Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP)

This guide is designed to assist you as you complete the 2020 Annual Wholesale Trade Survey. If you need more information, please call the Statistics Canada Help Line at the number below.

Help Line: 1-800-858-7921

Your answers are confidential.

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act.

Statistics Canada will use information from this survey for statistical purposes.

Table of contents

Reporting instructions

1. Please print in ink.

2. Please report all dollar amounts in thousands of Canadian dollars ('000 CAN$).

3. Do not include sales tax

4. All dollar amounts reported should be rounded to the nearest whole dollar (e.g., $55,417.40 should be rounded to $55,417). All percentages reported should be rounded to the nearest whole percent (e.g., 37.3% to 37%, 75.8% to 76%).

5. When precise figures are not available, please provide your best estimates.

Business or organization and contact information

This section verifies or requests basic identifying information of the business or organization such as legal name, operating name (if applicable), contact information of the designated contact person, current operational status, and main activity(ies).

1. Legal name and Operating name

Legal Name
The legal name is one recognized by law, thus it is the name liable for pursuit or for debts incurred by the business or organization. In the case of a corporation, it is the legal name as fixed by its charter or the statute by which the corporation was created.

Modifications to the legal name should only be done to correct a spelling error or typo.

To indicate a legal name of another legal entity you should instead indicate it in question 3 by selecting 'Not currently operational' and then choosing the applicable reason and providing the legal name of this other entity along with any other requested information.

Operating Name
The operating name is a name the business or organization is commonly known as if different from its legal name. The operating name is synonymous with the trade name.

2. Designated contact person

Verify or provide the requested contact information of the designated business or organization contact person.  The designated contact person is the person who should receive this questionnaire.  The designated contact person may not always be the one who actually completes the questionnaire.  If different than the designated contact person, the contact information of the person completing the questionnaire can be indicated later in the questionnaire.

3. Current operational status

Verify or provide the current operational status of the business or organization identified by the legal and operating name in question 1.  If indicating the operational status of the business or organization is 'Not currently operational' then indicate an applicable reason and provide the requested information.

4. Main activity

This question verifies the business or organization's current main activity as classified by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is an industry classification system developed by the statistical agencies of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Created against the background of the North American Free Trade Agreement, it is designed to provide common definitions of the industrial structure of the three countries and a common statistical framework to facilitate the analysis of the three economies. NAICS is based on supply-side or production-oriented principles, to ensure that industrial data, classified to NAICS, are suitable for the analysis of production-related issues such as industrial performance.

The target entity for which NAICS is designed are businesses and other organizations engaged in the production of goods and services. They include farms, incorporated and unincorporated businesses and government business enterprises. They also include government institutions and agencies engaged in the production of marketed and non-marketed services, as well as organizations such as professional associations and unions and charitable or non-profit organizations and the employees of households.

The associated NAICS should reflect those activities conducted by the business or organizational unit(s) targeted by this questionnaire only, as identified in the 'Answering this questionnaire' section and which can be identified by the specified legal and operating name. The main activity is the activity which most defines the targeted business or organization's main purpose or reason for existence. For a business or organization that is for-profit, it is normally the activity that generates the majority of the revenue for the entity.

The NAICS classification contains a limited number of activity classifications; the associated classification might be applicable for this business or organization even if it is not exactly how you would describe this business or organization's main activity.

Please note that any modifications to the main activity through your response to this question might not necessarily be reflected prior to the transmitting of subsequent questionnaires and as a result they may not contain this updated information.

If the current NAICS associated with this business or organizations is not correct, please provide a brief description of the main activity and provide any additional information as requested.

Reporting period information

For this survey, please report information for this business's most recent 12 month fiscal period

Note: For this survey, the End date should fall between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021.

Here are examples of common fiscal periods that fall within the required dates:

  • May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020
  • June 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020
  • July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020
  • August 1, 2019 to July 31, 2020
  • September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020
  • October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020
  • November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2020
  • December 1, 2019 to November 30, 2020
  • January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020
  • February 1, 2020  to January 31, 2021
  • March 1, 2020  to February 28, 2021
  • April 1, 2020  to March 31, 2021

Here are other examples of fiscal periods that fall within the required dates:

  • September 18, 2019 to September 15, 2020 (e.g., floating year-end)
  • June 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 (e.g., a newly opened business)

Revenue

1. Sales of goods and services (e.g., fees, admissions, services revenue)

Sales of goods and services are defined as amounts derived from the sale of goods and services (cash or credit), falling within a business's ordinary activities. Sales should be reported net of trade discount, value added tax and other taxes based on sales.
Include: Sales from Canadian locations (domestic and export sales); Transfers to other business units or a head office of your firm.
Exclude: Transfers into inventory and consignment sales; Federal, provincial and territorial sales taxes and excise duties and taxes; intracompany sales in consolidated financial statements.

2. Rental and leasing

Include: Rental or leasing of apartments, commercial buildings, land, office space, residential housing, investments in co-tenancies and co-ownerships, hotel or motel rooms, long and short term vehicle leasing, machinery or equipment, storage lockers, etc.

3. Commissions

Include: Commissions earned on the sale of products or services by businesses such as advertising agencies, brokers, insurance agents, lottery ticket sales, sales representatives, and travel agencies – (compensation could also be reported under this item (for example, compensation for collecting sales tax)).

4. Subsidies (including grants, donations and fundraising)

Include: Non-repayable grants, contributions and subsidies from all levels of government; Revenue from private sector (corporate and individual) sponsorships, donations and fundraising.

5. Royalties rights, licensing and franchise fees

A royalty is defined as a payment received by the holder of a copyright, trademark or patent.
Include: Revenue received from the sale or use of all intellectual property rights of copyrighted materials such as musical, literary, artistic or dramatic works, sound recordings or the broadcasting of communication signals.

6. Dividends

Include: Dividend income; Dividends from Canadian sources; Dividends from foreign sources; Patronage dividends.
Exclude: Equity income from investments in subsidiaries or affiliates.

7. Interest

Include: Investment revenue; Interest from foreign sources; Interest from Canadian bonds and debentures; Interest from Canadian mortgage loans; Interest from other Canadian sources.
Exclude: Equity income from investments in subsidiaries or affiliates.

8. Other revenue (please specify)

Include: Amounts not included in questions (1) to (7).

9. Total revenue

The sum of sub-questions (1) to (8).

Expenses

1. Cost of goods sold

Many business units distinguish their costs of materials from their other business expenses (selling, general and administrative). This item is included to allow you to easily record your costs/expenses according to your normal accounting practices.
Include: Cost of raw materials and/or goods purchased for re-sale – net of discounts earned on purchases; Freight in and duty.

2. Employment costs and expenses

a. Salaries, wages and commissions

Please report all salaries and wages (including taxable allowances and employment commissions as defined on the T4 – Statement of Remuneration Paid) before deductions for this reporting period.
Include: Vacation pay; Bonuses (including profit sharing); Employee commissions; Taxable allowances (e.g., room and board, vehicle allowances, gifts such as airline tickets for holidays); Severance pay.
Exclude: All payments and expenses associated with casual labour and outside contract workers (report these amounts at question 3 - Subcontracts).

b. Employee benefits

Include contributions to: Health plans; Insurance plans; Employment insurance; Pension plans; Workers' compensation; Association dues; Contributions to any other employee benefits such as child care and supplementary unemployment benefit (SUB) plans; Contributions to provincial and territorial health and education payroll taxes.

3. Subcontracts

Subcontract expense refers to the purchasing of services from outside of the company rather than providing them in-house.
Include: Hired casual labour and outside contract workers; Custom work and contract work; Subcontract and outside labour; Hired labour.

4. Research and development fees

Expenses from activities conducted with the intention of making a discovery that could either lead to the development of new products or procedures, or to the improvement of existing products or procedures.

5. Professional and business fees

Include: Legal services; Accounting and auditing fees; Consulting fees; Education and training fees; Appraisal fees; Management and administration fees; Property management fees; Information technology (IT) consulting and service fees (purchased); Architectural fees; Engineering fees; Scientific and technical service fees; Other consulting fees (management, technical and scientific); Veterinary fees; Fees for human health services; Payroll preparation fees; All other professional and business service fees.
Exclude: Service fees paid to Head Office (report at question 21 - All other costs and expenses).

6. Utilities

Utility expenses related to operating your business unit such as water, electricity, gas, heating and hydro.
Include: Diesel, wood, natural gas, oil and propane; Sewage.
Exclude: Energy expenses covered in your rental and leasing contracts; Telephone, Internet and other telecommunications; (report this amount at question 8. - Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication); Vehicle fuel (report at question 21 - All other costs and expenses).

7. Office and computer related expenses

Include: Office stationery and supplies, paper and other supplies for photocopiers, printers and fax machines; Postage and courier (used in the day to day office business activity); Diskettes and computer upgrade expenses; Data processing.
Exclude: Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication expenses (report this amount at question 8 - Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication).

8. Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication

Include: Internet; Telephone and telecommunications; Cellular telephone; Fax machine; Pager.

9. Business taxes, licenses and permits

Include: Property taxes paid directly and property transfer taxes; Vehicle license fees; Beverage taxes and business taxes; Trade license fees; Membership fees and professional license fees; Provincial capital tax.

10. Royalties, franchise fees and memberships

Include: Amounts paid to holders of patents, copyrights, performing rights and trademarks; Gross overriding royalty expenses and direct royalty costs; Resident and non-resident royalty expenses; Franchise fees.
Exclude: Crown royalties

11. Crown charges

Federal or Provincial royalty, tax, lease or rental payments made in relation to the acquisition, development or ownership of Canadian resource properties.
Include: Crown royalties; Crown leases and rentals; Oil sand leases; Stumpage fees.

12. Rental and leasing

Include: Lease rental expenses, real estate rental expenses, condominium fees and equipment rental expenses; Motor vehicle rental and leasing expenses; Studio lighting and scaffolding; Machinery and equipment rental expenses; Storage expenses; Road and construction equipment rental; Fuel and other utility costs covered in your rental and leasing contracts.

13. Repair and maintenance

Include: Buildings and structures; Machinery and equipment; Security equipment; Vehicles; Costs related to materials, parts and external labour associated with these expenses; Janitorial and cleaning services and garbage removal.

14. Amortization and depreciation

Include: Direct cost depreciation of tangible assets and amortization of leasehold improvements; Amortization of intangible assets (e.g., amortization of goodwill, patents, franchises, copyrights, trademarks, deferred charges, organizational costs).

15. Insurance

Insurance recovery income should be deducted from insurance expenses.
Include: Professional and other liability insurance; Motor vehicle and property insurance; Executive life insurance; Bonding, business interruption insurance and fire insurance.

16. Advertising, marketing, promotion, meals and entertainment

Include: Newspaper advertising and media expenses; Catalogues, presentations and displays; Tickets for theatre, concerts and sporting events for business promotion; Fundraising expenses; Meals, entertainment and hospitality purchases for clients.

17. Travel, meetings and conventions

Include: Travel expenses; Meeting and convention expenses, seminars; Passenger transportation (e.g., airfare, bus, train, etc.); Accommodations; Travel allowance and meals while travelling; Other travel expenses.

18. Financial services

Include: Explicit service charges for financial services; Credit and debit card commissions and charges; Collection expenses and transfer fees; Registrar and transfer agent fees; Security and exchange commission fees; Other financial service fees.
Exclude: Interest expenses (report at question 19 - Interest expense).

19. Interest expense

Report the cost of servicing your company's debt.
Include: Interest; Bank charges; Finance charges; Interest payments on capital leases; Amortization of bond discounts; Interest on short-term and long-term debt, mortgages, bonds and debentures.

20. Other non-production-related costs and expenses

Include: Charitable donations and political contributions; Bad debt expense; Loan losses; Provisions for loan losses (minus bad debt recoveries); Inventory adjustments

21. All other costs and expenses (including intracompany expenses)

Include:
Production costs; Pipeline operations, drilling, site restoration; Gross overriding royalty; Other producing property rentals; Well operating, fuel and equipment; Other lease rentals; Other direct costs; Equipment hire and operation; Log yard expense, forestry costs, logging road costs; Freight in and duty; Overhead expenses allocated to costs of sales; Other expenses; Cash over/short (negative expense); Reimbursement of parent company expense; Warranty expense; Recruiting expenses; General and administrative expenses; Interdivisional expenses; Interfund transfer (minus expense recoveries); Exploration and Development (including prospect/geological, well abandonment & dry holes, exploration expenses, development expenses); Amounts not included in questions 1 to 20 above.

22. Total expenses

The sum of sub-questions 1 to 21.

Industry Characteristics

All revenue reported should exclude sales taxes (GST/HST, PST and QST) and be net of returns, discounts, sales allowances, and charges for outward transportation by common or contract carriers.

1. All products purchased for resale

Include: Excise taxes (such as those on gasoline, liquor, and tobacco) and other taxes that are levied on the manufacturer/importer and included in the cost of products purchased by this business unit; Sales of all products purchased for resale, please report gross sales of new and used products less returns, discounts and rebates; Parts used in generating repair and maintenance revenue, report the labour portion of repair and maintenance at question 3; Any sales made to any member company of your enterprise. Do not deduct the value of trade-ins.
Exclude: Taxes collected directly from customers and paid directly by this operating unit to provincial and federal tax agencies.

2. Products manufactured as a secondary activity by this business

Report revenue from sales of products of own manufacture.

3. Repair and maintenance services

Include: Labour revenue from installation, repair and maintenance work; Parts used in generating installation, repair and maintenance revenue are to be included at question 1.

4. Rental and leasing of real estate

Include: Rental and leasing of office space and other real estate.

5. Rental and leasing of products and equipment

Include: Rental and leasing of products and equipment whether or not they have been produced by this business.

Industry characteristics

Value of products

Report sale value of those products upon which this business has reported earning a commission or fee in the Revenue section question 1.

Sales by type of client

This section is designed to measure which sector of the economy purchases your services.

Please provide a percentage breakdown of your sales by type of client.

Please ensure that the sum of percentages reported in this section equals 100%.

1. Clients in Canada

a. Individuals and households

Please report the percentage of sales to individuals and households who do not represent the business or government sector.

b. Businesses

Percentage of sales sold to the business sector should be reported here.
Include:

  • Sales to Crown corporations.

c. Governments, not-for-profit organizations and public institutions (e.g., hospitals, schools)

Percentage of sales to federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments should be reported here.

Include:

  • Sales to hospitals, schools, universities and public utilities.

2. Clients outside Canada

Please report the percentage of total sales to customers or clients located outside Canada including foreign businesses, foreign individuals, foreign institutions and/or governments.

Include:

  • Sales to foreign subsidiaries and affiliates.

Province/country of origin and destination of goods sold

For costs of goods sold and sales of goods:

Report the total cost of goods for this product. In the following question, you will be asked to provide the percentage breakdown of the total cost of goods according to the origin of the goods (i.e., the province, territory, or country outside Canada where the goods were originally manufactured).

The origin is, to the best of your knowledge, where the products were originally produced or manufactured (i.e., which province, territory, or country outside Canada). If the origin is not known, an acceptable substitute is the location of this business's supplier.
Note: exclude intermediate shipping points between your supplier and you.

The total for the origin should be equal to 100%.

Sales of Goods

Report the total sales for this product. In the following question, you will be asked to provide a percentage breakdown of the total sales of this product according to the destination (that is, the province, territory, or country outside Canada where the goods will ultimately be used). For the product listed, please provide the percentage breakdown of the sales according to the destination.

The destination, to the best of your knowledge, where the goods will ultimately be used (i.e., which province, territory, or country outside Canada). Acceptable substitutes are: Shipping destinations; Location of retail customers; Location of warehouses.

The percentages should sum to 100%.

Notification of intent to extract web data

Statistics Canada is piloting a web data extraction initiative, also known as web scraping, which uses software to search and compile publicly available data from organization websites. As a result, we may visit the website for this organization to search for, and compile, additional information. This initiative should allow us to reduce the reporting burden on organization, as well as produce additional statistical indicators to ensure that our data remain accurate and relevant.

We will do our utmost to ensure the data are collected in a manner that will not affect the functionality of the website. Any data collected will be used by Statistics Canada for statistical and research purposes only, in accordance with the agency's mandate.

For more information regarding Statistics Canada's web scraping initiative, please visit About us.

To learn more about Statistics Canada's transparency and accountability, please visit Transparency and accountability.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Statistics Canada Client Services, toll-free at 1-877-949-9492 (TTY: 1-800-363-7629) or by email at infostats@statcan.gc.ca. Additional information about this survey can be found by selecting the following link:

Consult the reporting guide at Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP) for further information.

Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP)

Reporting Guide

This guide is designed to assist you as you complete the 2020 Annual Retail Trade Survey. If you need more information, please call the Statistics Canada Help Line at the number below.

Help Line: 1-800-858-7921 or TTY 1-800-363-7629

Table of contents

Reporting instructions
Business or organization and contact information
Reporting period information
Revenue
Expenses
Industry Characteristics
Sales by type of client
Distribution of operating revenue by method of sale
E-commerce
Appendix 1 - Gasoline service station guide
Appendix 2 - Beer, wine and liquor chains
Notification of intent to extract web data

Reporting instructions

1. Please report all dollar amounts in thousands of Canadian dollars ('000 CAN$).

2. Do not include sales tax.

3. Percentages should be rounded to whole numbers

4. When precise figures are not available, please provide your best estimates.

Business or organization and contact information

This section verifies or requests basic identifying information of the business or organization such as legal name, operating name (if applicable), contact information of the designated contact person, current operational status, and main activity(ies).

  1. Legal name and Operating name

Legal Name
The legal name is one recognized by law, thus it is the name liable for pursuit or for debts incurred by the business or organization. In the case of a corporation, it is the legal name as fixed by its charter or the statute by which the corporation was created.

Modifications to the legal name should only be done to correct a spelling error or typo.

To indicate a legal name of another legal entity you should instead indicate it in question 3 by selecting ‘Not currently operational’ and then choosing the applicable reason and providing the legal name of this other entity along with any other requested information.

Operating Name
The operating name is a name the business or organization is commonly known as if different from its legal name. The operating name is synonymous with trade name.

  1. Designated contact person

Verify or provide the requested contact information of the designated business or organization contact person. The designated contact person is the person who should receive this questionnaire. The designated contact person may not always be the one who actually completes the questionnaire. If different than the designated contact person, the contact information of the person completing the questionnaire can be indicated later in the questionnaire.

  1. Current operational status

Verify or provide the current operational status of the business or organization identified by the legal and operating name in question 1. If indicating the operational status of the business or organization is ‘Not currently operational’ then indicate an applicable reason and provide the requested information.

  1. Main activity

This question verifies the business or organization’s current main activity as classified by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is an industry classification system developed by the statistical agencies of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Created against the background of the North American Free Trade Agreement, it is designed to provide common definitions of the industrial structure of the three countries and a common statistical framework to facilitate the analysis of the three economies. NAICS is based on supply-side or production-oriented principles, to ensure that industrial data, classified to NAICS, are suitable for the analysis of production-related issues such as industrial performance.

The target entity for which NAICS is designed are businesses and other organizations engaged in the production of goods and services. They include farms, incorporated and unincorporated businesses and government business enterprises. They also include government institutions and agencies engaged in the production of marketed and non-marketed services, as well as organizations such as professional associations and unions and charitable or non-profit organizations and the employees of households.

The associated NAICS should reflect those activities conducted by the business or organizational unit(s) targeted by this questionnaire only, as identified in the ‘Answering this questionnaire’ section and which can be identified by the specified legal and operating name. The main activity is the activity which most defines the targeted business or organization’s main purpose or reason for existence. For a business or organization that is for-profit, it is normally the activity that generates the majority of the revenue for the entity.

The NAICS classification contains a limited number of activity classifications; the associated classification might be applicable for this business or organization even if it is not exactly how you would describe this business or organization's main activity.

Please note that any modifications to the main activity through your response to this question might not necessarily be reflected prior to the transmitting of subsequent questionnaires and as a result they may not contain this updated information.

If the current NAICS associated with this business or organizations is not correct, please provide a brief description of the main activity and provide any additional information as requested.

Reporting period information

Here are twelve common fiscal periods that fall within the targeted dates:

  • May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020
  • June 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020
  • July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020
  • August 1, 2019 to July 31, 2020
  • September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020
  • October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020
  • November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2020
  • December 1, 2019 to November 30, 2020
  • January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021
  • February 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021
  • March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021
  • April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021

Here are other examples of fiscal periods that fall within the required dates:

  • September 18, 2019 to September 15, 2020 (e.g., floating year-end)
  • June 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 (e.g., a newly opened business)

Revenue

  1. Sales of goods and services (e.g., fees, admissions, services revenue)

Sales of products and services are defined as amounts derived from the sale of products and services (cash or credit), falling within a business’s ordinary activities. Sales should be reported net of trade discount, value added tax and other taxes based on sales.

Include: Sales from Canadian locations (domestic and export sales); Transfers to other business units or a head office of your firm.
Exclude: Transfers into inventory and consignment sales; Federal, provincial and territorial sales taxes and excise duties and taxes; Intracompany sales in consolidated financial statements.

  1. Rental and leasing

Include: Rental or leasing of apartments, commercial buildings, land, office space, residential housing, investments in co-tenancies and co-ownerships, hotel or motel rooms, long and short term vehicle leasing, machinery or equipment, storage lockers, etc.

  1. Commissions

Include: Commissions earned on the sale of products or services by businesses such as advertising agencies, brokers, insurance agents, lottery ticket sales, sales representatives, and travel agencies – (Compensation could also be reported under this item (for example, compensation for collecting sales tax)).

  1. Subsidies (including grants, donations and fundraising)

Include: Non-repayable grants, contributions and subsidies from all levels of government; Revenue from private sector (corporate and individual) sponsorships, donations and fundraising.

  1. Royalties, rights, licensing and franchise fees

A royalty is defined as a payment received by the holder of a copyright, trademark or patent.
Include: Revenue received from the sale or use of all intellectual property rights of copyrighted materials such as musical, literary, artistic or dramatic works, sound recordings or the broadcasting of communication signals.

  1. Dividends

Include: Dividend income; Dividends from Canadian sources; Dividends from foreign sources; Patronage dividends.
Exclude: Equity income from investments in subsidiaries or affiliates.

  1. Interest

Include: Investment revenue; Interest from foreign sources; Interest from Canadian bonds and debentures; Interest from Canadian mortgage loans; Interest from other Canadian sources.
Exclude: Equity income from investments in subsidiaries or affiliates.

  1. Other revenue (please specify)

Include: Amounts not included in questions (1) to (7)

  1. Total revenue

The sum of questions (1) to (8).

Expenses

  1. Cost of goods sold

Many business units distinguish their costs of materials from their other business expenses (selling, general and administrative). This item is included to allow you to easily record your costs/expenses according to your normal accounting practices.
Include: Cost of raw materials and/or goods purchased for re-sale – net of discounts earned on purchases; Freight in and duty.

  1. Employment costs and expenses
  1. Salaries, wages and commissions

Please report all salaries and wages (including taxable allowances and employment commissions as defined on the T4 – Statement of Remuneration Paid) before deductions for this reporting period.
Include: Vacation pay; Bonuses (including profit sharing); Employee commissions; Taxable allowances (e.g., room and board, vehicle allowances, gifts such as airline tickets for holidays); Severance pay.
Exclude: All payments and expenses associated with casual labour and outside contract workers (report these amounts at question 3 - Subcontracts).

  1. Employee benefits

Include contributions to: Health plans; Insurance plans; Employment insurance; Pension plans; Workers’ compensation; Association dues; Contributions to any other employee benefits such as child care and supplementary unemployment benefit (SUB) plans; Contributions to provincial and territorial health and education payroll taxes.

  1. Subcontracts

Subcontract expense refers to the purchasing of services from outside of the company rather than providing them in-house.
Include: Hired casual labour and outside contract workers; Custom work and contract work; Subcontract and outside labour; Hired labour.

  1. Research and development fees

Expenses from activities conducted with the intention of making a discovery that could either lead to the development of new products or procedures, or to the improvement of existing products or procedures.

  1. Professional and business fees

Include: Legal services; Accounting and auditing fees; Consulting fees; Education and training fees; Appraisal fees; Management and administration fees; Property management fees; Information technology (IT) consulting and service fees (purchased); Architectural fees; Engineering fees; Scientific and technical service fees; Other consulting fees (management, technical and scientific); Veterinary fees; Fees for human health services; Payroll preparation fees; All other professional and business service fees.
Exclude: Service fees paid to Head Office (report at question 21 - All other costs and expenses).

  1. Utilities

Utility expenses related to operating your business unit such as water, electricity, gas, heating and hydro.
Include:
Diesel, wood, natural gas, oil and propane; Sewage.
Exclude: Energy expenses covered in your rental and leasing contracts; Telephone, Internet and other telecommunications (report this amount at question 8 - Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication expenses); Vehicle fuel (report at question 21 - All other costs and expenses).

  1. Office and computer related expenses

Include: Office stationery and supplies, paper and other supplies for photocopiers, printers and fax machines; Postage and courier (used in the day to day office business activity); Diskettes and computer upgrade expenses; Data processing.
Exclude: Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication expenses (report this amount at question 8 - Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication expenses).

  1. Telephone, Internet and other telecommunications

Include: Internet; Telephone and telecommunications; Cellular telephone; Fax machine; Pager.

  1. Business taxes, licenses and permits

Include: Property taxes paid directly and property transfer taxes; Vehicle license fees; Beverage taxes and business taxes; Trade license fees; Membership fees and professional license fees; Provincial capital tax.

  1. Royalties, franchise fees and memberships

Include: Amounts paid to holders of patents, copyrights, performing rights and trademarks; Gross overriding royalty expenses and direct royalty costs; Resident and non-resident royalty expenses; Franchise fees.
Exclude: Crown royalties

  1. Crown charges

Federal or Provincial royalty, tax, lease or rental payments made in relation to the acquisition, development or ownership of Canadian resource properties.
Include: Crown royalties; Crown leases and rentals; Oil sand leases; Stumpage fees.

  1. Rental and leasing

Include: Lease rental expenses, real estate rental expenses, condominium fees and equipment rental expenses; Motor vehicle rental and leasing expenses; Studio lighting and scaffolding; Machinery and equipment rental expenses; Storage expenses; Road and construction equipment rental; Fuel and other utility costs covered in your rental and leasing contracts.

  1. Repair and maintenance

Include: Buildings and structures; Machinery and equipment; Security equipment; Vehicles; Costs related to materials, parts and external labour associated with these expenses; Janitorial and cleaning services and garbage removal.

  1. Amortization and depreciation

Include: Direct cost depreciation of tangible assets and amortization of leasehold improvements; Amortization of intangible assets (e.g., amortization of goodwill, patents, franchises, copyrights, trademarks, deferred charges, organizational costs).

  1. Insurance

Insurance recovery income should be deducted from insurance expenses.
Include: Professional and other liability insurance; Motor vehicle and property insurance; Executive life insurance; Bonding, business interruption insurance and fire insurance.

  1. Advertising, marketing, promotion, meals and entertainment

Include: Newspaper advertising and media expenses; Catalogues, presentations and displays; Tickets for theatre, concerts and sporting events for business promotion; Fundraising expenses; Meals, entertainment and hospitality purchases for clients.

  1. Travel, meetings and conventions

Include: Travel expenses; Meeting and convention expenses, seminars; Passenger transportation (e.g., airfare, bus, train, etc.); Accommodations; Travel allowance and meals while travelling; Other travel expenses.

  1. Financial services

Include: Explicit service charges for financial services; Credit and debit card commissions and charges; Collection expenses and transfer fees; Registrar and transfer agent fees; Security and exchange commission fees; Other financial service fees.
Exclude: Interest expenses (report at question 19 - Interest expense).

  1. Interest expense

Report the cost of servicing your company’s debt.
Include: Interest; Bank charges; Finance charges; Interest payments on capital leases; Amortization of bond discounts; Interest on short-term and long-term debt, mortgages, bonds and debentures.

  1. Other non-production-related costs and expenses

Include: Charitable donations and political contributions; Bad Debt expense; Loan losses; Provisions for loan losses (minus Bad debt recoveries); Inventory adjustments

  1. All other costs and expenses (including intracompany expenses)

Include: Production costs; Pipeline operations, drilling, site restoration; Gross overriding royalty; Other producing property rentals; Well operating, fuel and equipment; Other lease rentals; Other direct costs; Equipment hire and operation; Log yard expense, forestry costs, logging road costs; Freight in and duty; Overhead expenses allocated to costs of sales; Other expenses; Cash over/short (negative expense); Reimbursement of parent company expense; Warranty expense; Recruiting expenses; General and administrative expenses; Interdivisional expenses; Interfund transfer (minus expense recoveries); Exploration and Development (including prospect/geological, well abandonment & dry holes, exploration expenses, development expenses); Amounts not included in questions 1 to 20 above.

  1. Total expenses

The sum of lines 1 to 21

Industry Characteristics

All revenue reported should exclude sales taxes (GST/HST, PST and QST) and be net of returns, discounts, sales allowances, and charges for outward transportation by common or contract carriers. Do not deduct the value of trade-ins.

  1. Sales of all goods purchased for resale, net of returns and discounts

Include:

  • Excise taxes (such as those on gasoline, liquor, and tobacco) and other taxes that are levied on the manufacturer/importer and included in the cost of products purchased by this business unit;
  • Sales of all goods purchased for resale; please report gross sales of new and used goods less returns and discounts;
  • Parts used in generating repair and maintenance revenue; report the labour portion of repair and maintenance at question 3.

Do not deduct the value of trade-ins.

Exclude:

  • Taxes collected directly from customers and paid directly by this operating unit to provincial and federal tax agencies;
  • Sales and revenue from concessions.
  1. Sales of goods manufactured as a secondary activity by this retailing business unit

Report revenue from sales of goods of own manufacture.

  1. Labour revenue from repair and maintenance

Include:

  • Labour revenue from installations, warranty and repair work;
  • Parts used in generating installation, repair and maintenance revenue are to be included at question 1.
  1. Revenue from rental and leasing of goods and equipment

Include:

  • Video/computer game rental;
  • Rug shampoo equipment rental;
  • Tool rental.
  1. Revenue from rental of real estate

Include:

  • Revenue received from renting out or leasing property owned by this business unit.

Sales by type of client

This section is designed to measure which sector of the economy purchases your services.
Please provide a percentage breakdown of your sales by type of client.
Please ensure that the sum of percentages reported in this section equals 100%.

  1. Clients in Canada

a. Individuals and households
Please report the percentage of sales to individuals and households who do not represent the business or government sector.

b. Businesses
Percentage of sales sold to the business sector should be reported here.
Include:

  • Sales to Crown corporations.

c. Governments, not-for-profit organizations and public institutions (e.g., hospitals, schools)
Percentage of sales to federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments should be reported here.
Include:

  • Sales to hospitals, schools, universities and public utilities.
  1. Clients outside Canada

Please report the percentage of total sales to customers or clients located outside Canada including foreign businesses, foreign individuals, foreign institutions and/or governments.
Include:

  • Sales to foreign subsidiaries and affiliates.

Distribution of operating revenue by method of sale

  1. In-store sales

Please report total operating revenue of goods and services which are purchased in a fixed point-of-sale location accessible to the public.
Include: sales at pumps for gasoline stations.

  1. E-commerce

Please report total operating revenue of goods and services conducted over the Internet with or without online payment.
Include: all revenue where the order is received and the commitment to purchase is made via the Internet, although payment can be made by other means, orders made in web pages, extranet, mobile devices or Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
Exclude: orders made by telephone calls, facsimile or e-mail.

  1. Catalogue and mail-order or telephone

Please report total operating revenue of goods and services generated from customer ordering their goods from catalogues and mail order flyers.
Include: sales purchased via telephone and fax.

  1. All other methods

Please report total operating revenue of goods and services generated from all other methods.
Include: sales at trade shows, special events, in-home sales and card lock.

E-commerce

Mobile app

Include: sales through any app, or application, that is downloaded and designed to run on a handheld device such as a smartphone or tablet (for example, places where a user may download these apps include Apple’s App Store, Google Play or Blackberry App World).

Company website

Include: sales through a browser-based website where your organization maintains control of the content.

Third-party website

Include: sales through a browser-based website where a third-party maintains the structure of the website and control of the look and feel while your company only provides the product to be sold (for example, Amazon, Expedia, Etsy).

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

A standard format for exchanging business data. EDI is based on the use of message standards, ensuring that all participants use a common language.

Appendix 1 - Gasoline service station guide

I - Independent retail dealer

An independent retail dealer purchases gasoline for resale from a supplier (e.g., an oil refinery or wholesaler), i.e., owns the inventories.

An independent dealership is a typical retail operation and should report all data as requested on the questionnaire.

A franchisee is usually an independent retail dealer.

Reporting instructions:

Section - Revenue

Exclude:

  • provincial sales taxes (PST and QST);
  • goods and services tax (GST) or harmonized sales tax (HST).

Include:

  • excise taxes;
  • revenue from repairs, rentals, car washes and other services.

II - Retail commissioned agent

A retail commissioned agent sells petroleum products on consignment and does not own the inventory of gasoline; may also purchase and carry inventories of other merchandise for resale.

A retail commissioned agent also receives a commission or flat fee from supplier of products sold on consignment.

Reporting instructions:

Section - Revenue

Please report only the commissions or fees received for consignment sales, plus excise taxes, and total sales of other merchandise not on consignment, as well as revenue from repairs, rentals, car washes and other services.

Exclude:

  • provincial sales taxes (PST and QST);
  • goods and services tax (GST), or harmonized sales tax (HST).

Section - Expenses, questions 1 a), b), c) and d) (Cost of goods sold)

Exclude:

  • inventories and purchases of goods held on consignment.

Include:

  • all other merchandise, preferably valued at cost price.

Section - Expenses, questions 2 a) and b) (Employment costs and expenses)

Report as requested on questionnaire.

III - Lessee

For purposes of the survey, a lessee can be either an independent dealer or a retail commissioned agent.

If a lessee purchases gasoline for resale, i.e., he owns the inventories, he should report as an independent dealer.

If a lessee sells gasoline on consignment, i.e., he does not own the inventories, he should report as a retail commissioned agent.

IV - Oil refinery or other wholesale supplier

An oil-producing company, refinery or other wholesale supplier involved in gasoline retailing through:

a) company owned-and-operated gasoline service stations;
or
b) retail commissioned agents or lessees who sell company-owned gasoline on consignment.

Reporting instructions:

Report for each location, depending upon its type, i.e.:

a) company-owned;
or
b) retail commissioned agent or lessee.

Section - Revenue

a) Company owned-and-operated stations

Include:

  • total retail sales of petroleum products;
  • sales of all other merchandise;
  • receipts from repairs, rentals, car washes and other services;
  • excise taxes.

Exclude:

  • provincial sales taxes (PST and QST);
  • goods and services tax (GST) or harmonized sales tax (HST).

b) Retail commissioned agents or lessees who sell on consignment

Include:

  • only the value of retail sales of petroleum products sold on consignment, including excise taxes.

Exclude:

  • commissions or fees paid to agents or lessees;
  • provincial sales taxes (PST and QST);
  • goods and services tax (GST) or harmonized sales tax (HST).

Section - Expenses, questions 1 a), b), c) and d) (Cost of goods sold)

Report total inventories of petroleum products held at retail locations (both company owned-and-operated and retail commissioned agents or lessees), as well as at any other locations where the inventories are segregated pending sale on consignment or through company owned-and-operated outlets.

Inventories should be reported at transfer or wholesale value.

For company owned-and-operated stations, inventories of other merchandise held for resale (e.g., food, auto parts, etc.) should also be reported.

Section - Expenses, question 1 b) (Purchases)

Report the transfer or wholesale value of all petroleum products sold on consignment or through company owned-and-operated stations.

Purchases of other merchandise sold through company owned-and-operated outlets should also be included, at cost of goods sold.

Section - Expenses, questions 2 a) and b) (Employment costs and expenses)

Report for all employees of company owned-and-operated stations, plus a portion of the administrative salaries (overhead) applicable to both the company owned-and-operated outlets as well as to the stations operated by retail commissioned agent or lessees who sell on consignment.

Important

If none of the above categories applies to your service station business, please enclose a note with your questionnaire.

Appendix 2 - Beer, wine, and liquor chains

The information in this appendix applies, if and only if, your company is requested to complete the Monthly Survey on Sales and Inventory of Alcoholic Beverages.

If you are not sure whether your company receives the Monthly Survey on Sales and Inventory of Alcoholic Beverages, please call us at 1 800 858 7921 or TTY 1-800-363-7629 for clarification.

If you are primarily a retailer of beer, wine and/or liquor and your company also receives the Monthly Survey on Sales and Inventory of Alcoholic Beverages, you are requested to complete the entire questionnaire for both your retail and wholesale trade operations.

The definition of store retailers is included in ‘Business activity’ section. Your retail stores should be reported in the section ‘Details on this business’s locations’ of the questionnaire with NAICS code 445310 - Beer, Wine and Liquor Stores.

Your wholesale distribution centers (i.e., distribution outlets that are not retail stores and that sell directly to commercial accounts) should be reported in the section ‘Details on this business’s locations’ of the questionnaire with NAICS code 413220 - Alcoholic Beverage Wholesaler-Distributors.

It is expected that the total operating revenue that you report on this questionnaire will be similar to the total sales, excluding taxes that have been reported for the relevant months on the Survey on Sales and Inventory of Alcoholic Beverages. If there is a substantial difference and you have not provided an explanation in the Comments section, it is likely that Statistics Canada will telephone you in an attempt to understand the reasons for the differences.

Notification of intent to extract web data

Statistics Canada is piloting a web data extraction initiative, also known as web scraping, which uses software to search and compile publicly available data from business websites. As a result, we may visit the website for this business to search for, and compile, additional information. This initiative should allow us to reduce the reporting burden on businesses, as well as produce additional statistical indicators to ensure that our data remain accurate and relevant.

We will do our utmost to ensure the data are collected in a manner that will not affect the functionality of the website. Any data collected will be used by Statistics Canada for statistical and research purposes only, in accordance with the agency's mandate.

For more information regarding Statistics Canada's web scraping initiative, please visit Web scraping.

To learn more about Statistics Canada's transparency and accountability, please visit Transparency and accountability.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Statistics Canada Client Services, toll-free at 1-877-949-9492 (TTY: 1-800-363-7629) or by email at infostats@canada.ca. Additional information about this survey can be found by selecting the following link:

Consult the reporting guide at Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP) for further information.

Investigation Report: Monthly Labour Force Survey - Release May 8, 2020

File:

  • Report Date: June 5, 2020
  • Incident Type: Unauthorized disclosure of information
  • Incident Date and Time: May 8, 2020, 7:47 a.m.
  • Incident Location: Internet, Bloomberg Media

Report from Statistics Canada, Chief Audit Executive and Chief Security Officer

Executive Summary

On Friday May 8, 2020, at 7:47 a.m., Bloomberg Media published key monthly labour force indicators from the April 2020 Labour Force Survey, in advance of the 8:30 a.m. formal release by Statistics Canada, constituting an unauthorized disclosure of information. This report identifies the investigative approach, data and analysis, findings and conclusion. Based on the investigation and review of results, there is no evidence that Bloomberg obtained Labour Force Survey pre-release information from Statistics Canada personnel, nor as a result of a technical error.

Contents

Background

The objective of Statistics Canada's Policy on Official Release (2016) is to ensure that data sets are protected until their official release (through an announcement in The Daily), and not shared outside of Statistics Canada prior to their official release with limited exceptions. The Policy establishes five conditions that allow information to be disseminated prior to official release. These are:

  • Authorization by the Clerk of the Privy Council on the advice of the Chief Statistician;
  • Authorization by the Chief Statistician;
  • Work-in-progress agreements (for data validation purposes);
  • Advance release (AR) for information purposes (cost-recovery surveys and administrative data back to the source organization)
  • Common governance.

Of note, Labour Force Survey (LFS) pre-release data are currently shared with five organizations under the authorization of the Clerk of the Privy Council on the advice of the Chief Statistician.

The Policy outlines the responsibilities of all parties involved in official release, and includes specific obligations regarding the advance release of information. In particular, Appendix B of the Policy identifies specific procedures for advance release under authorization by the Clerk of the Privy Council Office on the advice of the Chief Statistician. It states:

  • Where an authorization is granted, the author division must communicate the conditions governing the advance release of information to the receiving organization.
  • The author division has to obtain, from a designated representative of each organization that receives the protected information, a signed Acknowledgement of Confidentiality for Advance Release under an authorization by the Clerk of the Privy Council on the advice of the Chief Statistician.
  • The signed Acknowledgements of Confidentiality for Advance Release under an authorization by the Clerk of the Privy Council on the advice of the Chief Statistician are valid for a period of 24 months from the date of the recipient's signature. They must be forwarded to the Director General of Communications and Dissemination Branch.
  • The information will be provided to designated officials of the organization authorized by the Clerk of the Privy Council no earlier than 2:00 p.m. Eastern time on the business day preceding the day on which it is to be published in The Daily unless authorized by the Chief Statistician.
  • When the organization receiving the pre-release information is a government organization, ministers or other elected officials responsible for leading that department and their staff will not be briefed prior to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on the business day preceding the day on which it will be published in The Daily, unless authorized by the Chief Statistician. However in the case of cost-recovery programs, there is no specific time set to brief ministers or elected officials of funding departments.

Separate from Appendix B, the Policy also requires that, prior to each release, the author division have receiving organizations confirm the names of the recipients of pre-release information to ensure only those with a work-related need have access to pre-release information.

Issue

Statistics Canada was informed on the morning of May 8, 2020, that a journalist may have obtained numbers from an unauthorized source and was planning to publish these numbers prior to the official release of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) scheduled for 8:30 a.m. that day. Bloomberg, prior to the official release by Statistics Canada, posted high level employment figures at 7:47 a.m., stating the source of this unauthorized information was someone close to the matter.

Investigation Approach

At the request of the Chief Statistician, the Audit and Evaluation Branch led the overall administrative investigation with support from the Chief Security Officer and Head of Human Resources. The review focussed on the following objectives:

  1. Determine the source of the leak and take necessary action to address the breach
  2. Determine if pre-release policy and procedures in place were adhered to and sufficient to mitigate the risk of a leak of this nature
  3. Determine if pre-release of LFS estimates should continue and if so, are there additional mitigations to address risks of this nature

Objective 1

Determine the source of the leak and take necessary action to address the breach

Data and Parameters

The investigative approach included interviews with individuals, as well as verification of email correspondence and telephone logs from the period of April 29 at 5 p.m., when the monthly Labour Force Survey key indicators were finalized to May 8 at 8:30 a.m. when the formal Statistics Canada release took place.

On May 16, 2020, Stacey Money Chief Security Officer, contacted Shared Services Canada's (SSC) forensics unit to conduct a search for any email records between Statistics Canada accounts and those of Bloomberg reporters, as well as retrieving telephone logs from individuals who had access to the final May prelease numbers from the Labour Force Survey.

The scope of the investigation resulted in:

  • 10 individuals interviewed,
  • 210 email records analyzed (direct correspondence between Statistics Canada accounts and Bloomberg accounts), and
  • 116 telephone account logs (totalling 9,812 individual correspondence) reviewed.

Summary of Analysis

The following is a summary of the analysis.

Email search

SSC's email search identified 210 outgoing messages from a Statistics Canada domain to the two Bloomberg domains (Bioomberg.net and Bloomberg.com) identifying the date, time, destination address(es) and subject line of the email message. The e-mail review returned four records with subject lines relating to labour. One message was a teleconference invitation from Statistics Canada's media hotline generic email inviting media to participate in the May 6 technical briefing for the upcoming release on May 8. The contents of the meeting invitation and attached reference document, did not release information. The three remaining emails were exchanges between [redacted] from Bloomberg and Martin Magnan (Manager, Media Relations, Statistics Canada) in which [redacted] was requesting historical labour information. The contents of those email messages contained historical labour data and did not contain any references to, or disclosure of, any pre-release LFS information.

Telecommunications

SSC's telecommunications search identified 9,812 telecommunication records for the 116 Statistics Canada accounts requested.

Important factors to consider in SSC's scope of search capabilities include:

  • No incoming or outgoing records are available to SSC for office landlines.
  • No phone numbers are identified for incoming phone calls or text messages.
  • Destination numbers are available for outgoing phone calls and text messages.
  • Destination number is not provided for records identified as picture/video messaging.

The SSC search resulted in three records of telecommunications between Jacques Fauteux, Assistant Chief Statistician, Strategic Engagement Field, and Bloomberg, two text message to [redacted], and one attempted phone call to another Bloomberg account between 7:13 a.m. and 7:23 a.m. on Monday May 8, 2020. These communications were confirmed in both written and verbal accounts provided by Jacques Fauteux.

No other outgoing correspondence records were found between Statistics Canada devices and Bloomberg accounts.

Peter Frayne, Head of Media Relations, reported to have received a call on his cell phone from [redacted] at 7:00 a.m. on May 8, 2020. According to Mr. Frayne, [redacted] had obtained two LFS key indicators and intended to publish this information in advance of the official release at 8:30 a.m. via The Daily. They were seeking comment from Statistics Canada. An incoming call was identified on Peter Frayne's telecommunications log at that time.

Open Source

Statistics Canada's security team conducted an additional narrowly focussed open source search (e.g., FaceBook, Linked In, Twitter) to assess any relevant information from Bloomberg leading up to and including the time of the event. The results of the search did not reveal any evidence of unauthorized pre-release Labour Force Survey information being shared between Statistics Canada personnel and Bloomberg.

Interviews

As part of the investigation, 10 individuals were met by Steven McRoberts Chief Audit Executive and Supriya Edwards, Director, Pay, Ethics and Workforce Management Division. The individuals selected were based on a narrowed list of employees that had access to the pre­ release information and also had contact with the media. There were six employees from Labour Statistics Division, each of whom were identified as spokespeople for the release, as well as four individuals from the Strategic Engagement Field, including the Strategic Communications and Outreach Branch. These interviews took place starting May 13, 2020, and concluded the morning of June 3, 2020.

The interviews conducted provided verification of events that established the known facts and corroborated the findings of both the email and telecommunication search, as well as provided relevant contextual information and clarification around timelines associated with this incident. No evidence of either willful or accidental advance release of the May 8, 2020, Labour Force indicators by an employee of Statistics Canada was found.

Technical Error

In addition to these above steps, and to ensure no technical issue could have inadvertently led to an early release of results on the Statistics Canada website, Katy Champagne A/Director General of the Information Technology Operations Branch and her team conducted an analysis. The results of this have yielded no evidence of a possible technical error that could have led to Bloomberg accessing the data early.

Conclusion

Based on the investigation and review of results, there is no evidence that Bloomberg obtained Labour Force Survey pre-release information from Statistics Canada personnel, nor as a result of a technical error.

Objective 2

Determine if pre-release policy and procedures in place were adhered to and sufficient to mitigate the risk of a leak of this nature

Fact Finding

Sharing the pre-release data with external parties

The author division, as predefined in the Policy, of the Labour Force Survey is the Centre for Labour Market Information (CLMI).

To obtain advance release authorization by the Clerk of the Privy Council, a letter is sent from the Chief Statistician to the Clerk of the Privy Council requesting authorization for a department. The Clerk of the Privy Council sends a letter back to Statistics Canada authorizing the advance release. Prior to April 2020, only three organizations had been granted this type of access:

  • Finance Canada,
  • Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and
  • Privy Council Office (PCO).

The authorization granted to these three organizations is long-standing. The review identified that the Chief Statistician reminded the Clerk of the Privy Council of these three organizations access in May 2014 and the Clerk responded to the Chief Statistician approving ongoing access to pre-release data in June 2014.

On April 7, 2020, pre-release access to the LFS estimates was granted by authorization of the Clerk of the Privy Council on the recommendation of the Chief Statistician to two additional departments:

  • Bank of Canada (BoC) and
  • Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED).

Once authorization is granted, the Policy requires that the author division communicate the conditions governing the pre-release of LFS data to the receiving organizations. On April 7, 2020, the Head of Client Services CLMI advised the designated representatives of the new recipient organizations, BoC and ISED, of these conditions by email. Further, in response to the unique working conditions presented by COVID-19, prior to the April pre-release, the Head of Client Services CLMI also notified the designated representatives of the five receiving organizations of special measures recommended for the handling of pre-release data during the pandemic.

The Policy also requires that the author division obtain from a designated representative of each organization that receives the protected information a signed Acknowledgement of Confidentiality (AoC). The AoC outlines the organization's responsibilities under the Policy to safeguard the pre-release data. As per the policy, the AoCs are valid for a period of 24 months from the date of signing. Records indicated that a valid AoC was on file for the two new organizations (BoC and ISED). Due to difficulties in obtaining signed forms due to COVID-19 for the BoC and ISED, the Agency demonstrated its flexibility and adjusted its procedure to accept scanned forms and digitally signed forms. There were also AoCs on file for PCO and ESDC. However, these had expired in 2018. There was no record of an AoC for Finance Canada. However, as previously noted, the Agency has had a long-standing agreement with PCO, ESDC and Finance Canada dating back before 2014 when the Chief Statistician last received authorization from the Clerk of the Privy Council to continue to provide access to LFS pre-release data.

Before each release, the author division is required to have receiving organizations confirm the names of the recipients of pre-release information to ensure only those with a work-related need have access to pre-release information. Each month, prior to distributing the pre-release data, the Head of Client Services for CLMI emails a list of the names of individuals previously identified to receive the pre-release data to the designated representative at each receiving organization. The designated representative then confirms the list or requests changes, as required, by email reply. If new names are added to the list, the designated representative provides their name, title, and role. Email records and documentation confirmed that the Head of Client Services for CLMI performed a check for the LFS pre-release in May 2020. The records indicated that for the release in May 2020, a total of 67 individuals from five organizations were granted access to the pre-release data.

The Policy requires that pre-release information be made available to external organizations no earlier than 2 p.m. Eastern time on the business day before the release. Pre-release data is transferred to receiving organizations by electronic file transfer (EFT). Multiple users at each organization are provided with individual EFT accounts, and access is monitored by the Head of Client Services for CLMI. Automated reports from the EFT system confirmed that individuals previously identified by the receiving organizations as requiring access on a need to know basis accessed the pre-release data on or after 2 p.m. on May 7, 2020, in compliance with the Policy.

Statistics Canada briefing process

The internal LFS briefing process for April and May 2020 was modified to ensure the confidentiality of the pre-release LFS data. Prior to COVID-19, the Chief Statistician would be briefed in person at Statistics Canada's headquarters with paper copies of the material at his disposal for open discussion during the briefing. All Assistant Chief Statisticians would be welcome to attend the briefing. The Director General and Director of the author division would be the key content specialists present for the briefing. The Chief of Staff would also be present. An open discussion, including questions and answers, would take place during this face-to-face briefing.

For the April and May 2020 LFS pre-releases, the Chief Statistician was briefed through teleconference with a select few individuals from the Agency. The briefings occurred twice on April 7, 2020, for the April release and on May 1st and May 4th for the May release of LFS data. The Chief of Staff confirmed that there were fewer participants on the call than there would normally be during routine business when these briefings take place face-to-face. The Chief of Staff confirmed that, for all four teleconference briefings, materials were shared in advance through the internal secure shared drive which has limited access in order to protect the confidentiality of the data. On the calls, the participants referenced columns or areas in the material but did not verbally state any numbers in order to protect the confidentiality of the data.

Analysis and Conclusion

A review of relevant emails and documentation, as well as interviews conducted with key officials, demonstrates that the Policy on Official Release (2016) was generally followed for the LFS pre-release in May 2020. As a result of COVID-19, additional opportunities to improve the process for the LFS pre-release were identified and implemented. These included: receiving scanned and digitally signed AoC forms through email; reducing the number of individuals privy to the briefing with the Chief Statistician; implementing a process which does not permit speaking to the data when providing the briefing to the Chief Statistician; and informing the receiving organizations of special measures to consider under COVID-19 to ensure the confidentiality of the data.

Objective 3

Determine if pre-release of LFS estimates should continue and, if so, are there additional mitigations to address risks of this nature

A decision on continuing the practice of sharing pre-release information will not be made in isolation; as our partner organizations finalize their investigations, results will be reviewed, along with our own. This assessment of the overall process, and in consultation with the Clerk of the Privy Council, key stakeholders, and Statistics Canada's senior management team, will inform a decision towards continuing or modifying this practice.


Contributors

Steven McRoberts
Chief Audit Executive
Audit and Evaluation Branch

Stacey Money
Chief Security Officer
Head of Human Resources, and
Director General, Workforce and Workplace Branch

Additional Contributors

  • Laurie Spencer, Director of Internal Audit, Audit and Evaluation Branch
  • Craig Kolanko, Manager of Internal Audit, Audit and Evaluation Branch
  • Janice Carkner, Manager of Internal Audit, Audit and Evaluation Branch
  • Supriya Edwards, Director of Pay, Ethics and Workforce Management, Workforce and Workplace Branch

Retail Trade Survey (Monthly): CVs for Total sales by geography - December 2020

CVs for Total sales by geography - December 2020
Table summary
This table displays the results of Annual Retail Trade Survey: CVs for Total sales by geography - December 2020. The information is grouped by Geography (appearing as row headers), Month and Percent (appearing as column headers).
Geography Month
202012
%
Canada 0.8
Newfoundland and Labrador 1.1
Prince Edward Island 0.8
Nova Scotia 1.4
New Brunswick 1.9
Quebec 1.3
Ontario 1.7
Manitoba 2.1
Saskatchewan 1.5
Alberta 1.7
British Columbia 1.6
Yukon Territory 1.3
Northwest Territories 0.5
Nunavut 1.0

Appendix: definitions

appropriation (crédit)
Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)
Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.
core responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)
An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a core responsibility are reflected in one or more related departmental results that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.
Departmental Plan (plan ministériel)
A report on the plans and expected performance of a department over a three year period. Departmental Plans are tabled in Parliament each spring.
departmental priority (priorité ministérielle)
A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. Departmental priorities represent the things that are most important or what must be done first to support the achievement of the desired departmental results.
departmental result (résultat ministériel)
A consequence or outcome that a department seeks to achieve. A departmental result is often outside departments' immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.
departmental result indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)
A factor or variable that provides a valid and reliable means to measure or describe progress on a departmental result.
Departmental Results Framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)
A framework that consists of the department's core responsibilities, departmental results and departmental result indicators.
Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)
A report on a department's actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.
experimentation (expérimentation)
The conducting of activities that seek to first explore, then test and compare, the effects and impacts of policies and interventions in order to inform evidence-based decision-making, and improve outcomes for Canadians, by learning what works and what does not. Experimentation is related to, but distinct from, innovation (the trying of new things), because it involves a rigorous comparison of results. For example, using a new website to communicate with Canadians can be an innovation; systematically testing the new website against existing outreach tools or an old website to see which one leads to more engagement is experimentation.
full-time equivalent (équivalent temps plein)
A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person year charge against a departmental budget. Full time equivalents are calculated as a ratio of assigned hours of work to scheduled hours of work. Scheduled hours of work are set out in collective agreements.
gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS+])
An analytical process used to assess how diverse groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience policies, programs and services based on multiple factors, including race, ethnicity, religion, age, and mental or physical disability.
government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)
For the purpose of the 2021–22 Departmental Plan, government-wide priorities refer to those high-level themes outlining the government's agenda in the 2020 Speech from the Throne, namely protecting Canadians from COVID-19, helping Canadians through the pandemic, building back better—a resiliency agenda for the middle class, and the Canada we're fighting for.
horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)
An initiative in which two or more federal organizations are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.
non-budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)
Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.
performance (rendement)
What an organization did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the organization intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.
performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)
A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of an organization, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.
performance reporting (production de rapports sur le rendement)
The process of communicating evidence based performance information. Performance reporting supports decision-making, accountability and transparency.
plan (plan)
The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how an organization intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead up to the expected result.
planned spending (dépenses prévues)
For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in the Main Estimates.
A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.
program (programme)
Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.
program inventory (répertoire des programmes)
Identifies all of the department's programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department's core responsibilities and results.
result (résultat)
An external consequence attributed, in part, to an organization, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single organization, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the organizations influence.
statutory expenditures (dépenses législatives)
Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.
strategic outcome (résultat stratégique)
A long-term and enduring benefit to Canadians that is linked to the organization's mandate, vision and core functions.
synthetic data (données synthétiques)
Stochastically generated data with analytical value geared towards data protection and disclosure control
target (cible)
A measurable performance or success level that an organization, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.
voted expenditures (dépenses votées)
Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an Appropriation Act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.
zombie firms (entreprises zombies)
Firms that have been around for some time and have persistent difficulties generating enough income to make their interest payments—have become more prevalent across a number of advanced economies.

2020 Annual Survey of Service Industries: Motion Picture Theatres

Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP)

Reporting Guide

This guide is designed to assist you as you complete the 2020 Survey of Service Industries. If you need more information, please call the Statistics Canada Help Line at the number below.

Your answers are confidential.

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act.

Statistics Canada will use information from this survey for statistical purposes.

Help Line: 1-800-972-9692

Table of contents

Business or organization and contact information
Reporting period information
Revenue
E-commerce
Expenses
Industry characteristics
Notification of intent to extract web data

Business or organization and contact information

This section verifies or requests basic identifying information of the business or organization such as legal name, operating name (if applicable), contact information of the designated contact person, current operational status, and main activity(ies).

  1. Legal name and Operating name

Legal Name

The legal name is one recognized by law, thus it is the name liable for pursuit or for debts incurred by the business or organization. In the case of a corporation, it is the legal name as fixed by its charter or the statute by which the corporation was created.

Modifications to the legal name should only be done to correct a spelling error or typo.

To indicate a legal name of another legal entity you should instead indicate it in question 3 by selecting 'Not currently operational' and then choosing the applicable reason and providing the legal name of this other entity along with any other requested information.

Operating Name

The operating name is a name the business or organization is commonly known as if different from its legal name. The operating name is synonymous with trade name.

  1. Designated contact person

Verify or provide the requested contact information of the designated business or organization contact person. The designated contact person is the person who should receive this questionnaire. The designated contact person may not always be the one who actually completes the questionnaire. If different than the designated contact person, the contact information of the person completing the questionnaire can be indicated later in the questionnaire.

  1. Current operational status

Verify or provide the current operational status of the business or organization identified by the legal and operating name in question 1. If indicating the operational status of the business or organization is 'Not currently operational' then indicate an applicable reason and provide the requested information.

  1. Main activity

This question verifies the business or organization's current main activity as classified by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is an industry classification system developed by the statistical agencies of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Created against the background of the North American Free Trade Agreement, it is designed to provide common definitions of the industrial structure of the three countries and a common statistical framework to facilitate the analysis of the three economies. NAICS is based on supply‑side or production‑oriented principles, to ensure that industrial data, classified to NAICS, are suitable for the analysis of production‑related issues such as industrial performance.

The target entity for which NAICS is designed are businesses and other organizations engaged in the production of goods and services. They include farms, incorporated and unincorporated businesses and government business enterprises. They also include government institutions and agencies engaged in the production of marketed and non‑marketed services, as well as organizations such as professional associations and unions and charitable or non‑profit organizations and the employees of households.

The associated NAICS should reflect those activities conducted by the business or organizational unit(s) targeted by this questionnaire only, as identified in the 'Answering this questionnaire' section and which can be identified by the specified legal and operating name. The main activity is the activity which most defines the targeted business or organization's main purpose or reason for existence. For a business or organization that is for‑profit, it is normally the activity that generates the majority of the revenue for the entity.

The NAICS classification contains a limited number of activity classifications; the associated classification might be applicable for this business or organization even if it is not exactly how you would describe this business or organization's main activity.

Please note that any modifications to the main activity through your response to this question might not necessarily be reflected prior to the transmitting of subsequent questionnaires and as a result they may not contain this updated information.

If the current NAICS associated with this business or organizations is not correct, please provide a brief description of the main activity and provide any additional information as requested.

Reporting period information

Here are twelve common fiscal periods that fall within the targeted dates:

  • May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020
  • June 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020
  • July 1, 2019to June 30, 2020
  • August 1, 2019 to July 31, 2020
  • September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020
  • October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020
  • November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2020
  • December 1, 2019 to November 30, 2020
  • January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020
  • February 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021
  • March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021
  • April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021

Here are other examples of fiscal periods that fall within the required dates:

  • September 18, 2019 to September 15, 2020 (e.g., floating year‑end)
  • June 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 (e.g., a newly opened business)

Revenue

  1. Sales of goods and services (e.g., fees, commissions, services revenue)

Report net of returns and allowances.

Sales of goods and services are defined as amounts derived from the sale of goods and services (cash or credit), falling within a business's ordinary activities. Sales should be reported net of trade discount, value added tax and other taxes based on sales.

Include: Sales from Canadian locations (domestic and export sales); Transfers to other business units or a head office of your firm.

Exclude: Transfers into inventory and consignment sales; Federal, provincial and territorial sales taxes and excise duties and taxes; intercompany sales in consolidated financial statements.

  1. Rental and leasing

Include: Rental or leasing of apartments, commercial buildings, land, office space, residential housing, investments in co‑tenancies and co‑ownerships, hotel or motel rooms, long and short term vehicle leasing, machinery or equipment, storage lockers, etc.

  1. Commissions

Include: Commissions earned on the sale of products or services by businesses such as advertising agencies, brokers, insurance agents, lottery ticket sales, sales representatives, and travel agencies – compensation could also be reported under this item (for example, compensation for collecting sales tax).

  1. Subsidies (including grants, donations, fundraising and sponsorships)

Include: Non‑repayable grants, contributions and subsidies from all levels of government; Revenue from private sector (corporate and individual) sponsorships, donations and fundraising.

  1. Royalties, rights, licensing and franchise fees

A royalty is defined as a payment received by the holder of a copyright, trademark or patent.

Include: Revenue received from the sale or use of all intellectual property rights of copyrighted materials such as musical, literary, artistic or dramatic works, sound recordings or the broadcasting of communication signals.

  1. Dividends

Include: Dividend income; Dividends from Canadian sources; Dividends from foreign sources; Patronage dividends.

Exclude: Equity income from investments in subsidiaries or affiliates.

  1. Interest

Include: Investment revenue; Interest from foreign sources; Interest from Canadian bonds and debentures; Interest from Canadian mortgage loans; Interest from other Canadian sources.

Exclude: Equity income from investments in subsidiaries or affiliates.

  1. Other revenue ‑ specify

Include: Amounts not included in questions (1) to (7).

  1. Total revenue

The sum of sub‑questions (1) to (8).

E‑commerce

Mobile app

Include sales through any app, or application, that is downloaded and designed to run on a handheld device such as a smartphone or tablet (for example, places where a user may download these apps include Apple's App Store, Google Play or Blackberry App World).

Company website

Include sales through a browser‑based website where your organization maintains control of the content.

Third‑party website

Include sales through a browser‑based website where a third‑party maintains the structure of the website and control of the look and feel while your company only provides the product to be sold (for example, Amazon, Expedia, Etsy).

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

A standard format for exchanging business data. EDI is based on the use of message standards, ensuring that all participants use a common language.

Expenses

  1. Cost of goods sold

Many business units distinguish their costs of materials from their other business expenses (selling, general and administrative). This item is included to allow you to easily record your costs/expenses according to your normal accounting practices.

Include: Cost of raw materials and/or goods purchased for resale – net of discounts earned on purchases; Freight in and duty.

Exclude all costs associated with: salaries, wages, benefits, commissions and subcontracts from question 1. These values should be included in question 2 and 3 below.

  1. Employment costs and expenses
  1. Salaries, wages and commissions

Please report all salaries and wages (including taxable allowances and employment commissions as defined on the T4 – Statement of Remuneration Paid) before deductions for this reporting period.

Include: Vacation pay; Bonuses (including profit sharing); Employee commissions; Taxable allowances (e.g., room and board, vehicle allowances, gifts such as airline tickets for holidays); Severance pay.

Exclude: All payments and expenses associated with casual labour and outside contract workers (report these amounts at sub‑question (3) ‑ Subcontracts).

  1. Employee benefits

Include contributions to: Health plans; Insurance plans; Employment insurance; Pension plans; Workers' compensation; Association dues; Contributions to any other employee benefits such as child care and supplementary unemployment benefit (SUB) plans; Contributions to provincial and territorial health and education payroll taxes.

  1. Subcontracts

Subcontract expense refers to the purchasing of services from outside of the company rather than providing them in‑house.

Include: Hired casual labour and outside contract workers; Custom work and contract work; Subcontract and outside labour; Hired labour.

  1. Research and development fees

Expenses from activities conducted with the intention of making a discovery that could either lead to the development of new products or procedures, or to the improvement of existing products or procedures.

  1. Professional and business fees

Include: Legal services; Accounting and auditing fees; Consulting fees; Education and training fees; Appraisal fees; Management and administration fees; Property management fees; Information technology (IT) consulting and service fees (purchased); Architectural fees; Engineering fees; Scientific and technical service fees; Other consulting fees (management, technical and scientific); Veterinary fees; Fees for human health services; Payroll preparation fees; All other professional and business service fees.

Exclude: Service fees paid to Head Office (report at sub‑question (21) ‑ All other costs and expenses).

  1. Utilities

Utility expenses related to operating your business unit such as water, electricity, gas, heating and hydro.

Include: Diesel, fuel wood, natural gas, oil and propane; Sewage.

Exclude: Energy expenses covered in your rental and leasing contracts; Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication (report at sub‑question (8) ‑ Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication); Vehicle fuel (report at sub‑question (21) ‑ All other costs and expenses).

  1. Office and computer related expenses

Include: Office stationery and supplies, paper and other supplies for photocopiers, printers and fax machines; Postage and courier (used in the day to day office business activity); Computer and peripherals upgrade expenses; Data processing.

Exclude: Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication expenses (report this amount at sub‑question (8) ‑ Telephone, Internet and other telecommunications).

  1. Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication

Include: Internet; Telephone and telecommunication; Cellular telephone; Fax machine; Pager.

  1. Business taxes, licenses and permits

Include: Property taxes paid directly and property transfer taxes; Vehicle license fees; Beverage taxes and business taxes; Trade license fees; Membership fees and professional license fees; Provincial capital tax.

  1. Royalties, franchise fees and memberships

Include: Amounts paid to holders of patents, copyrights, performing rights and trademarks; Gross overriding royalty expenses and direct royalty costs; Resident and non‑resident royalty expenses; Franchise fees.

Exclude: Crown royalties

  1. Crown charges

Federal or Provincial royalty, tax, lease or rental payments made in relation to the acquisition, development or ownership of Canadian resource properties.

Include: Crown royalties; Crown leases and rentals; Oil sand leases; Stumpage fees.

  1. Rental and leasing

Include: Lease rental expenses, real estate rental expenses, condominium fees and equipment rental expenses; Motor vehicle rental and leasing expenses; Studio lighting and scaffolding; Machinery and equipment rental expenses; Storage expenses; Road and construction equipment rental; Fuel and other utility costs covered in your rental and leasing contracts.

  1. Repair and maintenance

Include: Buildings and structures; Machinery and equipment; Security equipment; Vehicles; Costs related to materials, parts and external labour associated with these expenses; Janitorial and cleaning services and garbage removal.

  1. Amortization and depreciation

Include: Direct cost depreciation of tangible assets and amortization of leasehold improvements; Amortization of intangible assets (e.g., amortization of goodwill, patents, franchises, copyrights, trademarks, deferred charges, organizational costs).

  1. Insurance

Insurance recovery income should be deducted from insurance expenses.

Include: Professional and other liability insurance; Motor vehicle and property insurance; Executive life insurance; Bonding, business interruption insurance and fire insurance.

  1. Advertising, marketing, promotion, meals and entertainment

Include: Newspaper advertising and media expenses; Catalogues, presentations and displays; Tickets for theatre, concerts and sporting events for business promotion; Fundraising expenses; Meals, entertainment and hospitality purchases for clients.

  1. Travel, meetings and conventions

Include: Travel expenses; Meeting and convention expenses, seminars; Passenger transportation (e.g., airfare, bus, train, etc.); Accommodations; Travel allowance and meals while travelling; Other travel expenses.

  1. Financial services

Include: Explicit service charges for financial services; Credit and debit card commissions and charges; Collection expenses and transfer fees; Registrar and transfer agent fees; Security and exchange commission fees; Other financial service fees.

Exclude: Interest expenses (report at sub‑question (19) ‑ Interest expense).

  1. Interest expense

Report the cost of servicing your company's debt.

Include: Interest; Bank charges; Finance charges; Interest payments on capital leases; Amortization of bond discounts; Interest on short‑term and long‑term debt, mortgages, bonds and debentures.

  1. Other non‑production‑related costs and expenses

Include: Charitable donations and political contributions; Bad Debt expense; Loan losses; Provisions for loan losses (minus Bad debt recoveries); Inventory adjustments

  1. All other costs and expenses (including intracompany expenses)

Include: Production costs; Pipeline operations, drilling, site restoration; Gross overriding royalty; Other producing property rentals; Well operating, fuel and equipment; Other lease rentals; Other direct costs; Equipment hire and operation; Log yard expense, forestry costs, logging road costs; Freight in and duty; Overhead expenses allocated to costs of sales; Other expenses; Cash over/short (negative expense); Reimbursement of parent company expense; Warranty expense; Recruiting expenses; General and administrative expenses; Interdivisional expenses; Interfund transfer (minus expense recoveries); Exploration and Development (including prospect/geological, well abandonment & dry holes, exploration expenses, development expenses); Amounts not included in sub‑questions (1) to (20) above.

  1. Total expenses

(sum of questions 1 to 21)

Industry characteristics

1 c. Total admission receipts

Please report revenue from admissions.

1 d. Advertising revenue

Please report revenue earned from business promotion activities.

Include:

  • on-screen advertising of products
  • distribution of sample products and newspapers,
  • display of posters in the lobby,
  • revenue from government advertising (e.g., military recruiting or anti-smoking messages)
  • revenue received from selling advertising for smaller theatre chains.

3. Amusement taxes collected

Please report the total amount of amusement taxes (municipal, provincial, territorial, etc.) collected by you on admissions.

4 f. Total number of seats in theatre

Include: the total number of seats in all auditoriums of the theatre or hall.

Notification of intent to extract web data

Statistics Canada is piloting a web data extraction initiative, also known as web scraping, which uses software to search and compile publicly available data from business websites. As a result, we may visit the website for this business to search for, and compile, additional information. This initiative should allow us to reduce the reporting burden on businesses, as well as produce additional statistical indicators to ensure that our data remain accurate and relevant.

We will do our utmost to ensure the data are collected in a manner that will not affect the functionality of the website. Any data collected will be used by Statistics Canada for statistical and research purposes only, in accordance with the agency's mandate.

For more information regarding Statistics Canada's web scraping initiative, please visit About us.

To learn more about Statistics Canada's transparency and accountability, please visit Transparency and accountability.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Statistics Canada Client Services, toll-free at 1-877-949-9492 (TTY: 1-800-363-7629) or by email at infostats@statcan.gc.ca. Additional information about this survey can be found by selecting the following link:

Consult the reporting guide at Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP) for further information.

Supplement to Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact Assessment related to the Canadian Legal Problems Survey (CLPS)

Date: February 2021

Program managers: Director, Centre for Social Data Integration and Development
Director General, Census Subject Matter, Social Insights, Integration and Innovation

Reference to Personal Information Bank (PIB)

Personal information collected through the Canadian Legal Problems Survey is described in Statistics Canada's "Special Surveys" Personal Information Bank. The Personal Information Bank refers to information collected through Statistics Canada's ad hoc surveys, which do not form part of the regular survey taking activity of the Agency. They cover a variety of socio-economic topics including health, housing, labour market, education and literacy, as well as demographic data.

The "Special Surveys" Personal Information Bank (Bank number: StatCan PPU 026) is published on the Statistics Canada website under the latest Information about Programs and Information Holdings chapter.

Description of statistical activity

Statistics Canada, under the authority of the Statistics Act, will conduct the Canadian Legal Problems Survey on behalf of the Department of Justice Canada. This voluntary household survey will collect information on disputes or problems, which may or may not require legal advice, and examine how these situations have impacted Canadians' lives. The survey aims to gather information to help governments better understand these situations, and evaluate whether or not Canadians have access to legal advice and services, and the associated costs.

Statistics Canada will publish aggregate results in the Daily (the Agency's official release bulletin) in a detailed analytical report and a summary of the survey findings along with tables. These data are fully anonymized and non-confidential, without any direct personal identifiers, which precludes the possibility of re-identifying individuals. The Department of Justice Canada will use the published data to help develop tools and measures to support Canadians experiencing legal problems and to evaluate federal contributions to civil legal aid. In addition, the information will be used to inform and develop programs to address Canadians' legal needs and problems, such as supporting community justice centres, enhancing legal literacy and other people-centred approaches to access justice.

This survey will collect information from individuals 18 years and older living in the provinces, with the exception of institutional residents. The survey includes questions about the types of legal problems experienced and actions taken to resolve them, access to legal advice and the associated costs, as well as the level of understanding of the legal implications, the evolution and status of the problems, the overall impacts on a person's life including health, family and work. In addition, information such as date of birth, age, gender, sexual orientation, Indigenous identity, country of birth, immigration and citizenship, population group, education and income will be collected. Responses will be aggregated to ensure that no individual can be identified in published results.

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, this supplement describes additional measures being implemented due to the sensitivity of the information being collected. 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.

The Canadian Legal Problems Survey will collect information on legal issues such as abuse, police brutality, discrimination, and harassment. Questions on sensitive topics may cause distress for some respondents. This supplement also presents an analysis of the necessity and proportionality of collecting this sensitive information.

Necessity and Proportionality

The collection and use of personal information for the Canadian Legal Problems Survey can be justified against Statistics Canada's Necessity and Proportionality Framework:

  1. Necessity:

    Data from the Canadian Legal Problems Survey seeks to improve our understanding of legal problems encountered by Canadians and the impact on the Canadian population, thus supporting decision-making at all levels of government.

    The Department of Justice Canada will analyze the survey results, in aggregate form and without personal identifiers, to assess the possible need for federal government contributions to civil legal aid. The information will also be used to inform and develop programs to address Canadians' legal problems and needs, such as supporting community justice centres, enhancing legal literacy and other people-centred approaches to accessing justice. The aggregate anonymous data will also be available to provincial governments and other legal associations to help, for example, identify ways to communicate or raise awareness of legal aid services, identify the most common problems that groups of the population are facing, and establish programs to help Canadians resolve those problems.

    Only individuals 18 years of age and older, living in the provinces, with the exception of institutional residents (people who live in an institutional collective dwelling, such as a hospital, a nursing home or a prison), are eligible to participate in the Canadian Legal Problems Survey. As such, respondents will first be asked to provide their date of birth or age, and their province of residence, in order to establish whether they can take part in the survey.

    The demographic data collected, including gender, sexual orientation, Indigenous identity, country of birth, immigration status and related information, citizenship, population group, and education and income, will be used for analysis of subgroups of the population. This data serves to better understand the social determinants of justice. Just as with the social determinants of health, some research has noted that certain characteristics, such as income, age, education, race, geography, influence justice outcomes. For example, it is known that characteristics such as sexual orientation or gender identity can lead to marginalization, discrimination and harassment, but there is a lack of national data on this. Demographic data (in particular race-based) is needed to better understand the impacts of the justice system on Canadians, and to inform change.

    The survey data file, with all personal identifiers removed, will be made available to researchers in the Research Data Centres (RDC) upon approval of requests to access the data for statistical research. Statistics Canada's directives and policies on data publication will be followed to ensure the confidentiality of any data released from the RDC. Only aggregate results, which are fully anonymized and non-confidential, without direct personal identifiers, which precludes the possibility of re-identifying individuals, can be released from the RDC. Individual responses will be grouped with those of others when reporting results and results for very small groups will not be published or shared with government departments or agencies. This will also reduce any potential impact on vulnerable populations or subsets of populations, as the grouping of results will protect the confidentiality of individual responses.

    A public use microdata file (PUMF) will also be created and made available upon request. The PUMF is a fully anonymized and non-confidential file; survey variables that directly identify respondents are excluded, and variables that might indirectly identify respondents are also examined and modified if necessary to protect the privacy and confidentiality of respondents.

    Personal identifiers will be kept separately from the survey data and replaced by a statistical identifier. The data file will be retained as long as required for statistical purposes, in order to conduct long-term analysis.

  2. Effectiveness—Working Assumptions:

    The survey will be conducted using a self-reported electronic questionnaire. The sample frame for this survey will be developed by Statistics Canada methodologists using administrative files within the Agency, which contain personal information such as name and contact information. The sample frame is created to ensure the Canadian population is represented, whether or not they have encountered serious disputes or problems. This information will be used to contact individuals selected for the survey. Targeting individuals who have encountered serious disputes or problems is not possible as this information is not available within Statistics Canada's data holdings or survey frame. Prior to collection, selected individuals will be sent an invitation letter with details about the survey such as the survey purpose and the protection of confidentiality, as well as a list of legal and mental health resources. The letter will include a unique secure access code for the respondent to access the electronic questionnaire on Statistics Canada's secure survey infrastructure.

    Statistics Canada interviewers will conduct follow-up phone calls with people who have not responded after six weeks, to invite them again. This will also provide respondents the opportunity to complete the survey over the telephone with a trained Statistics Canada interviewer.

    The collection period will be approximately three months. Statistics Canada will follow all directives and policies for the development, collection, and dissemination of the survey. Survey responses will not be directly attached to respondents' personal identifiers, such as their name, address or phone numbers. The other personal information collected during the survey such as gender, sexual orientation, Indigenous identity, country of birth, immigration status and related information, citizenship, population group, education and income, will be grouped to create statistics for publication of survey results, or to create a public use microdata file (PUMF) in order to ensure anonymity, and used for analysis of sub-populations.

  3. Proportionality:

    The survey includes a representative sample from the general population (30,000) as well as a sample of Indigenous Peoples divided into smaller sub-groups by Indigenous identity (12,400). The sample size of Indigenous Peoples is necessary to publish national-level estimates for Indigenous Peoples grouped by gender while protecting the privacy and confidentiality of respondents. The total sample size of 42,400 persons has been assessed as the minimum required to ensure that estimates calculated from the collected data are of sufficient quality.

    Experts at Statistics Canada and the Department of Justice Canada were consulted on the scope and methodology of the Canadian Legal Problems Survey. Questions from other Statistics Canada surveys have been included and qualitative testing was performed. Five questions on the COVID-19 pandemic have been included in order to assess the impact of the pandemic on serious and not easily resolved disputes or problems encountered by the respondents. For example, the pandemic may have caused serious problems, or delays to procedures, or access to legal services due to closures. This information will also provide context when analyzing the data.

    Statistics Canada directives and policies with respect to data collection and publication will be followed to ensure the confidentiality of the data. Individual responses will be grouped with those of others when reporting results. Individual responses and results for very small groups will not be published or shared with government departments or agencies. This will also reduce any potential impact on vulnerable populations or subsets of populations, as the grouping of results will make it difficult to identify responses by individuals within a particular subset of the population.

    The benefits of the findings, which will support decision-making at all levels of government, improve knowledge and understanding of legal problems encountered by Canadians and the impact on them, and the steps taken to protect privacy, are proportional to the potential risks to an individual's privacy.

  4. Proportionality has also been considered based on data sensitivity and ethics:
    • Data sensitivity:

      Given that information on members of Indigenous Communities will be produced through this survey, experts from Statistics Canada's Centre for Indigenous Statistics and Partnerships (CISP) have been consulted and will continue to be consulted throughout the survey process. They will also review the summary of the survey results prior to their release.

    • Ethics:

      Prior to collection, individuals selected to participate in the survey will be clearly informed about the survey topics and that the survey is voluntary. This information is found on the questionnaire or provided by the interviewer before any questions are asked so that people can make an informed decision about whether or not they want to participate. They will also be notified that their data may be linked to immigration data and to other surveys or administrative data sources. If respondents have questions or concerns about such linkages, they will be provided with appropriate contact information at Statistics Canada.

      Since the topic of the survey is sensitive and could lead to distress, resources on mental health and legal help will be made available to the respondents in their invitation letter, on the survey's web page, in the brochure, the electronic questionnaire, and during interviews. Interviewers will be trained on how to administer the questionnaire and respond to questions from respondents. They will be instructed not to provide legal or mental health advice to respondents, but instead direct people to the appropriate legal or mental health experts listed in the survey material.

  5. Alternatives:

    Currently, there is no other data source that gathers information on how legal problems impact Canadians' lives. The possibility of using crowdsourcing or other survey methodologies was explored. However, based on discussions between justice and methodology experts at Statistics Canada and the Department of Justice Canada, it was determined that a survey with at least 42,400 units was necessary to produce reliable and accurate results by province. Releasing data at these aggregated levels will reduce the potential to identify impacts on vulnerable populations, subsets of populations, and groups, while providing meaningful results.

Mitigation factors

Some questions on the Canadian Legal Problems Survey are considered sensitive as they relate to serious and not easily resolved disputes or problems encountered by individuals and the impacts those problems have had on their lives. The overall risk of harm to the survey respondents has been deemed manageable with existing Statistics Canada safeguards that are described in Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact Assessment, as well as with the following measures:

Mental Health and Legal Resources

  • on a separate sheet (provincial resources) mailed to respondents with the invitation letter to participate in the survey, and on Statistics Canada's website;
  • in a brochure (national resources) that also provides details about the survey such as the survey purpose, how the survey results will be used and the protection of confidentiality;
  • in the questionnaire through help screens that respondents can view alongside sensitive questions, and;
  • at the end of the questionnaire, on the submit page.

In addition, interviewer training will be conducted and an interviewer manual will be provided to ensure that interviewers know not to provide advice to respondents who show signs of distress, but to provide them with information to access mental health or legal resources.

Transparency

Prior to the survey, respondents will be informed of the survey purpose, allowing them to decide if they want to participate. This information will be provided through invitation and reminder letters, and reiterated at the beginning of the questionnaire. Respondents will also be informed that their participation is voluntary before being asked any questions. Information about the survey, including a brochure, as well as the survey questionnaire, will be made available on Statistics Canada's website on the day collection starts.

Confidentiality

Individual responses will be grouped with those of others when reporting results. Individual responses and results for very small groups will never be published or shared with government departments or agencies. Careful analysis of the data and consideration will be given prior to the release of aggregate data to ensure that marginalized and vulnerable communities are not disproportionally impacted.

A fully anonymized public use microdata file (PUMF) will also be created and made available upon request to the survey sponsor and the population in general. Survey variables that directly identify respondents are excluded from the PUMF, and variables that might indirectly identify respondents are also examined and modified as necessary in order to protect the privacy and confidentiality of respondents.

Conclusion

This assessment concludes that, with the existing Statistics Canada safeguards and additional mitigation factors listed above, any remaining risks are such that Statistics Canada is prepared to accept and manage the risk.

Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP)

This guide is designed to assist you as you complete the 2020 Annual Non-Store Retail Survey. If you need more information, please call the Statistics Canada Help Line at the number below.

Help Line: 1-800-858-7921 or TTY 1-800-363-7629

Table of contents

Reporting instructions
Business or organization and contact information
Reporting period information
Revenue
Expenses
Industry Characteristics
Sales by type of client
Distribution of operating revenue by method of sale
E-commerce
Sales of Commodities
Notification of intent to extract web data

Reporting instructions

1. Please report all dollar amounts in thousands of Canadian dollars ('000 CAN$).

2. Do not include sales tax.

3. Percentages should be rounded to whole numbers

4. When precise figures are not available, please provide your best estimates.

Business or organization and contact information

This section verifies or requests basic identifying information of the business or organization such as legal name, operating name (if applicable), contact information of the designated contact person, current operational status, and main activity (ies).

  1. Legal name and Operating name

Legal Name
The legal name is one recognized by law, thus it is the name liable for pursuit or for debts incurred by the business or organization. In the case of a corporation, it is the legal name as fixed by its charter or the statute by which the corporation was created.

Modifications to the legal name should only be done to correct a spelling error or typo.

To indicate a legal name of another legal entity you should instead indicate it in question 3 by selecting 'Not currently operational' and then choosing the applicable reason and providing the legal name of this other entity along with any other requested information.

Operating Name
The operating name is a name the business or organization is commonly known as if different from its legal name. The operating name is synonymous with trade name.

  1. Designated contact person

Verify or provide the requested contact information of the designated business or organization contact person. The designated contact person is the person who should receive this questionnaire. The designated contact person may not always be the one who actually completes the questionnaire. If different than the designated contact person, the contact information of the person completing the questionnaire can be indicated later in the questionnaire.

  1. Current operational status

Verify or provide the current operational status of the business or organization identified by the legal and operating name in question 1. If indicating the operational status of the business or organization is 'Not currently operational' then indicate an applicable reason and provide the requested information.

  1. Main activity

This question verifies the business or organization's current main activity as classified by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is an industry classification system developed by the statistical agencies of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Created against the background of the North American Free Trade Agreement, it is designed to provide common definitions of the industrial structure of the three countries and a common statistical framework to facilitate the analysis of the three economies. NAICS is based on supply-side or production-oriented principles, to ensure that industrial data, classified to NAICS, are suitable for the analysis of production-related issues such as industrial performance.

The target entity for which NAICS is designed are businesses and other organizations engaged in the production of goods and services. They include farms, incorporated and unincorporated businesses and government business enterprises. They also include government institutions and agencies engaged in the production of marketed and non-marketed services, as well as organizations such as professional associations and unions and charitable or non-profit organizations and the employees of households.

The associated NAICS should reflect those activities conducted by the business or organizational unit(s) targeted by this questionnaire only, as identified in the 'Answering this questionnaire' section and which can be identified by the specified legal and operating name. The main activity is the activity which most defines the targeted business or organization's main purpose or reason for existence. For a business or organization that is for-profit, it is normally the activity that generates the majority of the revenue for the entity.

The NAICS classification contains a limited number of activity classifications; the associated classification might be applicable for this business or organization even if it is not exactly how you would describe this business or organization's main activity.

Please note that any modifications to the main activity through your response to this question might not necessarily be reflected prior to the transmitting of subsequent questionnaires and as a result they may not contain this updated information.

If the current NAICS associated with this business or organizations is not correct, please provide a brief description of the main activity and provide any additional information as requested.

Reporting period information

Here are examples of common fiscal periods that fall within the required dates:

  • May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020
  • June 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020
  • July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020
  • August 1, 2019 to July 31, 2020
  • September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020
  • October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020
  • November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2020
  • December 1, 2019 to November 30, 2020
  • January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020
  • February 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021
  • March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021
  • April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021

Here are other examples of fiscal periods that fall within the required dates:

  • September 18, 2019 to September 15, 2020 (e.g., floating year-end)
  • June 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 (e.g., a newly opened business)

Revenue

  1. Sales of goods and services (e.g., fees, admissions, services revenue)

Sales of goods and services are defined as amounts derived from the sale of goods and services (cash or credit), falling within a business's ordinary activities. Sales should be reported net of trade discount, value added tax and other taxes based on sales.

Include: Sales from Canadian locations (domestic and export sales); Transfers to other business units or a head office of this firm.
Exclude: Transfers into inventory and consignment sales; Federal, provincial and territorial sales taxes and excise duties and taxes; Intercompany sales in consolidated financial statements.

  1. Rental and leasing

Include: Rental or leasing of apartments, commercial buildings, land, office space, residential housing, investments in co-tenancies and co-ownerships, hotel or motel rooms, long and short term vehicle leasing, machinery or equipment, storage lockers, etc.

  1. Commissions

Include: Commissions earned on the sale of products or services by businesses such as advertising agencies, brokers, insurance agents, lottery ticket sales, sales representatives, and travel agencies – compensation could also be reported under this item (for example, compensation for collecting sales tax).

  1. Subsidies (including grants, donations and fundraising)

Include: Non-repayable grants, contributions and subsidies from all levels of government; Revenue from private sector (corporate and individual) sponsorships, donations and fundraising.

  1. Royalties, rights, licensing and franchise fees

A royalty is defined as a payment received by the holder of a copyright, trademark or patent.
Include: Revenue received from the sale or use of all intellectual property rights of copyrighted materials such as musical, literary, artistic or dramatic works, sound recordings or the broadcasting of communication signals.

  1. Dividends

Include: Dividend income; Dividends from Canadian sources; Dividends from foreign sources; Patronage dividends.
Exclude: Equity income from investments in subsidiaries or affiliates.

  1. Interest

Include: Investment revenue; Interest from foreign sources; Interest from Canadian bonds and debentures; Interest from Canadian mortgage loans; Interest from other Canadian sources.
Exclude: Equity income from investments in subsidiaries or affiliates.

  1. Other revenue (please specify)

Include: Amounts not included in questions (1) to (7).

  1. Total revenue

The sum of questions (1) to (8).

Expenses

  1. Cost of goods sold

Many business units distinguish their costs of materials from their other business expenses (selling, general and administrative). This item is included to allow you to easily record your costs/expenses according to your normal accounting practices.
Include: Cost of raw materials and/or goods purchased for re-sale – net of discounts earned on purchases; Freight in and duty.

  1. Employment costs and expenses
  1. Salaries, wages and commissions

Please report all salaries and wages (including taxable allowances and employment commissions as defined on the T4 – Statement of Remuneration Paid) before deductions for this reporting period.
Include: Vacation pay; Bonuses (including profit sharing); Employee commissions; Taxable allowances (e.g., room and board, vehicle allowances, gifts such as airline tickets for holidays); Severance pay.
Exclude: All payments and expenses associated with casual labour and outside contract workers (report these amounts at question 3 - Subcontracts).

  1. Employee benefits

Include contributions to: Health plans; Insurance plans; Employment insurance; Pension plans; Workers' compensation; Association dues; Contributions to any other employee benefits such as child care and supplementary unemployment benefit (SUB) plans; Contributions to provincial and territorial health and education payroll taxes.

  1. Subcontracts

Subcontract expense refers to the purchasing of services from outside of the company rather than providing them in-house.
Include: Hired casual labour and outside contract workers; Custom work and contract work; Subcontract and outside labour; Hired labour.

  1. Research and development fees

Expenses from activities conducted with the intention of making a discovery that could either lead to the development of new products or procedures, or to the improvement of existing products or procedures.

  1. Professional and business fees

Include: Legal services; Accounting and auditing fees; Consulting fees; Education and training fees; Appraisal fees; Management and administration fees; Property management fees; Information technology (IT) consulting and service fees (purchased); Architectural fees; Engineering fees; Scientific and technical service fees; Other consulting fees (management, technical and scientific); Veterinary fees; Fees for human health services; Payroll preparation fees; All other professional and business service fees.
Exclude: Service fees paid to Head Office (report at question 21 - All other costs and expenses).

  1. Utilities

Utility expenses related to operating your business unit such as water, electricity, gas, heating and hydro.

Include: Diesel, wood, natural gas, oil and propane; Sewage.
Exclude: Energy expenses covered in your rental and leasing contracts; Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication (report this amount at question 8. - Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication); Vehicle fuel (report at question 21 - All other costs and expenses).

  1. Office and computer related expenses

Include: Office stationery and supplies, paper and other supplies for photocopiers, printers and fax machines; Postage and courier (used in the day to day office business activity); Diskettes and computer upgrade expenses; Data processing.
Exclude: Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication expenses (report this amount at question 8 - Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication).

  1. Telephone, Internet and other telecommunication

Include: Internet; Telephone and telecommunication; Cellular telephone; Fax machine; Pager.

  1. Business taxes, licenses and permits

Include: Property taxes paid directly and property transfer taxes; Vehicle license fees; Beverage taxes and business taxes; Trade license fees; Membership fees and professional license fees; Provincial capital tax.

  1. Royalties, franchise fees and memberships

Include: Amounts paid to holders of patents, copyrights, performing rights and trademarks; Gross overriding royalty expenses and direct royalty costs; Resident and non-resident royalty expenses; Franchise fees.
Exclude: Crown royalties

  1. Crown charges

Federal or Provincial royalty, tax, lease or rental payments made in relation to the acquisition, development or ownership of Canadian resource properties.
Include: Crown royalties; Crown leases and rentals; Oil sand leases; Stumpage fees.

  1. Rental and leasing

Include: Lease rental expenses, real estate rental expenses, condominium fees and equipment rental expenses; Motor vehicle rental and leasing expenses; Studio lighting and scaffolding; Machinery and equipment rental expenses; Storage expenses; Road and construction equipment rental; Fuel and other utility costs covered in your rental and leasing contracts.

  1. Repair and maintenance

Include: Buildings and structures; Machinery and equipment; Security equipment; Vehicles; Costs related to materials, parts and external labour associated with these expenses; Janitorial and cleaning services and garbage removal.

  1. Amortization and depreciation

Include: Direct cost depreciation of tangible assets and amortization of leasehold improvements; Amortization of intangible assets (e.g., amortization of goodwill, patents, franchises, copyrights, trademarks, deferred charges, organizational costs).

  1. Insurance

Insurance recovery income should be deducted from insurance expenses.
Include: Professional and other liability insurance; Motor vehicle and property insurance; Executive life insurance; Bonding, business interruption insurance and fire insurance.

  1. Advertising, marketing, promotion, meals and entertainment

Include: Newspaper advertising and media expenses; Catalogues, presentations and displays; Tickets for theatre, concerts and sporting events for business promotion; Fundraising expenses; Meals, entertainment and hospitality purchases for clients.

  1. Travel, meetings and conventions

Include: Travel expenses; Meeting and convention expenses, seminars; Passenger transportation (e.g., airfare, bus, train, etc.); Accommodations; Travel allowance and meals while travelling; Other travel expenses.

  1. Financial services

Include: Explicit service charges for financial services; Credit and debit card commissions and charges; Collection expenses and transfer fees; Registrar and transfer agent fees; Security and exchange commission fees; Other financial service fees.
Exclude: Interest expenses (report at question 19 - Interest expense).

  1. Interest expense

Report the cost of servicing your company's debt.
Include: Interest; Bank charges; Finance charges; Interest payments on capital leases; Amortization of bond discounts; Interest on short-term and long-term debt, mortgages, bonds and debentures.

  1. Other non-production-related costs and expenses

Include: Charitable donations and political contributions; Bad Debt expense; Loan losses; Provisions for loan losses (minus Bad debt recoveries); Inventory adjustments

  1. All other costs and expenses (including intracompany expenses)

Include:
Production costs; Pipeline operations, drilling, site restoration; Gross overriding royalty; Other producing property rentals; Well operating, fuel and equipment; Other lease rentals; Other direct costs; Equipment hire and operation; Log yard expense, forestry costs, logging road costs; Freight in and duty; Overhead expenses allocated to costs of sales; Other expenses; Cash over/short (negative expense); Reimbursement of parent company expense; Warranty expense; Recruiting expenses; General and administrative expenses; Interdivisional expenses; Interfund transfer (minus expense recoveries); Exploration and Development (including prospect/geological, well abandonment & dry holes, exploration expenses, development expenses); Amounts not included in questions 1 to 20 above.

  1. Total expenses

The sum of questions 1 to 21.

Industry Characteristics

All revenue reported should exclude sales taxes (GST/HST, PST and QST) and be net of returns, discounts, sales allowances, and charges for outward transportation by common or contract carriers. Do not deduct the value of trade-ins.

Include:

  • Excise taxes (such as those on gasoline, liquor, and tobacco) and other taxes that are levied on the manufacturer/importer and included in the cost of products purchased by this business unit
  • Sales of all goods purchased for resale; please report gross sales of new and used goods less returns and discounts
  • Parts used in generating repair and maintenance revenue (exclude the labour portion of repair and maintenance).

Do not deduct the value of trade-ins.

Exclude:

  • Taxes collected directly from customers and paid directly by this operating unit to provincial and federal tax agencies
  • Labour portion of repair and maintenance.

Please report shipping and handling charges that are not embedded in the price of the merchandise, and which are therefore not reflected in the amount reported in the previous question 1.

Sales by type of client

This section is designed to measure which sector of the economy purchases your services.

Please provide a percentage breakdown of your sales by type of client.

Please ensure that the sum of percentages reported in this section equals 100%.

  1. Clients in Canada

a. Individuals and households

Please report the percentage of sales to individuals and households who do not represent the business or government sector.

b. Businesses

Percentage of sales sold to the business sector should be reported here.
Include: Sales to Crown corporations.

c. Governments, not-for-profit organizations and public institutions (e.g., hospitals, schools)

Percentage of sales to federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments should be reported here.
Include: Sales to hospitals, schools, universities and public utilities.

  1. Clients outside of Canada

Please report the percentage of total sales to customers or clients located outside Canada including foreign businesses, foreign individuals, foreign institutions and/or governments.

Include: Sales to foreign subsidiaries and affiliates.

Distribution of operating revenue by method of sale

  1. In-store sales

Please report total operating revenue of goods and services which are purchased in a fixed point-of-sale location accessible to the public.
Include: sales at pumps for gasoline stations.

  1. E-commerce

Please report total operating revenue of goods and services conducted over the Internet with or without online payment.
Include: all revenue where the order is received and the commitment to purchase is made via the Internet, although payment can be made by other means, orders made in web pages, extranet, mobile devices or Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
Exclude: orders made by telephone calls, facsimile or e-mail.

  1. Catalogue and mail-order or telephone

Please report total operating revenue of goods and services generated from customer ordering their goods from catalogues and mail order flyers.
Include: sales purchased via telephone and fax.

  1. All other methods

Please report total operating revenue of goods and services generated from all other methods.
Include: sales at trade shows, special events, in-home sales and card lock.

E-commerce

Mobile app

Include: sales through any app, or application, that is downloaded and designed to run on a handheld device such as a smartphone or tablet (for example, places where a user may download these apps include Apple's App Store, Google Play or Blackberry App World).

Company website

Include: sales through a browser-based website where your organization maintains control of the content.

Third-party website

Include sales through a browser-based website where a third-party maintains the structure of the website and control of the look and feel while your company only provides the product to be sold (for example, Amazon, Expedia, Etsy).

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

A standard format for exchanging business data. EDI is based on the use of message standards, ensuring that all participants use a common language.

Sales of Commodities

Food and beverages

Fresh meat and poultry

Include beef, pork, fowl and game, poultry, turkey, cooked meats, cured and smoked meats (prepackaged meats such as bacon, sausages, wieners, bologna, cooked ham, etc.)
Exclude frozen or canned meats, "deli" meat products.

Fresh fish and other fresh seafood

Include fresh, smoked and cured fish and other seafood.
Exclude frozen or canned fish and other seafood, "deli" fish and other seafood.

Fresh fruit and vegetables

Include fresh fruits and vegetables.
Exclude frozen, canned or dried fruits and vegetables.

Eggs and dairy products (exclude frozen desserts)

Include fresh milk (include chocolate milk and soya milk), fresh eggs in shell, butter, fresh or processed cheese, fresh cream and fresh yogurt.
Exclude ice cream, frozen yogurt, powdered, canned, condensed or evaporated dairy products.

Baked goods (exclude frozen products, cookies and crackers)

Include in-house fresh bakery goods or baked foods, commercial fresh bakery goods or baked foods and products of fresh bakery products.
Exclude frozen bakery products.

Perishable prepared foods (include fresh sliced deli meats, prepared entrées and fresh pasta)

Include deli luncheon meats, deli poultry, deli food (except cheese), deli fish, deli seafood, deli party platters, prepared pizza, prepared foods for take-out, prepared pizza for take-out, deli salads, perishable prepared foods (except cheese), deli foods and salad bars and prepared foods for take-out (except cheese).
Exclude cheese, meals and lunches.

Frozen food

Include frozen meats, frozen game food, frozen cooked, cured and smoked meats, frozen poultry, frozen fish, frozen smoked and cured fish, frozen smoked and cured seafood, frozen smoked and cured shellfish, frozen fruits, frozen vegetables, ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbets, popsicles, frozen juice concentrates, frozen bakery products, frozen TV dinners and frozen entrées.

Cookies, confectionery and snack foods

Include candy, chewing gum, fruit pastilles, chips, chocolate preparations (except baking chocolate), cocoa paste, unsweetened cocoa powder, confectionery, confectionery nuts, granola bars, package sugar confectionery goods, sugar confectionery specialties, sesame bars, snack foods, popped popcorn, mixed nuts, prepackaged cookies, prepackaged biscuits or crackers, prepackaged cakes, prepackaged doughnuts, prepackaged buns and prepackaged muffins.
Exclude candy and chocolate baking items, un-popped popcorn, products primarily sold as breakfast cereals.

Packaged food dry goods, not elsewhere classified

Include canned or dried foods (except pet foods), baking supplies, baking chocolate, baking flour, baking powder, baking chopped nuts, breakfast cereals, dry coffee, powdered, canned, evaporated or condensed dairy products, dietetic foods, drink crystals, flour, food mixes, cake, biscuit and pancake mixes (except prepackaged), cooking oils, un-popped popcorn, rice, salad dressings, salt, herbs and spices, sugar, syrups and dry tea leaves.
Exclude meals and lunches, pet food.

Soft drinks (exclude bottled water)

Include canned soft drinks and bottled soft drinks (except bottled water)

Non-alcoholic beverages (exclude soft drinks, milk, hot beverages and frozen drinks)

Include non-alcoholic beer (except root beer pops), non-alcoholic wine or cider, fruit drinks (except soft drinks and frozen concentrates), juices (except soft drinks and frozen concentrates), non-alcoholic cocktails or punch, vegetable juices (except frozen concentrates), water, sparkling beverages (except water and sodas) and ice tea.
Exclude milk and cream, frozen juice concentrates, drink crystals.

Prepared hot beverages (include coffee)

Include hot coffee, hot tea and hot chocolate.
Exclude packaged coffee, tea, hot chocolate and other packaged hot beverage products.

Alcoholic beverages (exclude served on premises)

Include beer (except non-alcoholic), wine (except non-alcoholic), spirits, liquor, liqueur and coolers.
Exclude alcoholic beverages served on premises.

Alcoholic beverages for immediate consumption

Include sales of alcoholic beverages served on premises.

Ice

Include ice cubes and ice blocks.

Prepared meals

Include lunches and meal services, sales of pizza served on premises, sales in restaurant, sales in sandwich bars, sales in diners, sales in delicatessens and sales of ice cream served on premise.

Clothing, footwear and accessories

Men's outerwear coats and jackets

Include winter coats, fur coats, jackets (except sport jackets), rainwear, ski clothing, snowmobile clothing and windbreakers.
Exclude suits, sport jackets and blazers.

Men's suits, sport jackets and blazers

Include sport jackets and blazers and made-to-measure and ready-to wear suits.
Exclude occupational uniforms.

Men's pants, shirts, sweaters and other bottoms and tops

Include pants (dress and casual), shorts, dress or casual shirts (except evening dress shirts), vests (except as occupational uniforms), school uniforms, gym uniforms, indoor jackets and sweaters.

Men's sleepwear, underwear and hosiery

Include socks, underwear, pyjamas, bathrobes and nightwear.

Men's hats, gloves, belts and other accessories

Include caps or hats, belts, gloves (except for work), mitts, scarves, suspenders, ties, umbrellas and wallets.
Exclude wigs, toupees.

Men's clothing, not elsewhere classified

Include bathing suits, exercise and fitness clothing, work gloves, occupational clothing or uniforms, work jackets or vests, priest clothing, running and jogging wear and safety clothing.

Women's outerwear coats and jackets

Include winter coats, jackets, parkas, rainwear, ski jackets or suits, snowmobile suits, snowsuits, windbreakers and anoraks.
Exclude suit jackets and blazers.

Women's dresses and suits

Include one-piece and two-piece dresses, evening gowns, evening dress shirts, suits (except ski suits, snowmobile suits, snowsuits and maternity suits) and maternity dresses.
Exclude wedding gowns and occupational uniforms.

Women's skirts, pants, blouses, sweaters and other bottoms and tops

Include skirts, blouses, pants (dress and casual), jeans, blazers, jackets (except for outdoors), shorts, maternity tops or bottoms, casual shirts (except evening dress shirts), sweat tops and bottoms, sweaters, T-shirts and other tops, school uniforms and gym uniforms.

Women's lingerie, sleepwear and underwear

Include pyjamas, dressing gowns, bathrobes, foundation garments, lingerie, nightgowns, bras, nightshirts, slips and underwear.
Exclude hosiery.

Women's hosiery

Include pantyhose, stockings, nylons, socks, tights, leggings and leotards.

Women's handbags, purses and accessories

Include hats or caps (sport and fashion), gloves (except for work), mitts, scarves, purses, wallets, backpacks, belts, hair accessories, headbands, handbags and umbrellas.
Exclude wigs.

Women's clothing, not elsewhere classified

Include bathing and swim suits, exercise and fitness clothing, wedding gowns, occupational clothing or uniforms, priest clothing, running and jogging wear, safety clothing and track suits.

Boys' clothing and accessories

Include boys' clothing (sizes 2 to 20) and accessories.
Exclude very specialized sports clothing, used clothing.

Girls' clothing and accessories

Include girls' clothing (sizes 2 to 16) and accessories.
Exclude very specialized sports clothing, used clothing.

Infant clothing fabric and accessories

Include baby clothing and accessories (infant sizes 0 to 24 months), baby bottles, nursery bedding, crib mobiles, diaper bags, baby blankets, baby linens, baby plastic pants, baby bibs, cloth diapers, breast pumps, nursery wall hangings, nursing pads, baby rattles, baby teething rings and baby soothers.
Exclude very specialized sports clothing, used clothing, disposable/paper diapers, children's books.

Unisex clothing, costumes and vestments

Include unisex clothing, unisex kilts (except as sport equipment), Halloween costumes, Christmas costumes, carnival costumes and dance costumes.

Men's athletic footwear

Include aerobic shoes, athletic footwear or shoes (except ski boots, skates and cleats), running shoes, basketball shoes, tennis shoes (except table tennis) and cross-trainers footwear.

Men's footwear and accessories (exclude athletic)

Include men's or boys' (except children) non-athletic footwear or shoes, fashion footwear or shoes, winter boots, rain boots, slippers, orthopedic shoes and men's work boots.
Exclude sport specific cleated footwear, golf shoes, bowling shoes, broomball shoes, curling shoes, ski boots and skates.

Women's athletic footwear

Include court shoes, athletic footwear or shoes (except ski boots, skates and cleats), cross-trainers footwear, running shoes, walking shoes and hiking boots.

Women's footwear and accessories (exclude athletic)

Include women's or girls' (except children) non-athletic footwear or shoes, winter boots, rain boots, orthopedic shoes and shoe accessories or clip-on.
Exclude sport specific cleated footwear, golf shoes, bowling shoes, broomball shoes, curling shoes, ski boots and skates.

Infant footwear

Include infant or babies' (except children) footwear, all types of infant non-athletic footwear or shoes and infant orthopedic shoes.

Children's athletic footwear

Include athletic footwear or shoes (except ski boots, skates and cleats) and all types of athletic footwear (except table tennis)

Children's footwear, not elsewhere classified

Include non-athletic footwear or shoes, winter boots, rain boots, fashion footwear or shoes, orthopedic, safety footwear, sandals, shoe accessories or clip-on and slippers.

Fine jewellery (include precious metal, diamonds, gemstones, and pearls)

Include fine jewellery.
Exclude watches.

Costume jewellery (include base metal, glass, plastic, and synthetic stones)

Include costume jewellery (except watches), all types of jewellery (except watches) and trinkets.

Watches

Include pocket watches, wrist watches and pendant watches.
Exclude antique watches.

Luggage, briefcases, knapsacks, and duffel bags

Include attaché cases, backpacks, knapsacks, leather or leather-like briefcases, luggage, leather and leather-like school bags, sport bags, suitcases and leather and leather-like travel accessories.
Exclude purses, wallets, billfolds, camera and instrument cases and fashion knapsacks.

Home furniture, furnishings, housewares, appliances and electronics

Mattresses and foundations

Include bed frames, spring, foam and water mattresses (except crib and air mattresses), box springs and bedding foundations (except sofa beds and futons).
Exclude headboards, crib mattresses, air mattresses.

Infant furniture

Include new infant furniture, junior or toddler beds, infant changing tables, baby highchairs, baby crib and mattress sets, new nursery furniture or equipment and new nursery furniture parts.
Exclude car seats (see Health, personal and household products).

Indoor home furniture, not elsewhere classified

Include new bed headboards or footboards and parts, new indoor home furniture (except nursery) and parts, new indoor home office furniture and parts, new home futons and parts, new home office and office furniture and equipment and parts, all other new indoor furniture parts, home security safes and new home sofa beds and parts.
Exclude nursery furniture, lamps, mattresses and foundations, counters and cupboards.

Outdoor home furniture

Include patio furniture cushions, patio and garden furniture and cottage outdoor furniture.

Window treatments

Include indoor window treatments (except furniture coverings), blinds or shades, curtains (except shower), drapes, valances and indoor window shutters.

Household textile products, not elsewhere classified

Include furniture covers or throws, furniture coverings, bedding (except nursery), cushions and cushion covers, afghans, bathroom accessories, dishcloths or dish towels, cloth napkins, oven mitts, aprons, pot holders, doilies, non-disposable table linens, tea towels and placemats or tablecloths.
Exclude disposable paper tablecloths and napkins.

Decorative home furnishings (exclude textile products)

Include household seasonal decorations or ornaments, candles, clocks (except with radio), figurines, fireplace screens and accessories, artificial and dried flowers or plants, picture or photograph frames, incense, jewellery boxes, music boxes, thermometers, barometers, room dividers, giftware, gift baskets and trophies.
Exclude outdoor specialty lighting (security, landscape, patio, etc.), real Christmas trees, Christmas gift wrap, woodstoves and clock radios.

Tableware, kitchenware, cookware and bakeware

Include bakeware, specialty bakeware, kitchenware, barbecue tools, cheese tools, egg tools, garlic or herbs tools, ice cream tools, kitchen utensils sets, specialty kitchenware, tableware, cookware, cookware sets, lunch boxes or bags, picnic baskets or accessories.
Exclude household barbecue starter fuel (See Miscellaneous household supplies, not elsewhere classified), household disposable plastic tableware (See Miscellaneous household supplies, not elsewhere classified).

Household cleaning supplies

Include air fresheners, toilet fresheners, fabric dyes, floor polish or wax, laundry detergent, furniture polish or wax, shoe polish, scouring powders or creams, baking soda, upholstery or rug spot removers.
Exclude personal care products (toilet paper, facial tissues, shampoos, beauty soaps, etc.) and automotive waxes and cleaners.

Miscellaneous household supplies, not elsewhere classified

Include barbecue starter fuel, glues or adhesives, garment bags, garbage or trash cans, recycling bins, clothes or laundry hampers, clothes or laundry drying racks, ironing boards, laces, matches, stools, outlet covers, cabinet locks, multiplatform use non-rechargeable batteries, multiplatform use rechargeable batteries, light bulbs, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, toilet paper, household paper bags, household paper napkins, household paper towels, wax paper, foil food wraps, giftwrap paper.
Exclude automotive batteries (see Section 5 Motor vehicle parts and accessories (except tires), new and used), computer batteries (see Section 3 Computers, peripherals, and networking equipment), household disposable paper or plastic tableware (utensils) (see Section 3 Tableware, kitchenware, cookware and bakeware), personal care supplies (see Section 7 Personal care supplies and equipment, not elsewhere classified), phone batteries (see Section 3 Telephones and related products), power tool batteries (see Section 8 Power tools), specialized batteries for cameras (see Section 3 Still cameras and other photographic equipment and supplies).

Small home appliances

Include electric knives, central vacuum cleaners, coffee makers or grinders, waste compactors, dehumidifiers, electric fans, floor polishers, food processors, deep fryers, food steamers, garbage disposals, portable space heaters, portable humidifiers, electric kettles, electric food mixers or processors, electric personal care appliances, heating pads, rug cleaning equipment, sewing machines, toasters, new small electrical home appliances and parts or accessories and water purifiers.
Exclude room air conditioners and microwave ovens.

Major home appliances

Include room air conditioners, major appliances, microwave ovens, convection ovens, ranges, kitchen range hoods or fans, dishwashers and washing machines and clothes dryers.

Computers, peripherals and networking equipment

Include blank audio disc, computer batteries, CD computer drives, blank computer CDs, DVD computer drives, blank computer DVDs, computer hard drives, computer integrated circuits, personal digital assistants (PDAs), printers (except toners), computer scanners, new computers and pre-loaded software, anti-glare screens, monitor stands, external numeric keypads, computer mice or mouse, computer mouse pads, CD, DVD and diskette storage boxes, cases or racks and new computers components or parts and accessories (except toners and cartridges)

Computer software (exclude games)

Include computer software (except games), computer multimedia items (except electronic games), books packaged and sold together with software (except electronic games), cassettes packaged and sold together with software (except electronic games) and disks packaged and sold together with software (except electronic games).

Telephones and related products

Include fax machines, phone answering machines, pagers (except messaging services), telephones (except phone services), new telephone or cellphone parts, telephone batteries and cellphone batteries.

Televisions and home audiovisual equipment

Include non-automotive amplifiers, audio and video equipment or supplies (except mixers), clock radios, non-automotive mini disc players (except mixers), non-automotive DVD players (except mixers), films for movie and video cameras, ghetto blasters, boom boxes or sound boards, head cleaners for audio and video tape players, headphones, microphones (except for computer), movie cameras and accessories, MP3 players (except mixers), iPod, non-automotive audio receivers and tuners, reel-to-reel tape players (except mixers), satellite dishes, non-automotive sound systems (except mixers), non-automotive stereos (except mixers), non-automotive tape recorders and players or decks (except mixers), blank audio and video tapes, televisions, television audio and new video parts, videocassette recorders or VCRs and blank video tapes or videocassettes.

Still cameras and other photographic equipment and supplies (exclude video cameras)

Include photo albums, still and digital cameras and accessories, photographic enlarging equipment, film for still cameras, still and digital cameras new parts, photographic equipment and supplies, slide projectors and accessories, photographic slides, camera lenses, photographic tripods, flash attachments, projector screens, still or digital camera cases and specialized batteries for digital video camera (except AA and AAA batteries).
Exclude video cameras and related equipment and supplies, picture frames and binoculars.

Rental services of movies and games on DVDs, tapes and cassettes

Include rental services of movies and games on DVDs, tapes and cassettes, subscription rental of movies and games.

Rental and operating leasing services of computer equipment

Include rental and operating leases of desktop computers, rental and operating leases of laptop computers, rental and operating leases of office plasma (liquid crystal display (LCD) or light emitting diode (LED)) walls and screens, rental and operating leases of office wall projectors, rental and operating leases of printers, rental and operating leases of scanners, licensing of software as part of computer equipment rental agreements, rental and operating leases of computers and related peripheral equipment, rental and operating leases of related peripheral equipment, rental of office wall projectors, licensing of software as part of computer equipment rental agreements.
Exclude financial leases for computers and related peripheral equipment.

Sporting and leisure products

Bicycles and biking equipment and accessories

Include bicycles (except children's tricycles), specialized bike clothing, biking equipment and accessories, bicycle helmets, bicycle locks and new bicycle parts (except children's tricycles).

Exercise equipment

Include exercise equipment (except clothing and videos), fitness equipment (except clothing and videos), exercise or fitness treadmills, exercise or fitness ellipticals, exercise or fitness, weighted vests, fully-assembled workout stations and home gyms.

Golf equipment

Include golf equipment (except clothing), golf fairway woods, motorized golf pull carts, non-motorized golf pull carts, golf bags, golf towels, golf accessories (except clothing), golf club head covers and golfing kilts.
Exclude motorized golf carts.

Skiing and snowboarding equipment

Include ski equipment, ski boots, aerodynamic racing ski suits, insulators for ski, boots or gloves, snowboarding equipment, snowboards, snowboard accessories, snowboard cleaning brushes and snowboard carriers.
Exclude ski jackets and apparel and water ski equipment.

Hunting, fishing and camping equipment

Include camping air mattresses (except water air mattresses), hunting ammunition, target shooting ammunition, bait, camouflage and hunting clothing, camping equipment and supplies, firearm collections, fishing equipment and accessories, hunting equipment and accessories, lanterns, fishing lures or scents, hunting lures or scents, sleeping bags, camping stoves, fishing tackle boxes, tents and bows or arrows.
Exclude tent trailers.

Team sporting equipment

Include balls (except golf and exercise balls), baseball, football and soccer cleats or shoes, baseball, soft ball, football, basketball, soccer, volleyball, ringette, rugby and hockey uniforms (except as street wear) and equipment.
Exclude baseball caps, and other sports clothing for street wear.

Sporting equipment, not elsewhere classified

Include water air mattresses, badminton equipment, bowling equipment or accessories, boxing equipment or accessories, broomball equipment or accessories, curling equipment or accessories, curling sliders or grippers (except discs), fencing sport equipment, harness goods, halters or leads, in-line skates, figure skates, billiard (include: pool equipment and accessories and snooker equipment and accessories), racquet sports equipment, tennis equipment or accessories (except footwear and clothing), rock climbing equipment or accessories, snowshoes, squash equipment or supplies (except footwear and clothing), sailboards, scuba gear, snorkels, skateboards, roller skates, surfboards, trampolines and fireworks.
Exclude used sporting goods.

Electronic game consoles (except game software)

Include video game consoles, electronic game consoles.
Exclude downloadable game software (see Game software), game software on physical media (see Game software on physical media).

Game software on physical media

Include 3D game software, on physical media, action game software, on physical media, electronic games for game consoles, on physical media, electronic tablet games, on physical media, game applications for tablets, on physical media, game software for computer, on physical media, game software, on physical media, ordered online and delivered to the client, role-playing game software, on physical media, simulation game software, on physical media, sports video game, on physical media, strategy and tactics game software, on physical media, trivia quiz game software, on physical media, video game software, on physical media, printed books, packaged and sold together with game software on physical media.
Exclude game consoles (see Section 4, Electronic game consoles), used or second-hand sales of physical media containing video games or game software (see Section 9 Antiques, and used or second-hand merchandise).

Game software, downloadable

Include downloadable 3D game software, downloadable action game software, downloadable role-playing game software, downloadable simulation game software, downloadable sport video game, downloadable strategy and tactics game software, downloadable trivia quiz game software, electronic games for game consoles, downloadable electronic tablet games, downloadable game applications for smart phones, downloadable game applications for tablets, downloadable game software for computers.
Exclude game consoles (see Electronic game consoles), game software on physical media, bought online (see Game software on physical media), games on demand streamed over the Internet to fix and mobile devices.

Toys and games (exclude game consoles and game software)

Include ball toys, non-electronic games, microscope toy models, telescope toy models, puzzle games, toy and hobby racing sets, sleds, sleighs, toboggans, soccer table games, soccer table balls, video games, wagon toys, air tennis table games, board games, specialized replacement toy batteries (except AA, AAA, D, C, 9V, Common Button Cells), playground structures and playground equipment.
Exclude computer software games, three-wheeled bikes for adults, used toys and games.

Artists' equipment and supplies

Include brushes, charcoal supplies, paint supplies, paintbrushes supplies, canvases supplies and easel supplies.

Musical instruments and print music

Include new musical instruments, accessories and supplies, musical whistles, drums, turntables, samplers, musical synthesizers and organs.
Exclude amplifiers, sound boards, mixers, speakers and microphones.

Sewing and knitting supplies

Include yarns or threads, knitting yarns, sewing threads, ribbons, fabrics, measuring tapes, notions, buttons, crochet hooks and dressmakers or sewing patterns.
Exclude sewing machines.

Craft and hobby kits and leisure supplies, not elsewhere classified

Include air hockey game equipment, hobby supplies, table hockey games, make-up, hobby model kits, craft supplies, bows craft supplies, glue guns and other glues craft supplies, handicraft kits and stained glass making supplies.
Exclude household and industrial glues and adhesives.

Printed books

Include printed atlases, printed bibles, printed books ordered online and delivered to the client, printed hardcover children's books, printed hardcover non-fiction books, printed new soft cover books, printed paperback literary fiction books, printed reference books, printed talking books, printed technical books, printed textbooks, printed trade hardcover books, electronic books stored on a physical media.
Exclude coloring books (see Craft and hobby kits, and leisure supplies), printed books packaged and sold together with game software on physical media (see Game software on physical media), printed books packaged and sold together with software (except game software) (see Computer software (except game)), printed comic books (see Newspapers, magazines and other periodicals, printed).

E-books

Include children's e-books, e-Atlases, e-Bibles, e-Textbooks, literary fiction e-books, professional e-books, scholarly e-books, technical e-books, trade e-books, comic e-books.
Exclude books stored and sold in CDs and DVDs, but not sold as downloads (see Printed books)

Newspapers, magazines and other periodicals, printed

Include printed community newspapers, printed daily newspapers, printed ethnic newspaper, printed magazines, printed newspapers ordered online and delivered to the client, printed periodicals and printed comic books.

Newspapers, magazines and other periodical, online

Include online community newspapers, online daily newspapers, online ethnic newspapers, online magazines, online periodicals.
Exclude newspapers, magazines and other printed periodicals bought online (see Newspapers, magazines and other periodicals, printed).

Other publications not elsewhere classified, printed

Include anniversary cards, printed, art prints, greeting cards, printed, love cards, printed, posters, printed maps, wedding cards, printed.
Exclude printed postcards, invitations, calendars, diaries and planners (see Home office supplies not elsewhere classified).

Other publications not elsewhere classified, online

Include digital maps, online anniversary cards, online birthday cards, online Christmas cards, online greeting cards, online love cards, online wedding cards.

Audio recordings, on physical media

Include audio recordings on physical media ordered online and delivered to the client, digital recorded natural sounds, on physical media, digital recordings on physical media, musical songs on physical media, new pre-recorded audio CDs, new pre-recorded audio discs, new vinyl records, ocean or sea sound recordings, on physical media, spoken voices or word recordings on physical media, wildlife sound recordings, on physical media.
Exclude used or second-hand sales of physical media containing audio recordings (see Section 9 Antiques, and used or second hand merchandise).

Audio recordings, downloadable

Include digital recorded natural sound downloads, downloadable music albums, downloadable musical songs, downloadable ocean or sea sound recordings, downloadable spoken voices or words recordings, downloadable wildlife sound recordings, MP3 music downloads.
Exclude audio on demand streamed over the Internet on fixed and mobile devices, audio recordings on physical media bought online (see Audio recordings, on physical media).

Movies, on physical media

Include action or adventure movies, on physical media, documentary movies on physical media, drama movies on physical media, movies on physical media ordered online and delivered to the client, new pre-recorded movie DVDs, new pre-recorded movie laser discs, romance movies on physical media, science fiction movies on physical media.
Exclude used or second-hand sales of physical media containing movie recordings (see Section 9, Antiques and used second-hand merchandise).

Movies, downloadable

Include action or adventure movies downloads, documentary movies downloads, drama movies downloads, romance movies downloads, science fiction movies downloads.
Exclude movies on demand streamed over the Internet to fixed and mobile devices, movies on physical media bought online (see Movies, on physical media).

Television programs and other video recordings, on physical media

Include reality television program recordings, on physical media, television drama and comedy program recordings, on physical media, television formal education and pre-school program recordings, on physical media, television long-form documentary program recordings, on physical media, television music and dance program recordings, on physical media, television music video clips program recordings, on physical media, television programs and other video recordings, on physical media, ordered online and delivered to the client, television sports program recordings, on physical media, television talk or panel show program recordings, on physical media.
Exclude used or second-hand sales of physical media containing television programs and other video recordings (see Section 9 Antiques, and used or second-hand merchandise).

Television programs and other video recordings, downloadable

Include reality television program recordings downloads, television drama and comedy program recordings downloads, television formal education and pre-school program recordings downloads, television long-form documentary program recordings downloads, television music and dance program recordings downloads, television music video clips program recordings downloads, television talk or panel show program recordings downloads.
Exclude television programs and other video recordings, on physical media, bought online (see Television programs and other video recordings, on physical media), television programs and other videos on demand streamed over the Internet to fixed and mobile devices.

Motor vehicles, recreational vehicles, motor vehicle parts and accessories

New passenger automobiles

Include new automobiles (except jeeps, vans, light trucks, SUVs, pickup trucks, medium and heavy trucks).
Exclude parts and accessories.

New minivans, sport utility vehicles and light trucks

Include new jeeps, minivans, pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles, light trucks and vans (except converted vans).
Exclude parts and accessories.

New medium and heavy trucks

Include new buses and class 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 trucks.
Exclude parts and accessories.

Used passenger automobiles

Include antique cars and used cars.
Exclude parts and accessories.

Used minivans, sport utility vehicles and light trucks

Include used and antique light truck, used and antique vans (except converted vans), used and antique jeeps, used minivans, used pickup trucks, used sport utility vehicles, used street legal army light trucks and used street legal army jeeps.
Exclude parts and accessories.

Used medium and heavy trucks

Include used buses and used class 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 trucks.
Exclude parts and accessories.

New motorcycles and scooters

Include motorcycle clothing, motorcycles (except all-terrain vehicles), motorcycle parts and accessories, scooters, scooter parts and accessories, motorized scooters, motorized scooter parts and accessories, motorcycle trailers, non-automotive motorcycles parts and accessories, non-automotive scooter parts and accessories and non-automotive moped parts and accessories.

New motor homes, travel trailers and truck campers

Include truck camper appliances, motor home appliances, travel trailer appliances, truck mounted campers, recreational converted vans, motor homes, motor home parts and accessories, non-automotive motor home parts, non-automotive travel trailer parts, non-automotive truck camper parts, non-automotive converted van parts, tent trailers, tent trailer parts and accessories, travel trailers, travel trailer parts and accessories, truck camper parts and accessories, truck campers and folding camping trailers.

New snowmobiles and other personal off-road vehicles

Include all-terrain vehicles, all-terrain vehicle parts and accessories, non-automotive all-terrain vehicle parts and accessories, snowmobiles, snowmobile parts and accessories, personal watercraft trailers, snowmobile trailers and non-automotive snowmobile parts and accessories.

New recreational boats and other recreational vehicles, not elsewhere classified

Include yacht appliances, cruise appliances, boat parts and accessories, houseboats, boats, boating radar equipment, fishing boats and motors, speeding boats and motors, cabin cruisers, yachts, sails, non-automotive boat parts and accessories, canoes, kayaks and utility trailers, new motorized golf carts.

Used motorcycles and scooters

Include used scooters, motorcycles (except all-terrain vehicles) and mopeds, scooters, motorcycles and mopeds used parts and accessories, non-automotive motorbike and mopeds used parts and accessories.

Used motor homes, travel trailers and truck campers

Include used motor homes, tent trailers, travel trailers, truck campers and converted recreational vans, used motor home, travel trailers, truck camper and converted van parts and accessories, used camper and travel trailer appliances, used non-automotive motor home, travel trailers, truck camper and converted van parts.

Used snowmobiles and other personal off-road vehicles

Include used snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles, snowmobile and all-terrain vehicles used parts and accessories, non-automotive snowmobile and all-terrain vehicles used parts and accessories, used snowmobile trailers.

Used recreational boats and other used recreational vehicles, not elsewhere classified

Include used personal aircraft, parts and accessories, used boats, parts and accessories, used canoes, houseboats, motorized golf carts, yachts, kayaks, boat oars, fishing boats and motors, speeding boats and motors, cabin cruisers, boat paddles, canoe paddles, kayak paddles, sails and used non-automotive boat parts and accessories.

New motor vehicle tires

Include new, used and retreaded tires for buses, medium trucks or class 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 trucks, cars, minivans or vans, farm equipment, recreational vehicles, utility trailers and heavy trucks

Motor vehicle parts and accessories, new and used (exclude tires)

Include automotive air conditioners, automotive new and used parts and accessories (except tires, tubes and baby car seats), trailer hitches, hubcaps, new and used bus parts (except tires and tubes), new and used medium truck parts (except tires and tubes), new and used class 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 truck parts (except tires and tubes), new and used heavy truck parts (except tires and tubes), used car parts (except tires, tubes and baby car seats), new pickup truck parts (except tires and tubes), used pickup truck parts (except tires and tubes), new and used van or minivan parts (except tires, tubes and baby car seats), new and used jeep and other sport utility vehicle parts (except tires, tubes and baby car seats), automotive new or used parts for farm equipment (except tires and tubes), automotive new or used parts for recreational vehicles (except tires and tubes), car radios and remote car starters.

Automotive chemicals

Include antifreeze, automotive oils, carburetor cleaners, fuel injector cleaners, automotive engine oils, gas line cleaners, automotive lubricating greases, windshield washer fluids.
Exclude automotive fuels.

Motor vehicle maintenance and repair services

Include maintenance and repair services for automobiles and light trucks, motor homes, travel trailers and campers, heavy trucks and buses.

Rental and operating leasing services of motor homes, travel trailers and campers

Include rental and operating leasing services without operator of motor homes, campers, tent trailers and road recreational vehicles containing sleeping space.
Exclude financial leases for campers, motor homes and travel trailers.

Rental and operating leasing services of automobiles and light trucks, without operator

Include rental and non-financial leasing of automobiles and light trucks and vans, without operator.
Exclude rental of passenger automobiles and light trucks or vans with operator or driver.

Rental and operating leasing services of heavy trucks, truck trailers and buses, without operator

Include rental and operating leasing services of heavy trucks, truck trailers and buses, without operator.
Exclude rental of heavy trucks, truck trailers and buses with operator or driver.

Automotive and household fuels

Automotive fuels

Include diesel fuel, ethanol fuel blends, gasoline, automotive natural gas and automotive propane fuel.

Household fuels

Include coal fuel, electrical supply, electric power supply, firewood, home heating fuels, natural gas for home appliance and heating, propane for household use, wood pellets fuel, heating oils, kerosene and wood for stoves and fireplaces.

Health, personal and household products

Prescription pharmaceuticals

Include drugs purchased with a prescription.
Exclude over-the-counter drugs and drugs purchased without a prescription.

Non-prescription pharmaceuticals

Include over-the-counter drugs (except vitamin, mineral, and other health supplements), non-prescription drugs (except vitamin, mineral, and other health supplements) and non-prescription sleeping aids.
Exclude drugs purchased with a prescription and other toiletries/personal care products.

Vitamins, minerals and other health supplements

Include herbal health supplement remedies, mineral health supplements, nutritional power bars, vitamins or multivitamins and body enhancing supplements.

Prescription eyewear

Include prescription glasses (eyeglasses) or spectacles, contact lenses (with prescription) and prescription sunglasses.
Exclude eyewear bought without a prescription (including sunglasses), frames bought separately, eyeglass cases and other accessories and contact lens solutions and cleaners.

Non-prescription eyewear

Include non-prescription sunglasses, non-prescription glasses or eyeglasses, eyewear accessories, eyeglass cases, eyeglass frames bought separately and non-prescription contact lenses.
Exclude prescription eyewear, including prescription sunglasses and contact lenses and contact lens solutions and cleaners.

Home health products, not elsewhere classified

Include home health care equipment and supplies, parts and accessories of home health care equipment and supplies, sick room equipment and supplies, artificial limbs, bedpans, braces, walking canes, crutches, first-aid kits, hearing aids, orthotic devices, health care thermometers, walkers health care equipment, walkers medical equipment and wheelchairs.
Exclude eyewear, orthopedic shoes, exercise and fitness equipment and drugs/medications.

Disposable diapers

Include disposable baby diapers and disposable adult diapers.

Infant and children's car seats

Include infant or children's car seats.

Strollers and infant care products, not elsewhere classified

Include baby carriers, baby strollers, baby carriages, baby monitors and baby walkers.

Cosmetics and fragrances

Include cosmetics and fragrances (except personal care goods), concealer makeup, face powder makeup, rouge (blush or blusher) makeup, contour powder or cream makeup, highlight (cream, liquid or powder) makeup, bronzer makeup, mascara, nail colour polishes, makeup removers, face creams and lotions, hand lotions or cream and facial masks or peels.

Toiletries

Include personal toiletries, hair shampoos and conditioners, aftershave (cream, liquid or gel), shaving creams or gels, toothpastes, skin lotions, personal liquid soap, personal soaps, bath and shower gels, bath and shower oils, bath and shower salts, personal deodorants, personal antiperspirants, body or skin toners, mouthwashes, denture cleaners, non-electric toothbrushes, non-electric razors, non-electric depilatories, razor blades, hand mirrors, pumice stones, rubbing alcohol, haircare preparations, foot care sprays, foot care powders and astringents.

Feminine hygiene products

Include sanitary napkins, sanitary towels, pantyliners and menstrual cups.

Personal care supplies and equipment, not elsewhere classified

Include wigs, toupees, hair pieces, baby care products, bandages, personal hair bleaches, condoms, contact lens solutions and cleaners, non-prescription contraceptives, cosmetic bags, cotton balls and batting, emery boards, nail files or clippers, health and beauty aids, hot water bottles, nail polishers and removers, artificial finger nails, non-electric personal care products (except toiletries), pregnancy test kits, prophylactics, optical saline solutions, sunscreens and petroleum jelly.
Exclude electric personal care appliances (shavers, razors, toothbrushes, hair dryers, curling irons, heating pads, etc.), drugs, cosmetics and fragrances, eyewear, hair accessories and home health care equipment and supplies (crutches, canes, wheelchairs, etc.).

Hardware, tools, renovation and lawn and garden products

Hardware

Include builders' hardware, home hardware, farm hardware, cabinet hardware, furniture hardware, kitchen hardware. (Including locksets, key blanks, fasteners, nuts, bolts, nails, screws, washers, hinges, knobs and pulls, etc.)

Hand tools

Include files and rasps, non-powered glue guns and glue, hammers, hatchets, non-automotive jacks, ladders, measuring tapes, propane torch kits, non-power mechanics' tools, non-powered hand tools (except garden tools), non-powered staple guns, snow shovels (except electric), hand tool belts and toolboxes for non-powered hand tools.
Exclude garden tools, hoes, rakes, garden shovels and spades, etc.

Power tools

Include power saws (except chain saws), rechargeable batteries for power tools, power tool batteries, power tools belts, power carpenters' tools, power mechanics' tools, electric snow shovels, electric snow scoops, soldering irons, toolboxes for power tools, power tools (except garden tools) and electric picks.
Exclude chainsaws.

Major household air conditioning, heating and water heating equipment

Include central air conditioners, household air exchangers, household air cleaners, baseboard heaters, furnace belts, household air or heating ducts, air or heating vents, water heating equipment and cooling equipment and supplies.

Plumbing and electrical supplies (include fixtures)

Include bathtubs, cables (electrical), home circuit breakers, electrical equipment and supplies, exhaust fans, faucets, fireplace inserts, home heating furnaces, fuse boxes, heating equipment and supplies, humidifiers attached to furnace, indoor Jacuzzis, light plugs, home plumbing pipes or valves, stove pipes, electrical plates or covers, plumbing equipment and supplies, home power generators, shower heads, sinks, solar panel heating kits, home electrical switches, home electrical plugs, household thermostat, household toilets, indoor whirlpools and woodstoves.

Paint, painting supplies and wallpaper

Include household paint brushes or rollers, paint strippers or thinners, household paint, wood stains, varnishes and household wallpaper.
Exclude craft and artists' paints and thinners, automotive paints and glass.

Flooring, floor coverings and floor and wall tiles

Include carpets or rugs, household floor mats (except bath and for fitness equipment), floor tiles, ceramic, porcelain, clay, vinyl or cork tile countertops, fireplace tiles, hardwood or parquet flooring and linoleum flooring.
Exclude ceiling tiles.

Lumber and other renovation materials and supplies

Include baseboard trim, bathroom cabinets (except medicine), fiberglass insulation batting, structural beams, lumber boards, building or paving bricks, caulking compounds, ceiling tiles, corrugated steel roofing, countertops, doors, drywall, eavestroughing, fencing, door or window frames, garage door, kitchen cabinets, building lumber, medium density fiberboard sheets, molding, plywood, posts or poles, prefabricated stairs and other structural pieces, shingles, outdoor shutters, siding, non-automotive weather-stripping, windows and pressure-treated wood.
Exclude hardwood flooring, tiles, marble and granite.

Hardware and renovation related products, not elsewhere classified

Include ceiling fans, household interior or exterior lighting fixtures, decorative mirrors, convex or concave mirrors for security, household alarm systems, asphalt sealing compounds, industrial cleaning compounds, concrete sealing compounds, driveway sealing compounds (oil base or acrylic), duct tape, electrical tape, flagpoles, garage door openers, industrial glues or adhesives, general purpose lubricating greases, house numbers or letters, mailboxes hardware, masking tape, medicine cabinets, lubricating oils (except cooking and automotive), water pressure cleaners, propane torch cylinders, sandpaper, shelving or brackets, vacuum cleaners or shopvacs, non-electrical wire and safety equipment (except safety clothing and footwear for women, men, children and infants).

Lawnmowers, snowblowers and gardening tools

Include chain saws, new garden tractors, lawnmowers, snowblowers, tillers, leaf loaders, trimmers, concrete curbing machines, gardening tools, top soil mixtures lawn dressings, lawn sprinklers, plant and tree pruners, garden shovels, garden spades, garden tools, wheelbarrows, outdoor urns and outdoor planters.

Live plants, seeds and other home and garden supplies (exclude agricultural fertilizers and pesticides)

Include outdoor hot tubs, outdoor spas, outdoor whirlpools, above ground pools, plant bulbs, bushes and shrubs, cut real Christmas trees, lawn and garden flowers, peat moss, lawn and garden plants, nursery stock seedlings, seeds, sod, outdoor soil, nursery stock trees, live plants, picnic tables, barbecues and accessories, composters, lawn ornaments, outdoor specialty lighting, pool chemicals and propane tanks for barbecues.

Rental and operating leasing services of commercial and industrial machinery and equipment (exclude office equipment)

Include rental and operating leasing services of air, rail, and water transportation equipment (without operator) or other commercial or industrial machinery (without operator).
Exclude rental and leasing services of office equipment.

Miscellaneous retail products

Pets

Include domestic and exotic household pets.
Exclude pet food, accessories and supplies (see Pet foods, supplies and accessories).

Pet food, supplies and accessories

Include pet foods, snacks and treats, wild bird feed, pet toys, leashes, shampoo, clippers, aquariums, cages, beds, etc.
Exclude pets (see Pets), tack and saddlery (see Sporting equipment not elsewhere classified).

Tobacco products and accessories (exclude e-cigarettes)

Include tobacco, cigarettes, cigars, pipes, lighters, rolling machines, cigarette holders, snuff, tobacco papers, cigarette lighters, cigarette holders, cigarette filters.
Exclude household matches (see Section 3 Miscellaneous household supplies not elsewhere classified) e-cigarettes (see Electronic cigarettes, e-liquid refills, vaporizers and other e-liquid delivery systems.

Electronic cigarettes, e-liquid refills, vaporizers and other e-liquid delivery systems

Include atomizers for e-cigarettes, cartomizers for e-cigarettes, cartridges for e-liquids, clearomizers for e-cigarettes, disposable e-cigarettes, e-cigarettes drip tips, e-cigarette kits, e-liquids with or without nicotine (refills), e-pipes, rechargeable e-cigarette kits, vape pens, vaporizers for e-cigarettes.
Exclude battery chargers, sold separately (see Miscellaneous household supplies, not elsewhere classified), digital display incorporating light emitting diodes (LED), not assembled or mounted, for small electronic devices, sold separately (see Other miscellaneous equipment and supplies, not elsewhere classified), household batteries, sold separately (see Miscellaneous household supplies, not elsewhere classified), microchips and other printed and integrated circuits, not assembled or mounted, for electronic devices (see Other miscellaneous equipment and supplies, not elsewhere classified), plastic and glass vial containers, not assembled or mounted in e-cigarettes (see Other miscellaneous equipment and supplies, not elsewhere classified), universal serial bus (USB) connectors, adapters, or cables, sold separately (Miscellaneous household supplies, not elsewhere classified).

Home office equipment, not elsewhere classified

Include adding machines, photocopiers, typewriters.

Home office supplies, not elsewhere classified

Include home office computer inkjet cartridges, desk accessories, home office supplies (pens, pencils, markers, scotch tape, etc.), stationery (notepads, notebooks, envelopes, file folders, etc.), gift wraps and party supplies.
Exclude gift wrap paper (see Miscellaneous household supplies, not elsewhere classified).

Farm equipment

Include new and used tractors, hay balers, harrows, combines, horse and cattle trailers and other specialized farm equipment (include parts).

Farm supplies

Include animal feed, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides, herbicides and livestock.

Supplies for beer and wine making

Include concentrates, malts, beer and wine making chemicals, corks and beer caps, beer and wine making labels and bottles.
Exclude fees for beer and/or wine making.

Cut flowers, indoor potted plants and floral supplies

Include cut flowers, indoor potted plants, potting soil and floral supplies.
Exclude fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and outdoor nursery stock and supplies.

Monuments and tombstones

Include coffins, caskets, tombstones and urns.

Manufactured mobile homes

Include new and used mobile homes.

Professional and scientific instruments

Include microscopes, surveyor's equipment, laboratory equipment, telescopes, etc.

Equipment and supplies for non-farm activities, not elsewhere classified

Include audio and video mixers, new personal aircraft and new aircraft parts and accessories.

Artwork

Include sculptures, paintings, original drawings and artwork carvings.

Collectors' items

Include stamps, coins, cards, autographed items, related albums, etc.

Antiques, and used or second-hand merchandise (exclude motor vehicles and mobile homes)

Include used, second-hand or antique goods such as sporting goods, clothing, footwear, furniture, appliances, computers, electronics, books, musical instruments, musical recordings, CDs, DVDs and jewellery.
Exclude used automobiles, used automotive parts and accessories and used mobile homes.

Other miscellaneous equipment and supplies not elsewhere classified

Include crests, digital display incorporating light emitting diodes (LED), for small electronic devices, gift cards, gift certificates, glass vial containers, not assembled or mounted in e-cigarettes, key chains, key rings, key tags, marital aids, microchips and other printed and integrated circuits, for electronic devices, novelties, phone cards, pins, plastic vial containers, not assembled or mounted in e-cigarettes, souvenirs.

Other retail

Retail trade commissions

Include commissions from catalogue sales, commission from gift card sales, commission from gift certificates sales, commissions from leasing of home audiovisual equipment, commissions from leasing of motor homes (except with operator), commissions from rental of computer equipment, commissions from rental of household appliances, commissions from the sales of lottery tickets and other games of chance to gamblers, sale of instant tickets for sports pool games to gamblers, for a fee or commission, sale of instant-win lottery tickets to gamblers for a fee or commission, charity commissions, commissions from repairs and maintenance.
Exclude lottery tickets issued by the lottery operator, the service of buying and selling merchandise on own account at the final step in the distribution chain.

Miscellaneous services

Rental and operating leasing services of office furniture and equipment (exclude computer equipment)

Include rental and operating leasing of cubicle partitions, office chairs, desks, filing cabinets, office safes, cash registers, fax machines, photocopiers and word processors.
Exclude rental and leasing services of computer and peripheral equipment (see Section 3, Rental and operating leasing services of computer equipment), financial leases for office furniture and equipment.

Rental and operating leasing services of other goods (exclude movies and games on DVDs, tapes and cassettes)

Include rental and operating leasing services of audiovisual equipment and appliances, of formal wear, costumes and accessories, of home health care equipment, of equipment for parties and other social events, of recreational goods and equipment, rental and non-financial leasing services of household furniture and furnishings.
Exclude rental and leasing services of movies and games on DVDs, tapes and cassettes (see Section 3, Rental services of movies and games on DVDs, tapes and cassettes).

Repair and maintenance services (exclude for buildings and transportation equipment)

Include maintenance and repair services for commercial and industrial machinery and equipment, electronic and precision equipment and personal and household goods, computer hardware, boats, tent trailers, motorcycles, snowmobiles, sporting equipment, etc.
Exclude repair and maintenance services for buildings and motor vehicles.

Other goods and services

Notification of intent to extract web data

Statistics Canada is piloting a web data extraction initiative, also known as web scraping, which uses software to search and compile publicly available data from business websites. As a result, we may visit the website for this business to search for, and compile, additional information. This initiative should allow us to reduce the reporting burden on businesses, as well as produce additional statistical indicators to ensure that our data remain accurate and relevant.

We will do our utmost to ensure the data are collected in a manner that will not affect the functionality of the website. Any data collected will be used by Statistics Canada for statistical and research purposes only, in accordance with the agency's mandate.

For more information regarding Statistics Canada's web scraping initiative, please visit Web scraping.

To learn more about Statistics Canada's transparency and accountability, please visit Transparency and accountability.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Statistics Canada Client Services, toll-free at 1-877-949-9492 (TTY: 1-800-363-7629) or by email at infostats@statcan.gc.ca. Additional information about this survey can be found by selecting the following link:

Consult the reporting guide at Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP) for further information.