Social and Aboriginal Statistics Program

Consultation summary

This document contains excerpts from the 2009 Quadrennial Program Report for the Social and Aboriginal Statistics Program, covering the 2005/06 – 2008/09 reference period. Statistics Canada has established an integrated program evaluation and reporting system. In that system, statistical programs undergo a full program evaluation every four years. A major component of the evaluation is the extent to which existing statistical products and services continue to meet the evolving needs of clients.

Results

A satisfaction survey of clients of the Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division (SASD) was conducted in June 2009, and included clients who used the data in 2007/2008 and 2008/2009. A total of 129 clients participated in the survey.

The SASD solicited comments from the clients of its survey programs (General Social Survey (GSS), Aboriginal Children's Survey (ACS) and Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS)), of its data products (Immigrant Database, Statistics Canada website products and custom tabulations) and its analytical publications (Canadian Social Trends, Women in Canada and A Portrait of Seniors in Canada).

The clients of SASD products consider them very important since all of the overall appreciation scores were above 4 out of 5 (on a scale from 1 to 5).

Generally, client satisfaction was quite high, with most of the products scoring an average of 4 or more. The products related to Aboriginal surveys scored somewhat lower on average. The clients of these two surveys indicated slightly less satisfaction with the accessibility and timeliness of these survey results.

The compiled results clearly indicate that the quality of the Division's surveys, products and services is considered very high, if we judge by the high percentage of clients who rated 4 or 5 for each of the quality indicators (relevance, timeliness, accessibility, interpretability and accuracy). Among these indicators, client satisfaction with the accuracy of our surveys, products and services was quite high. For the remaining indicators, the degree of satisfaction was generally quite high, although some clients indicated less satisfaction for some surveys, products or services. SASD will use these results to make the necessary improvements.

Accessibility

As seen from the client satisfaction survey, our clients value accessibility highly. Some clients appeared to be concerned about access to GSS and the APS data based on the high percentages indicating a low level of satisfaction in this area (16% and 24% respectively). Some clients commented that they could not access the data centre, that they would like more detailed geographic data on our website and, with respect to Aboriginal statistics, that they would like all of the data on the topic to be accessible in one place on our site.

Statistics Canada thanks participants for their participation in this consultation. Their insights guide the Agency's web development and ensure that the final products meet users' expectations.