to re-identify workers. As is the case with all PIAs, Statistics Canada's privacy framework ensures that elements of privacy protection and privacy controls are documented and applied.

Necessity and Proportionality

The Canadian Agricultural Partnership Survey will collect aggregate information on the characteristics of the organization's workers, such as how many employees and owners identify as women, Indigenous people, members of racialized groups, youth, LGBTQ2+, or live with disabilities. The indirect collection of aggregated characteristics of the organization's workers can be justified against Statistics Canada's Necessity and Proportionality Framework:

1. Necessity: The Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a five-year (2018-2023), investment by federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) governments to strengthen and grow Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector through streamlined programs and services that are easier to access, as well as improvements to programs that help agri-operations manage significant risks that threaten the viability of farms. The CAPS will demonstrate outcomes and impacts of the Program on participating organizations and the overall agriculture sector. A lack of this data could compromise significant program objectives; specifically, the collection of the aggregate sociodemographic information of the workers of agricultural organizations that have participated in the CAP will lead to the production and expansion of detailed statistical information that will provide insights into the experiences of specific underrepresented population groups in these settings.

   The information will also help strengthen the sector by better reflecting the diversity of its communities, enhancing collaboration across different jurisdictions, securing and supporting public trust in the sector, and improving client services. Building the capacity of the national agriculture sector will necessitate supporting diverse groups to develop their skills to take on greater leadership roles, building the entrepreneurial capacity and business skills of under-represented groups (such as Indigenous communities, youth, women, and persons with disabilities), facilitating the sharing of industry experience, best practices and knowledge to help under-represented groups manage transformation, and reinforcing the agriculture sector by incorporating the views of a more diverse set of industry players. Better data, analysis and information can highlight inequities and promote fairness and inclusion in the delivery of programs, services, and policy decisions made by AAFC and the provincial and territorial governments involved in the cost-shared envelope of the CAP.

   The aggregate sociodemographic information collected is not reflective of any requirements associated with participation in the CAP, however, it is of importance to federal, provincial and territorial stakeholders as well as the Canadian population that potential barriers to participation experienced by underrepresented groups be identified and considered to better support equitable participation across the agricultural sector.

2. Effectiveness - Working assumptions: The aggregate information collected on a voluntary basis will include the number of workers who identify as women, LGBTQ2+, Indigenous, racialized groups, youth and people living with disabilities in order to disaggregate data related to Canadian businesses whose workers belong to underrepresented groups. The effectiveness of the information to be collected is limited, as it is a proxy response (not collected directly from individuals by Statistics Canada) for which the accuracy cannot be validated. However, the aggregates do not pertain to any identifiable individuals, and to mitigate against collecting inaccurate information, the sociodemographic module of the questionnaire starts with a notice informing respondents that questions collecting personal information about the business' workers are voluntary, and respondents are given the option to select the responses "Don't know" or "Prefer not to answer" for all of the voluntary sociodemographic questions.

3. Proportionality: There are data gaps in terms of profiles of population groups that receive government funding beyond ownership of the enterprise. CAP programs are designed to serve businesses based on size, region and activity, but impact on specific population groups has not previously been assessed and is becoming an increasingly important consideration when creating programs in order to serve all Canadians. Such assessment would meet the priorities of the Canadian Agricultural Partnership for future iterations. Collecting this data allows for participation monitoring in order to create baseline metrics of participation by underrepresented groups.

   This sociodemographic information is not collected when organizations apply for the CAP and it does not impact acceptance into the program. The information will be collected only in the survey to better understand participation of underrepresented groups, allowing for the implementation of evidence-based polices in the agriculture and agri-food sector to encourage further participation of underrepresented population groups. This effort aims to address inequalities and disparities affecting underrepresented population groups, allow for a broader reach in participation across the agricultural sector to foster future generations of farmers, considering economic, training and other barriers to entry, and to support and empower producers and agri-food workers.

4. Alternatives: The following alternative modes of collecting the sociodemographic information were considered.

   Direct collection from the workers in the organization through additional screening questions. Despite potentially being more accurate, this method could limit the response rate and compromise the program's ability to produce statistics about these minority groups that comply with Statistics Canada's quality guidelines. Additionally, this method could be more burdensome and could entail the collection of information about identifiable individuals.

   Linking the sociodemographic variables from other surveys or administrative files. Statistics Canada's only linkable dataset that contains these types of variables is the Census of Population, and only a portion of Canadians were asked to respond to the long-form questionnaire where these questions were asked. As such, the linkage rate would similarly be too low to meet Statistics Canada's quality guidelines.

   The indirect voluntary collection of aggregate estimates of numbers of employees identifying as being a part of the population groups was therefore estimated as being the most efficient to meet the identified needs while remaining the least privacy intrusive as no identifiable information is being communicated to Statistics Canada. Identifiable information is not required as it will not serve to make decisions about individuals.

Mitigation factors

The overall risk of harm to the affected individuals has been deemed manageable with existing Statistics Canada safeguards that are described in Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact Assessment, with particular emphasis on the following measures:

• As the worker sociodemographic questions in the CAPS aim to collect aggregate personal information about individuals other than the respondent, respondents will be informed at the start of that questionnaire module that it is voluntary, and that they have the right to refuse to provide this information.
• Only aggregate data will be collected, making individuals unidentifiable at the respondent level without linking to other information; Statistics Canada will not attempt to re-identify any individuals from the aggregate personal information collected.
• Statistics Canada will not publish any information that could allow the identification of any individuals. Additional suppressions will be performed on outputs to ensure any risk of re-identifiability is mitigated.
• Respondents have the option to select the response "Don't know" or "Prefer not to answer" for all questions about aggregate sociodemographic characteristics of workers in their organization. As such, the respondent may choose to answer these questions to the best of their knowledge or not.
• Alternatively, while the worker sociodemographic information is provided in aggregate format, respondents are informed that they may provide the information but request that their survey responses not be shared outside of Statistics Canada by mailing a written letter of objection to the Chief Statistician of Canada specifying the organization(s) with which they do not want Statistics Canada to share their data, in which case their responses will be withheld from data sharing with the specified organization(s).^{Footnote 3}

Conclusion

This assessment concludes that the overall risk of harm to the survey respondents has been deemed manageable with the abovementioned mitigations and existing Statistics Canada safeguards described in Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact Assessment.