Statement 4 (II,III,IV,V,F) - Part I

To be completed for Scheduled (unit toll) transportation by Level II, III, IV and V Canadian carriers and by foreign air carriers operating unit toll international services using fixed wing aircraft having a maximum take-off weight on wheels not greater than 30,000 kgs. (66,100 lbs). Canadian Level II carriers which file Statement 3 (I,II) are excluded.

Contact:

Odile Lefebvre
Production Head,
Aviation Statistics Centre, Transportation Division,
Room 1506, Main Bldg.,
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0T6

Telephone: (613) 951-0140
Fax: (613) 951-0010

Reporting Instructions for the Coupon Passenger Origin and Destination Report

Statement 4 (II,III,IV,V,F)

(Statement 4 (,II,III,IV,V,F) is to be filed by air carriers that are not required to file Statement 3 (I,II))

April 14, 2000

Table of contents

1. General Description of Survey
2. Confidentiality
3. Authority and Participat1on
4. Effective Date of Instructions
5. Recording of Data
6. Submission of Forms
7. Example for Recording Data

I General Description of Survey

The Coupon Passenger Origin and Destination Survey is concerned with collecting revenue passenger¹ origin and destination flight segment data within a carrier's flight system. Flight segments of a passenger itinerary beyond the carrier's flight system are not taken into consideration. The number of flight departures at each airport served by the participating carrier is also reported. All data collected in this survey are related to regional and local unit toll services and are submitted quarterly on Statement 4 (II,III,IV,V,F). This statement must be filed with the Aviation Statistics Centre within 30 days after the end of the reference quarter.

II Confidentiality

"Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from publishing any statistics which would divulge information obtained from this survey that relates to any identifiable business, institution or individual without the previous written consent of that business, institution or individual. The data reported on this questionnaire will be treated in confidence, used for statistical purposes and published in aggregate form only. The confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act are not affected by either the Access to Information Act or any other Legislation".

III Authority and Participation

To reduce response burden and to provide consistent statistics, Statistics Canada, under section 12 of the Statistics Act, has entered into a data sharing agreement with Transport Canada covering federally regulated carriers. Statistics Canada is collecting the information for itself pursuant to the Statistics Act and on behalf of Transport Canada pursuant to the Canada Transportation Act and the Carriers and Transportation Undertakings Information Regulations, thus satisfying the requirements of the Regulations to provide this type of information to Transport Canada.

Under this authority, Reporting level II, III, IV and V Canadian carriers must file Statement 4 (II,III,IV,V,F) for all their unit toll services (domestic or international) with the exception of those Level II Canadian carriers filing Statement 3 (I,II). Level II carriers who enplane 300,000 or more revenue passengers in each of the two years immediately preceding the reporting year must file Statement 3 (I,II). Also reporting Statement 4 (II,III,IV,V,F) under this authority are foreign carriers operating unit toll international services using fixed wing aircraft having a maximum take-off weight on wheels not greater than 30,000 kilograms (66,100 lbs).

IV Effective Date of Instructions

The Coupon Passengers Origin and Destination Report is to be filed according to these reporting instructions for operations performed after December 31, 1992.

V Recording of Data

Coupon passengers origin and destination data are recorded on Statement 4 (II,III,IV,V,F) which is in the format of an 11 X 14 matrix (see sample attached).

An explanation of each Field on Statement 4 (II,III,IV,V,F) follows:

Carrier Code - The carrier code to be used is the Official Airline Guide (OAG) code. Those carriers that do not appear in the OAG shall leave this field blank;

Year - These cells are to be completed with the four digits for the year to which the report relates.

Quarter - These cells are not to be completed with numbers to identify the quarter to which the report relates. The quarters must be entered as follows:

• 1 - first quarter (Jan. - March)
• 2 - second quarter (April - June)
• 3 - third quarter (July - Sept.)
• 4 - fourth quarter (Oct. - Dec.)

Origin - These cells are to be filled with a list of all the airports where the reporting carrier operates unit toll services. Enter the airport's full name in the boxes provided down the left-hand side of the matrix.

Destinatio - These cells are to be filled with the same airports (in the same order) as the Origin list. Enter the airport's full name in the boxes provided across the top of the matrix.

Passengers - Revenue passenger figures are to be entered into the matrix on a directional coupon origin and destination basis. This is best explained with a numerical example. Please see page 4. Please note that it is impossible to have the origin and destination as the same site. (i.e., one cannot report a trip from Vancouver to Vancouver.) A passenger with a return itinerary from Vancouver to Victoria to Vancouver, would therefore be reported as 2 passengers: one passenger from Vancouver to Victoria and one passenger from Victoria to Vancouver representing two directional trips;

Total -Every site reported on this statement must be totalled as both an origin and a destination. The total column for the origin is down the right-hand side of the matrix. The destination totals appear across the bottom of the matrix. The summed total of all site totals should appear in the lower right-hand corner under the total column;

Number of Departing Flights - This column contains the total number of aircraft departures of passenger flights for each airport listed as an origin.

Authorized Officer & Telephone Number - The officer employed by the carrier who is responsible for the completion of this statement should print his/her name and complete telephone number in the space provided at the bottom of the form.

VI Submission of Forms

The completed Statement 4 (II,III,IV,V,F) forms are to be submitted within 30 days after the end of the quarter to the following address:

Aviation Statistics Centre
Statistics Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1A 0N9

A supply of return envelopes and Statement 4 (II,III,IV,V,F) forms will be provided on request by contacting the Aviation Statistics Centre by telephone at (613) 951-0151 or by Fax: at (613) 951-0010.

VII Example for Recording Data

Suppose that a carrier with the name Air Carrier Inc. operates unit toll service at the following airports:

Windsor (YQG)
Toronto/Lester B. Pearson (YYZ);
and Montréal/Dorval (YUL);

This carrier provides direct services between:
Windsor and Toronto;
Toronto and Montréal.

Assume that during the first quarter of 2000, Air Carrier Inc. carried the following revenue passengers:

• 30 passengers with an itinerary YQG-YYZ
• 10 passengers with an itinerary YYZ-YQG
• 80 passengers with an itinerary YYZ-YUL
• 78 passengers with an itinerary YUL-YYZ
• 23 passengers with an itinerary YQG-YYZ-YUL (i.e. 23 passengers travelled from YQG to YUL via YYZ on the same carriers's system).

The city-pairs to be reported are as follows:

• YQG-YYZ (30+23) = 53
• YYZ-YQG (10)
• YYZ-YUL (80+23) = 103
• YUL-YYZ (78)

Please note that there are no passengers reported as YQG-YUL.

Also, assume that the carrier performed the following number of flights:

• 23 flights departed from Windsor
• 25 flights departed from Toronto
• 30 flights departed from Montréal

The above information would be reported on Statement 4 (II,III,IV,V,F) as shown on the attached page.

Note:

1. Revenue Passenger - In the case of unit toll transportation, it represents an enplaned passenger for whom the carrier receives remuneration of at least 25% of the basic fare.

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Objectives, uses and users
Concepts, variables and classifications
Coverage and frames
Sampling
Questionnaire design
Response and nonresponse
Data collection and capture operations
Editing
Imputation
Estimation
Revisions and seasonal adjustment
Data quality evaluation
Disclosure control

1. Objectives, uses and users

1.1. Objective

The Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MRTS) provides information on the performance of the retail trade sector on a monthly basis, and when combined with other statistics, represents an important indicator of the state of the Canadian economy.

1.2. Uses

The estimates provide a measure of the health and performance of the retail trade sector. Information collected is used to estimate level and monthly trend for retail sales. At the end of each year, the estimates provide a preliminary look at annual retail sales and performance.

1.3. Users

A variety of organizations, sector associations, and levels of government make use of the information. Retailers rely on the survey results to compare their performance against similar types of businesses, as well as for marketing purposes. Retail associations are able to monitor industry performance and promote their retail industries. Investors can monitor industry growth, which can result in better access to investment capital by retailers. Governments are able to understand the role of retailers in the economy, which aids in the development of policies and tax incentives. As an important industry in the Canadian economy, governments are able to better determine the overall health of the economy through the use of the estimates in the calculation of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

2. Concepts, variables and classifications

2.1. Concepts

The retail trade sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in retailing merchandise, generally without transformation, and rendering services incidental to the sale of merchandise.

The retailing process is the final step in the distribution of merchandise; retailers are therefore organized to sell merchandise in small quantities to the general public. This sector comprises two main types of retailers, that is, store and non-store retailers. The MRTS covers only store retailers. Their main characteristics are described below. Store retailers operate fixed point-of-sale locations, located and designed to attract a high volume of walk-in customers. In general, retail stores have extensive displays of merchandise and use mass-media advertising to attract customers. They typically sell merchandise to the general public for personal or household consumption, but some also serve business and institutional clients. These include establishments such as office supplies stores, computer and software stores, gasoline stations, building material dealers, plumbing supplies stores and electrical supplies stores.

In addition to selling merchandise, some types of store retailers are also engaged in the provision of after-sales services, such as repair and installation. For example, new automobile dealers, electronic and appliance stores and musical instrument and supplies stores often provide repair services, while floor covering stores and window treatment stores often provide installation services. As a general rule, establishments engaged in retailing merchandise and providing after sales services are classified in this sector. Catalogue sales showrooms, gasoline service stations, and mobile home dealers are treated as store retailers.

2.2. Variables

Sales are defined as the sales of all goods purchased for resale, net of returns and discounts. This includes commission revenue and fees earned from selling goods and services on account of others, such as selling lottery tickets, bus tickets, and phone cards. It also includes parts and labour revenue from repair and maintenance; revenue from rental and leasing of goods and equipment; revenues from services, including food services; sales of goods manufactured as a secondary activity; and the proprietor’s withdrawals, at retail, of goods for personal use. Other revenue from rental of real estate, placement fees, operating subsidies, grants, royalties and franchise fees are excluded.

Trading Location is the physical location(s) in which business activity is conducted in each province and territory, and for which sales are credited or recognized in the financial records of the company. For retailers, this would normally be a store.

Constant Dollars: The value of retail trade is measured in two ways; including the effects of price change on sales and net of the effects of price change. The first measure is referred to as retail trade in current dollars and the latter as retail trade in constant dollars. The method of calculating the current dollar estimate is to aggregate the weighted value of sales for all retail outlets. The method of calculating the constant dollar estimate is to first adjust the sales values to a base year, using the Consumer Price Index, and then sum up the resulting values.

2.3. Classification

The Monthly Retail Trade Survey is based on the definition of retail trade under the NAICS (North American Industry Classification System). NAICS is the agreed upon common framework for the production of comparable statistics by the statistical agencies of Canada, Mexico and the United States. The agreement defines the boundaries of twenty sectors. NAICS is based on a production-oriented, or supply based conceptual framework in that establishments are groups into industries according to similarity in production processes used to produce goods and services.

Estimates appear for 21 industries based on special aggregations of the 2007 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industries. The 21 industries are further aggregated to 11 sub-sectors.

Geographically, sales estimates are produced for Canada and each province and territory.

3. Coverage and frames

Statistics Canada’s Business Register ( BR) provides the frame for the Monthly Retail Trade Survey. The BR is a structured list of businesses engaged in the production of goods and services in Canada. It is a centrally maintained database containing detailed descriptions of most business entities operating within Canada. The BR includes all incorporated businesses, with or without employees. For unincorporated businesses, the BR includes all employers with businesses, and businesses with no employees with annual sales that have a Goods and Services Tax (GST) or annual revenue that declares individual taxes.  annual sales greater than $30,000 that have a Goods and Services Tax (GST) account (the BR does not include unincorporated businesses with no employees and with annual sales less than $30,000).

The businesses on the BR are represented by a hierarchical structure with four levels, with the statistical enterprise at the top, followed by the statistical company, the statistical establishment and the statistical location. An enterprise can be linked to one or more statistical companies, a statistical company can be linked to one or more statistical establishments, and a statistical establishment to one or more statistical locations.

The target population for the MRTS consists of all statistical establishments on the BR that are classified to the retail sector using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) (approximately 200,000 establishments). The NAICS code range for the retail sector is 441100 to 453999. A statistical establishment is the production entity or the smallest grouping of production entities which: produces a homogeneous set of goods or services; does not cross provincial boundaries; and provides data on the value of output, together with the cost of principal intermediate inputs used, along with the cost and quantity of labour used to produce the output. The production entity is the physical unit where the business operations are carried out. It must have a civic address and dedicated labour.

The exclusions to the target population are ancillary establishments (producers of services in support of the activity of producing goods and services for the market of more than one establishment within the enterprise, and serves as a cost centre or a discretionary expense centre for which data on all its costs including labour and depreciation can be reported by the business), future establishments, establishments with a missing or a zero gross business income (GBI) value on the BR and establishments in the following non-covered NAICS:

• 4541 (electronic shopping and mail-order houses)
• 4542 (vending machine operators)
• 45431 (fuel dealers)
• 45439 (other direct selling establishments)

4. Sampling

The MRTS sample consists of 10,000 groups of establishments (clusters) classified to the Retail Trade sector selected from the Statistics Canada Business Register. A cluster of establishments is defined as all establishments belonging to a statistical enterprise that are in the same industrial group and geographical region. The MRTS uses a stratified design with simple random sample selection in each stratum. The stratification is done by industry groups (the mainly, but not only four digit level NAICS), and the geographical regions consisting of the provinces and territories, as well as three provincial sub-regions. We further stratify the population by size.

The size measure is created using a combination of independent survey data and three administrative variables: the annual profiled revenue, the GST sales expressed on an annual basis, and the declared tax revenue (T1 or T2). The size strata consist of one take-all (census), at most, two take-some (partially sampled) strata, and one take-none (non-sampled) stratum. Take-none strata serve to reduce respondent burden by excluding the smaller businesses from the surveyed population. These businesses should represent at most ten percent of total sales. Instead of sending questionnaires to these businesses, the estimates are produced through the use of administrative data.

The sample was allocated optimally in order to reach target coefficients of variation at the national, provincial/territorial, industrial, and industrial groups by province/territory levels. The sample was also inflated to compensate for dead, non-responding, and misclassified units.

MRTS is a repeated survey with maximisation of monthly sample overlap. The sample is kept month after month, and every month new units are added (births) to the sample.  MRTS births, i.e., new clusters of establishment(s), are identified every month via the BR’s latest universe. They are stratified according to the same criteria as the initial population. A sample of these births is selected according to the sampling fraction of the stratum to which they belong and is added to the monthly sample. Deaths occur on a monthly basis. A death can be a cluster of establishment(s) that have ceased their activities (out-of-business) or whose major activities are no longer in retail trade (out-of-scope). The status of these businesses is updated on the BR using administrative sources and survey feedback, including feedback from the MRTS. Methods to treat dead units and misclassified units are part of the sample and population update procedures.

5. Questionnaire design

The Monthly Retail Trade Survey incorporates the following sub-surveys:

Monthly Retail Trade Survey - R8

Monthly Retail Trade Survey (with inventories) – R8

Survey of Sales and Inventories of Alcoholic Beverages

The questionnaires collect monthly data on retail sales and the number of trading locations by province or territory and inventories of goods owned and intended for resale from a sample of retailers. The items on the questionnaires have remained unchanged for several years. For the 2004 redesign, the general questionnaires were subject to cosmetic changes only. The questionnaire for Sales and Inventories of Alcoholic Beverages underwent more extensive changes. The modifications were discussed with stakeholders and the respondents were given an opportunity to comment before the new questionnaire was finalized. If further changes are needed to any of the questionnaires, proposed changes would go through a review committee and a field test with respondents and data users to ensure its relevancy.

6. Response and nonresponse

6.1. Response and non-response

Despite the best efforts of survey managers and operations staff to maximize response in the MRTS, some non-response will occur. For statistical establishments to be classified as responding, the degree of partial response (where an accurate response is obtained for only some of the questions asked a respondent) must meet a minimum threshold level below which the response would be rejected and considered a unit nonresponse.  In such an instance, the business is classified as not having responded at all.

Non-response has two effects on data: first it introduces bias in estimates when nonrespondents differ from respondents in the characteristics measured; and second, it contributes to an increase in the sampling variance of estimates because the effective sample size is reduced from that originally sought.

The degree to which efforts are made to get a response from a non-respondent is based on budget and time constraints, its impact on the overall quality and the risk of nonresponse bias.

The main method to reduce the impact of non-response at sampling is to inflate the sample size through the use of over-sampling rates that have been determined from similar surveys.

Besides the methods to reduce the impact of non-response at sampling and collection, the non-responses to the survey that do occur are treated through imputation. In order to measure the amount of non-response that occurs each month, various response rates are calculated. For a given reference month, the estimation process is run at least twice (a preliminary and a revised run). Between each run, respondent data can be identified as unusable and imputed values can be corrected through respondent data. As a consequence, response rates are computed following each run of the estimation process.

For the MRTS, two types of rates are calculated (un-weighted and weighted). In order to assess the efficiency of the collection process, un-weighted response rates are calculated. Weighted rates, using the estimation weight and the value for the variable of interest, assess the quality of estimation. Within each of these types of rates, there are distinct rates for units that are surveyed and for units that are only modeled from administrative data that has been extracted from GST files.

To get a better picture of the success of the collection process, two un-weighted rates called the ‘collection results rate’ and the ‘extraction results rate’ are computed. They are computed by dividing the number of respondents by the number of units that we tried to contact or tried to receive extracted data for them. Non-monthly reporters (respondents with special reporting arrangements where they do not report every month but for whom actual data is available in subsequent revisions) are excluded from both the numerator and denominator for the months where no contact is performed.

In summary, the various response rates are calculated as follows:

Weighted rates:

Survey Response rate (estimation) =
Sum of weighted sales of units with response status i / Sum of survey weighted sales

where i = units that have either reported data that will be used in estimation or are converted refusals, or have reported data that has not yet been resolved for estimation.

Admin Response rate (estimation) =
Sum of weighted sales of units with response status ii / Sum of administrative weighted sales

where ii = units that have data that was extracted from administrative files and are usable for estimation.

Total Response rate (estimation) =
Sum of weighted sales of units with response status i or response status ii / Sum of all weighted sales

Un-weighted rates:

Survey Response rate (collection) =
Number of questionnaires with response status iii/ Number of questionnaires with response status iv

where iii = units that have either reported data (unresolved, used or not used for estimation) or are converted refusals.

where iv = all of the above plus units that have refused to respond, units that were not contacted and other types of non-respondent units.

Admin Response rate (extraction) =
Number of questionnaires with response status vi/ Number of questionnaires with response status vii

where vi = in-scope units that have data (either usable or non-usable) that was extracted from administrative files

where vii = all of the above plus units that have refused to report to the administrative data source, units that were not contacted and other types of non-respondent units.

(% of questionnaire collected over all in-scope questionnaires)

Collection Results Rate =
Number of questionnaires with response status iii / Number of questionnaires with response status viii

where iii = same as iii defined above

where viii = same as iv except for the exclusion of units that were contacted because their response is unavailable for a particular month since they are non-monthly reporters.

Extraction Results Rate =
Number of questionnaires with response status ix / Number of questionnaires with response status vii

where ix = same as vi with the addition of extracted units that have been imputed or were out of scope

where vii = same as vii defined above

(% of questionnaires collected over all questionnaire in-scope we tried to collect)

All the above weighted and un-weighted rates are provided at the industrial group, geography and size group level or for any combination of these levels.

Use of Administrative Data

Managing response burden is an ongoing challenge for Statistics Canada. In an attempt to alleviate response burden and survey costs, especially for smaller businesses, the MRTS has reduced the number of simple establishments in the sample that are surveyed directly and instead derives sales data for these establishments from Goods and Service Tax (GST) files using a statistical model. The model accounts for differences between sales and revenue (reported for GST purposes) as well as for the time lag between the survey reference period and the reference period of the GST file.

For more information on the methodology used for modeling sales from administrative data sources, refer to ‘Monthly Retail Trade Survey: Use of Administrative Data’ under ‘Documentation’ of the IMDB.

Table 1 contains the weighted response rates for all industry groups as well as for total retail trade for each province and territory. For more detailed weighted response rates, please contact the Marketing and Dissemination Section at (613) 951-3549, toll free: 1-877-421-3067 or by e-mail at retailinfo@statcan.

6.2. Methods used to reduce non-response at collection

Significant effort is spent trying to minimize non-response during collection. Methods used, among others, are interviewer techniques such as probing and persuasion, repeated re-scheduling and call-backs to obtain the information, and procedures dealing with how to handle non-compliant (refusal) respondents.

If data are unavailable at the time of collection, a respondent's best estimates are also accepted, and are subsequently revised once the actual data become available.

To minimize total non-response for all variables, partial responses are accepted. In addition, questionnaires are customized for the collection of certain variables, such as inventory, so that collection is timed for those months when the data are available.

Finally, to build trust and rapport between the interviewers and respondents, cases are generally assigned to the same interviewer each month. This action establishes a personal relationship between interviewer and respondent, and builds respondent trust.

7. Data collection and capture operations

Collection of the data is performed by Statistics Canada’s Regional Offices.

Weighted Response Rates

Respondents are sent a questionnaire or are contacted by telephone to obtain their sales and inventory values, as well as to confirm the opening or closing of business trading locations. Collection of the data begins approximately 7 working days after the end of the reference month and continues for the duration of that month.

New entrants to the survey are introduced to the survey via an introductory letter that informs the respondent that a representative of Statistics Canada will be calling. This call is to introduce the respondent to the survey, confirm the respondent's business activity, establish and begin data collection, as well as to answer any questions that the respondent may have.

8. Editing

Data editing is the application of checks to detect missing, invalid or inconsistent entries or to point to data records that are potentially in error. In the survey process for the MRTS, data editing is done at two different time periods.

First of all, editing is done during data collection. Once data are collected via the telephone, or via the receipt of completed mail-in questionnaires, the data are captured using customized data capture applications. All data are subjected to data editing. Edits during data collection are referred to as field edits and generally consist of validity and some simple consistency edits. They are used to detect mistakes made during the interview by the respondent or the interviewer and to identify missing information during collection in order to reduce the need for follow-up later on. Another purpose of the field edits is to clean up responses. In the MRTS, the current month’s responses are edited against the respondent’s previous month’s responses and/or the previous year’s responses for the current month. Field edits are also used to identify problems with data collection procedures and the design of the questionnaire, as well as the need for more interviewer training.

Follow-up with respondents occurs to validate potential erroneous data following any failed preliminary edit check of the data. Once validated, the collected data is regularly transmitted to the head office in Ottawa.

Secondly, editing known as statistical editing is also done after data collection and this is more empirical in nature. Statistical editing is run prior to imputation in order to identify the data that will be used as a basis to impute non-respondents. Large outliers that could disrupt a monthly trend are excluded from trend calculations by the statistical edits. It should be noted that adjustments are not made at this stage to correct the reported outliers.

The first step in the statistical editing is to identify which responses will be subjected to the statistical edit rules. Reported data for the current reference month will go through various edit checks.

The first set of edit checks is based on the Hidiriglou-Berthelot method whereby a ratio of the respondent’s current month data over historical (last month, same month last year) or auxiliary data is analyzed. When the respondent’s ratio differs significantly from ratios of respondents who are similar in terms of industry and/or geography group, the response is deemed an outlier.

The second set of edits consists of an edit known as the share of market edit. With this method, one is able to edit all respondents, even those where historical and auxiliary data is unavailable. The method relies on current month data only. Therefore, within a group of respondents, that are similar in terms of industrial group and/or geography, if the weighted contribution of a respondent to the group’s total is too large, it will be flagged as an outlier.

For edit checks based on the Hidiriglou-Berthelot method, data that are flagged as an outlier will not be included in the imputation models (those based on ratios). Also, data that are flagged as outliers in the share of market edit will not be included in the imputation models where means and medians are calculated to impute for responses that have no historical responses.

In conjunction with the statistical editing after data collection of reported data, there is also error detection done on the extracted GST data. Modeled data based on the GST are also subject to an extensive series of processing steps which thoroughly verify each record that is the basis for the model as well as the record being modeled. Edits are performed at a more aggregate level (industry by geography level) to detect records which deviate from the expected range, either by exhibiting large month-to-month change, or differing significantly from the remaining units. All data which fail these edits are subject to manual inspection and possible corrective action.

9. Imputation

Imputation in the MRTS is the process used to assign replacement values for missing data. This is done by assigning values when they are missing on the record being edited to ensure that estimates are of high quality and that a plausible, internal consistency is created. Due to concerns of response burden, cost and timeliness, it is generally impossible to do all follow-ups with the respondents in order to resolve missing responses. Since it is desirable to produce a complete and consistent microdata file, imputation is used to handle the remaining missing cases.

In the MRTS, imputation is based on historical data or administrative data (GST sales). The appropriate method is selected according to a strategy that is based on whether historical data is available, auxiliary data is available and/or which reference month is being processed.

There are three types of historical imputation methods. The first type is a general trend that uses one historical data source (previous month, data from next month or data from same month previous year). The second type is a regression model where data from previous month and same month previous year are used simultaneously. The third type uses the historical data as a direct replacement value for a non-respondent. Depending upon the particular reference month, there is an order of preference that exists so that top quality imputation can result. The historical imputation method that was labelled as the third type above is always the last option in the order for each reference month.

The imputation methods using administrative data are automatically selected when historical information is unavailable for a non-respondent. The administrative data source (annual GST sales) is the basis of these methods. The annual GST sales are used for two types of methods. One is a general trend that will be used for simple structure, e.g. enterprises with only one establishment, and a second type is called median-average that is used for units with a more complex structure.

10. Estimation

Estimation is a process that approximates unknown population parameters using only part of the population that is included in a sample. Inferences about these unknown parameters are then made, using the sample data and associated survey design. This stage uses Statistics Canada's Generalized Estimation System (GES).

For retail sales, the population is divided into a survey portion (take-all and take-some strata) and a non-survey portion (take-none stratum). From the sample that is drawn from the survey portion, an estimate for the population is determined through the use of a Horvitz-Thompson estimator where responses for sales are weighted by using the inverses of the inclusion probabilities of the sampled units. Such weights (called sampling weights) can be interpreted as the number of times that each sampled unit should be replicated to represent the entire population. The calculated weighted sales values are summed by domain, to produce the total sales estimates by each industrial group / geographic area combination. A domain is defined as the most recent classification values available from the BR for the unit and the survey reference period. These domains may differ from the original sampling strata because units may have changed size, industry or location. Changes in classification are reflected immediately in the estimates and do not accumulate over time. For the non-survey portion, the sales are estimated with statistical models using monthly GST sales.

For more information on the methodology for modeling sales from administrative data sources which also contributes to the estimates of the survey portion, refer to ‘Monthly Retail Survey: Use of Administrative Data’ under ‘Documentation’ of the IMDB.

The measure of precision used for the MRTS to evaluate the quality of a population parameter estimate and to obtain valid inferences is the variance. The variance from the survey portion is derived directly from a stratified simple random sample without replacement.

Sample estimates may differ from the expected value of the estimates. However, since the estimate is based on a probability sample, the variability of the sample estimate with respect to its expected value can be measured. The variance of an estimate is a measure of the precision of the sample estimate and is defined as the average, over all possible samples, of the squared difference of the estimate from its expected value.

11. Revisions and seasonal adjustment

Revisions in the raw data are required to correct known non-sampling errors. These normally include replacing imputed data with reported data, corrections to previously reported data, and estimates for new births that were not known at the time of the original estimates. Raw data are revised, on a monthly basis, for the month immediately prior to the current reference month being published. That is, when data for December are being published for the first time, there will also be revisions, if necessary, to the raw data for November. In addition, revisions are made once a year, with the initial release of the February data, for all months in the previous year. The purpose is to correct any significant problems that have been found that apply for an extended period. The actual period of revision depends on the nature of the problem identified, but rarely exceeds three years. Time series contain the elements essential to the description, explanation and forecasting of the behaviour of an economic phenomenon: "They are statistical records of the evolution of economic processes through time."¹ Economic time series such as the Monthly Retail Trade Survey can be broken down into five main components: the trend-cycle, seasonality, the trading-day effect, the Easter holiday effect and the irregular component.

The trend represents the long-term change in the series, whereas the cycle represents a smooth, quasi-periodical movement about the trend, showing a succession of growth and decline phases (e.g., the business cycle). These two components—the trend and the cycle—are estimated together, and the trend-cycle reflects the fundamental evolution of the series. The other components reflect short-term transient movements.

The seasonal component represents sub-annual, monthly or quarterly fluctuations that recur more or less regularly from one year to the next. Seasonal variations are caused by the direct and indirect effects of the climatic seasons and institutional factors (attributable to social conventions or administrative rules; e.g., Christmas).

The trading-day component originates from the fact that the relative importance of the days varies systematically within the week and that the number of each day of the week in a given month varies from year to year. This effect is present when activity varies with the day of the week. For instance, Sunday is typically less active than the other days, and the number of Sundays, Mondays, etc., in a given month changes from year to year.

The Easter holiday effect is the variation due to the shift of part of April’s activity to March when Easter falls in March rather than April.

Lastly, the irregular component includes all other more or less erratic fluctuations not taken into account in the preceding components. It is a residual that includes errors of measurement on the 1. A Note on the Seasonal adjustment of Economic Time Series», Canadian Statistical Review, August 1974.  A variable itself as well as unusual events (e.g., strikes, drought, floods, major power blackout or other unexpected events causing variations in respondents’ activities).

Thus, the latter four components—seasonal, irregular, trading-day and Easter holiday effect—all conceal the fundamental trend-cycle component of the series. Seasonal adjustment (correction of seasonal variation) consists in removing the seasonal, trading-day and Easter holiday effect components from the series, and it thus helps reveal the trend-cycle. While seasonal adjustment permits a better understanding of the underlying trend-cycle of a series, the seasonally adjusted series still contains an irregular component. Slight month-to-month variations in the seasonally adjusted series may be simple irregular movements. To get a better idea of the underlying trend, users should examine several months of the seasonally adjusted series.

Since April 2008, Monthly Retail Trade Survey data are seasonally adjusted using the X-12- ARIMA2 software. The technique that is used essentially consists of first correcting the initial series for all sorts of undesirable effects, such as the trading-day and the Easter holiday effects, by a module called regARIMA. These effects are estimated using regression models with ARIMA errors (auto-regressive integrated moving average models). The series can also be extrapolated for at least one year by using the model. Subsequently, the raw series—pre-adjusted and extrapolated if applicable— is seasonally adjusted by the X-11 method.

The X-11 method is used for analysing monthly and quarterly series. It is based on an iterative principle applied in estimating the different components, with estimation being done at each stage using adequate moving averages3. The moving averages used to estimate the main components—the trend and seasonality—are primarily smoothing tools designed to eliminate an undesirable component from the series. Since moving averages react poorly to the presence of atypical values, the X-11 method includes a tool for detecting and correcting atypical points. This tool is used to clean up the series during the seasonal adjustment. Outlying data points can also be detected and corrected in advance, within the regARIMA module.

Lastly, the annual totals of the seasonally adjusted series are forced to the annual totals of the original series.

Unfortunately, seasonal adjustment removes the sub-annual additivity of a system of series; small discrepancies can be observed between the sum of seasonally adjusted series and the direct seasonal adjustment of their total. To insure or restore additivity in a system of series, a reconciliation process is applied or indirect seasonal adjustment is used, i.e. the seasonal adjustment of a total is derived by the summation of the individually seasonally adjusted series.

12. Data quality evaluation

The methodology of this survey has been designed to control errors and to reduce their potential effects on estimates. However, the survey results remain subject to errors, of which sampling error is only one component of the total survey error. Sampling error results when observations are made only on a sample and not on the entire population. All other errors arising from the various phases of a survey are referred to as nonsampling errors. For example, these types of errors can occur when a respondent provides incorrect information or does not answer certain questions; when a unit in the target population is omitted or covered more than once; when GST data for records being modeled for a particular month are not representative of the actual record for various reasons; when a unit that is out of scope for the survey is included by mistake or when errors occur in data processing, such as coding or capture errors.

Prior to publication, combined survey results are analyzed for comparability; in general, this includes a detailed review of individual responses (especially for large businesses), general economic conditions and historical trends.

A common measure of data quality for surveys is the coefficient of variation (CV). The coefficient of variation, defined as the standard error divided by the sample estimate, is a measure of precision in relative terms. Since the coefficient of variation is calculated from responses of individual units, it also measures some non-sampling errors.

The formula used to calculate coefficients of variation (CV) as percentages is:

CV (X) = S(X) * 100% / X
where X denotes the estimate and S(X) denotes the standard error of X.

Confidence intervals can be constructed around the estimates using the estimate and the CV. Thus, for our sample, it is possible to state with a given level of confidence that the expected value will fall within the confidence interval constructed around the estimate. For example, if an estimate of $12,000,000 has a CV of 2%, the standard error will be $240,000 (the estimate multiplied by the CV). It can be stated with 68% confidence that the expected values will fall within the interval whose length equals the standard deviation about the estimate, i.e. between $11,760,000 and $12,240,000.

Alternatively, it can be stated with 95% confidence that the expected value will fall within the interval whose length equals two standard deviations about the estimate, i.e. between $11,520,000 and $12,480,000.

Finally, due to the small contribution of the non-survey portion to the total estimates, bias in the non-survey portion has a negligible impact on the CVs. Therefore, the CV from the survey portion is used for the total estimate that is the summation of estimates from the surveyed and non-surveyed portions.

13. Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any data which would divulge information obtained under the Statistics Act that relates to any identifiable person, business or organization without the prior knowledge or the consent in writing of that person, business or organization. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Confidentiality analysis includes the detection of possible "direct disclosure", which occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of a few respondents or when the cell is dominated by a few companies.

Unified Enterprise Survey

5-3600-123.3 STC/UES-307-75135

Reporting Guide

This guide is designed to assist you as you complete the 2011 Annual Head Office Survey. If you need more information, please call the Statistics Canada help line at the number below.

Help Line: 1-800-972-9692

Table of contents

A - Introduction
Label
Survey purpose
Main business activity
B - Revenue
C - Expenses
D - Employment at this head office
E - Events that may have affected your head office
F - Comments

A - Introduction

Label

If the information included on the label is incorrect, please make corrections in the boxes below the label.

Survey purpose

This survey is conducted to improve the accuracy and completeness of statistics on businesses in Canada. On behalf of the enterprise as a whole, head office entities purchase a wide range of services from external businesses (e.g., legal, advertising, insurance) and perform general administrative functions (e.g., payroll, employment, accounting). Some head offices also undertake additional actions, such as generating revenue, either through transactions with external clients or with internal clients (i.e., other entities within the same enterprise).

These data will be aggregated with information from other sources to produce official estimates of national and provincial/territorial economic production in Canada, as well as official estimates of activity by industry. Those estimates are used by government for national and regional programs and policy planning and by the private sector for industry performance measurement and market development.

Main business activity

Please check the category that most accurately describes the nature of your head office activities. There is usually one centralized head office within an enterprise; however, there may be many divisional or regional head offices. If your business unit does not meet either of these definitions, please call 1-800-972-9692 before resuming the questionnaires.

B - Revenue

Revenue is divided into two main categories: revenue from transactions with external clients and revenue from transactions with internal clients. Please report accordingly.

1. During the reporting period, have you recorded any exclusive head office revenue?

Please check «yes» only if this head office recorded any form of revenue that has not been reported by another entity of the same enterprise. If you check «yes» to this question, you should report this revenue in section B.

2. During the reporting period, has your head office recorded any revenue from outside Canada for services offered by employees of this head office?

Please check «yes» only if this head office recorded any form of exclusive revenue that has not been reported by another entity of the same enterprise and that is coming from outside of Canada. If you check «yes» to this question, you should report revenue in section B.

3. Sales of services produced by employees of this head office for sale to external clients

Include

• revenue generated by research and development work.

Exclude

• any revenue received from sales of goods; please report these revenues in section B, question 5.

5. Other operating revenue from external clients

Include

• commissions;
• any other operating revenue not included in another category.

11. Non-operating revenue

Include

• gains from exchange rate changes;
• any other non-operating revenue not included in another category.

C - Expenses

1. Salaries and wages of head office employees ONLY

Amounts reported for salaries, wages and commissions should be gross, before any deductions at source.

Include

• vacation pay;
• overtime payments;
• bonuses (e.g. annual, ability, Christmas, incentive, sign-on, and merit);
• director’s fees;
• profits shared with employees;
• commissions paid to regular employees;
• taxable allowances (e.g., car expenses).

Exclude

• employer contributions to workers’ compensation; please report these expenses in section C, question 2;
• employer contributions to employee welfare and benefit plans (e.g., for pensions, insurance, medicare and supplementary employment benefits); please report these expenses in section C, question 2.

2. Employer portion of employee benefits

Include

• contributions to provincial or territorial health and education payroll taxes applicable to this Head Office;
• employee life and extended health care insurance plans (e.g., medical, dental, drug and vision care plans);
• Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) contributions;
• employer pension contributions;
• workers’ compensation;
• employment insurance premiums;
• retiring allowances or lump sum payments to employees at time of termination or retirement;
• all other employee benefits such as childcare and supplementary unemployment benefit (SUB) plans.

3. Transportation, shipping (contracted out), warehousing, storage, postage and courier expenses

Include

• railway transport services of freight, letters and parcels;
• road transport services of freight, letters and parcels;
• moving services of household and office furniture and other goods;
• transport services via pipeline;
• air and maritime transport services of freight, letters or parcels;
• rental services of truck, vessels for coastal and transoceanic transport, inland water vessels or aircraft with operator;
• refrigerated storage services;
• bulk liquid or gas storage services;
• postage and courier services;
• rental and leasing of vehicles, machinery and equipment with driver or operator.

4. Telephone and other telecommunication expenses

Include

• telephone, fax, cellular phone, or pager services for transmission of voice, data or image;
• Internet access charges and purchased cable and satellite transmission of television, radio and music programs;
• wired, wireless and satellite telecommunication services;
• online access and information provision services.

Exclude

• rental and leasing of telecommunication equipment; please report these expenses in section C, question 5.

5. Rental and leasing expenses

Include

• rental of office space or other real estate;
• rental of motor vehicles (without driver);
• rental of computers and peripherals (without operator);
• rental of other machinery and equipment (without operator);
• rental and leasing of telecommunication equipment;
• rental or leasing services concerning other goods (e.g., video tape, televisions, furniture).

Exclude

• rental and leasing of vehicles, machinery and equipment with driver or operator; please report these expenses with the associated function (e.g., rental of motor vehicle with operator should be reported in section C, question 3).

6. Purchased repair and maintenance service expenses, including janitorial and cleaning services

Include

• materials, parts and labour;
• purchased repair and maintenance service expenses for buildings, structures and motor vehicles;
• purchased repair and maintenance service expenses for other goods (e.g., fabricated metal products or furniture repair services).

Exclude

• property management fees; please report these expenses in section C, question 14.

7. Payments to employment agencies or personnel suppliers

Include

• executive search services;
• employment agency services.

8. Purchased research and development expenses (contracted out)

Include

• research and development expenses in physical science, chemistry, biology, engineering, technology, agricultural sciences, medical sciences, pharmacy, sociology, psychology and economics.

9. All other professional and business services

Include

• any other professional and business service expense not included in another category.

10. Insurance premiums

Include

• life insurance;
• accident and health insurance services;
• motor vehicle, marine, aviation and other transport insurance services;
• freight insurance services;
• general liability insurance services;
• credit insurance services.

Exclude

• payments on behalf of employees which are considered to be taxable benefits; please report these expenses in section C, question 2.

11. Advertising and promotion expenses

Include

• planning, creating and placement services of advertising purchased from a third party;
• purchase of advertising space or time, on commission;
• trade show and exhibition expenses.

12. Travel, meal and entertainment expenses

Include

• passenger transportation, accommodation, meals while travelling, and other travel allowances;

event expenses.

13. Royalties and franchise fees

Include

• patents, trademarks and copyrights.

14. All other purchased service expenses not specified above

Exclude

• Interest expenses; please report these expenses in section C, question 21.

15. Office supply expenses

Include

• paper;
• photocopier, printer and fax machine supplies;
• CDs.

If not capitalized, also include only purchases of computers, printers, photocopiers, computer software and office furniture.

Exclude

• postage and courier expenses; please report these expenses in section C, question 3;
• telephone and other telecommunication expenses; please report these expenses in section C, question 4.

16. Supply expense linked to operation, repair and maintenance

Include

• parts and supplies for the operation, repair and maintenance of your equipment, vehicles and buildings;
• motor vehicle fuel expenses.

Exclude

• expenses that are covered in your rental and leasing expenses; please report these expenses in section C, question 5;
• expenses that are covered in your repair and maintenance service expenses; please report these expenses in section C, question 6.

17. All other materials, components and supply expenses

Include

• any other material, components and supply expense not included in another category.

18. Purchased energy and water utility expenses

Exclude

• motor vehicle fuel expenses; please report these expenses in section C, question 16;
• expenses that are covered in your rental and leasing expenses; please report these expenses in section C, question 5.

19. Amortization and depreciation

Amortization is the gradual writing off of capitalized costs and depreciation is the accounting process whereby the cost of capital assets is systematically allocated to current operations over the term of its useful life. This process recognizes the gradual exhaustion of the service capacity of the capital assets. 5-3600-123.3 Page 5 Reporting guide:

20. Property and business taxes, licences and other permits, including building permits and development charges

Include

• property taxes, except those covered in your rental and leasing expenses;
• property transfer taxes;
• large corporation capital taxes;
• vehicle licence fees;
• lot levies;
• lease fees to governments (e.g., stumpage fees);
• building permits and development charges.

23. All other expenses

Include

• bad debt expense;
• donations and inventory adjustments.

D - Employment at this head office

To calculate the average number of people employed, add the number of people employed in the last pay period of each month and divide this sum by the number of months in the reporting period (usually 12).

Exclude

• contract and subcontract workers who are not part of your payroll;
• company pensioners;
• persons working on a full commission basis for whom you are not making Canada Pension Fund (CPP) or Quebec Pension Fund (le Régime des rentes du Québec) or employment insurance (EI) contributions;
• outside directors of incorporated companies.

E - Events that may have affected your head office

In the space provided, please make note of any factors (e.g., strike, layoffs, weather) that affected your head office in comparison to last year. Your response reduces the likelihood of further inquiries seeking to understand significant changes from one year to the next in reported values.

F - Comments

Statistics Canada invites you to comment on any aspect of the survey. All comments are appreciated and reviewed.

Thank you!

Confidential when completed.

Collected under authority of Statistics Act, Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985, Chapter S19. Completion of this questionnaire is a legal requirement under this act.

Si vous préférez ce questionnaire en français, veuillez nous appeler au numéro sans frais :   1-800-386-1273.

A – Introduction

Survey purpose
The purpose of this survey is to measure the size, structure and economic performance of the trucking industry and to analyzeits impact on the Canadian economy.

Confidentiality
The Statistics Act protects the confidentiality of information collected by Statistics Canada. For more detail, please consult the last page of this questionnaire.

Data-sharing agreements
To reduce respondent burden, Statistics Canada has entered into agreements with provincial and territorial statistical agencies and other government departments for the sharing of data. The data will be kept confidential and used for statistical purposes only by these organizations.

For further details on data-sharing agreements and data linkage, please consult the last page of this questionnaire.

Fax or other electronic transmission disclosure
Statistics Canada advises you that there could be a risk of disclosure during facsimile or other electronic transmission. However, upon receipt, Statistics Canada will provide the guaranteed level of protection afforded all information collected under the authority of the Statistics Act.

Coverage
Please report for all of the trucking operations of this business that are located in Canada.

Please return the questionnaire within 30 days of receipt.

Please mail the completed questionnaire in the enclosed envelope or fax it to Statistics Canada at 1-888-883-7999.

Lost the return envelope or need help? Call us at 1-800-386-1273 or mail to:
Statistics Canada, Business Survey Section/Central Region, 150 Tunney’s Pasture Driveway, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0T6

Visit our website at www.statcan.gc.ca.

If necessary, please make address label corrections in the boxes below.

Legal name
Business name
Title of contact
First name of contact
Last name of contact
Address (number and street)
City
Province/territory or state
Country
Postal code/zip code
Language preference

1. English
2. French

5-5403-149.1: 2010-12-29 STC/TRA-400-75218

General Reporting Instructions

1. Please report all dollar amounts in Canadian dollars (CAN$).
2. All revenue and expense figures should exclude GST/HST, PST and TVQ.
3. Please print in ink.
4. When precise figures are not available, please provide your best estimates.
5. If necessary, please see the enclosed reporting guide for more detailed explanations and definitions.

Main Business Activity

Please check the main activity, at this business unit, which most accurately describes the principal source of revenue.

1. Transportation by truck of general and/or specialized freight (local or long distance trucking)
2. Other activity, please specify

Note: If you responded "Other activity", please call 1-800-386-1273 for further instructions.

Reporting Period

Please report for the period January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. If your fiscal year is different from the calendar year, please report for the most recent fiscal year ending between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011.

Please indicate below the period covered by this questionnaire:

From: (yyyy/mm/dd)
To: (yyyy/mm/dd)

Business Type

Is this an owner operator business (lease operator, broker, independent)?

• Yes
• no - Please go to Section B – Revenue
• Don’t know - Please go to Section B – Revenue

If you have answered Yes, please indicate, as percentages, the distribution of your total revenue generated from your work on behalf of:

1. For-hire carriers
2. Private carriers (private trucking)
3. Others, please specify: (e.g., freight forwarders, brokers, agents, etc.)
4. Total (sum of questions 1 to 3) = 100%

B – Revenue

Please report your revenue earned during the reporting period (in dollars). Can$

1. Operating revenue from trucking
2. All other operating revenue
   Exclude interest and dividend income. Please report this amount at question 4.
3. Total operating revenue (sum of questions 1 and 2)
4. Investment revenue (e.g., interest and dividend income)
5. Total revenue (sum of questions 3 and 4)

C – Trucking revenue by type of movement

Please report the distribution of your trucking revenue according to where your business moved shipments during the reporting period (as percentages, decimals are acceptable).

1. Domestic movements within a province or territory (intraprovincial shipments)
2. Domestic movements between provinces or territories (interprovincial shipments)
3. International movements into Canada (e.g., from the United States or Mexico)
4. International movements out of Canada (e.g., to the United States or Mexico)
5. Total (sum of questions 1 to 4) = 100%

D – Trucking revenue by region of pick-up

1. Newfoundland and Labrador
2. Prince Edward Island
3. Nova Scotia
4. New Brunswick
5. Quebec
6. Ontario
7. Manitoba
8. Saskatchewan
9. Alberta
10. British Columbia
11. Yukon
12. Northwest Territories
13. Nunavut
14. Outside Canada
15. Total (sum of questions 1 to 14) = 100%

E – Trucking revenue by type of product hauled

Please report the distribution of your trucking revenue during the reporting period by type of product hauled(as percentages, decimals are acceptable).

1. Bulk liquids and bulk gases
2. Dry bulk
3. Climate-controlled boxed, palletized and other packed goods, including intermodal containers
4. Not climate-controlled boxed, palletized and other packed goods, including intermodal containers
5. Automobiles and light-duty trucks
6. Live animals
7. Waste, without collection
8. All other goods
9. Moving services (i.e., household, office and institutional goods)
10. Total (sum of questions 1 to 9) = 100%

F – Expenses

Please report your expenses incurred during the reporting period (in dollars). Can$

1. Salaries, wages and benefits
   (for employees who have been issued a T4 statement)
2. Payments to owner operators
3. Purchased transportation services (e.g., road, rail, etc.), warehousing and storage expenses
4. Vehicle fuel
5. Repairs and maintenance
6. Rental and leasing (e.g., vehicles, equipment, buildings)
7. Insurance premiums (e.g., liability, vehicles, equipment, buildings)
8. Utilities and telecommunications
9. Depreciation of tangible and intangible assets
   (e.g., vehicles, equipment,buildings)
10. All other operating expenses (e.g., financial and professional service fees, property and business taxes, licences and permits, office supplies, etc.)
    Exclude interest expenses. Please report this amount at question 12.
11. Total operating expenses (sum of questions 1 to 10)
12. Other expenses (e.g., interest expenses such as interest on loans to buy vehicles and equipment and interest portion of mortgage payment)
13. Total expenses (sum of questions 11 and 12)

G – Employment

Please report the average number of people employed during the reporting period.
Include full-time, part-time and temporary employees and employees absent with pay.

1. Salaried drivers (exclude owner operators)
2. All other salaried employees (exclude owner operators)
3. Total salaried employees (sum of questions 1 and 2)
4. Owner operators (do not count yourself)

H – Fleet and Equipment

Please report the number of vehicles and equipment in service at the end of the reporting period.
Include units owned and/or leased by your business. exclude vehicles owned by owner operators.

Powered Units

1. Straight trucks

2. Road tractors

3. All other powered units

4. Total powered units (sum of questions 1 to 3)

Non-powered Units

5. Vans and/or semi-trailers, non-climate controlled

6. Vans and/or semi-trailers, climate controlled (e.g., reefers)

7. Flat decks

8. Tanks

9. All other non-powered units

10. total non-powered units (sum of questions 5 to 9)

I – Contact Information

Person primarily responsible for completing this questionnaire, if different from the label.

• Mr.
• Mrs.
• Miss
• Ms

Last name
First name
Title
E-mail address
Signature
Telephone number
Extension number
Fax number
Website address
Date (yyyy/mm/dd)

I certify that the information contained herein is complete and correct to the best of my knowledge.

J – Comments

1. How long did you spend collecting the data and completing this questionnaire? (e.g., 1 hour 30 minutes)

2. We invite your comments below. If necessary, please attach a separate page. Please be assured that we review all comments with the intent of improving the survey.

K – General Information

Confidentiality

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. The confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act are not affected by either the Access to Information Act or any other legislation. Therefore, for example, the Canada Revenue Agency cannot access identifiable survey records from Statistics Canada.

Information from this survey will be used for statistical purposes only and will be published in aggregate form only.

Data-sharing agreements
To reduce respondent burden, Statistics Canada has entered into data sharing agreements with provincial and territorial statistical agencies and other government organizations, who must keep the data confidential and use them only for statistical purposes. Statistics Canada will only share data from this survey with those organizations that have demonstrated a requirement to use the data.

Section 11 of the Statistics Act provides for the sharing of information with provincial and territorial statistical agencies that meet certain conditions. These agencies must have the legislative authority to collect the same information, on a mandatory basis, and the legislation must provide substantially the same provisions for confidentiality and penalties for disclosure of confidential information as the Statistics Act. Because these agencies have the legal authority to compel businesses to provide the same information, consent is not requested and businesses may not object to the sharing of the data.

For this survey, there are Section 11 agreements with the provincial and territorial statistical agencies of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon.

The shared data will be limited to business establishments located within the jurisdiction of the respective province or territory.

Section 12 of the Statistics Act provides for the sharing of information with federal, provincial or territorial government organizations. Under Section 12, you may refuse to share your information with any of these organizations by writing a letter of objection to the Chief Statistician and returning it with the completed questionnaire. Please specify the organizations with which you do not want to share your data.

For this survey, there are Section 12 agreements with the statistical agencies of Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, as well as the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Transportation and Works, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, the Quebec Department of Transportation, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and the Alberta Ministry of Transportation.

For agreements with provincial and territorial government organizations, the shared data will be limited to business establishments located within the jurisdiction of the respective province or territory.

Statistics Canada has also entered into a Section 12 agreement with Transport Canada whereby the information collected will be provided to Transport Canada pursuant to the Canada Transportation Act and the Carriers and Transportation Undertakings Information Regulations. In this case, respondents do not have the right to object to sharing their information since the party to the Agreement is authorized by law to require the respondent to provide the information.

Data linkage
To enhance the data from this survey, Statistics Canada may combine it with information from other surveys or from administrative sources.

Please note that Statistics Canada does not share any individual survey information with the Canada revenue agency.

For more information about these data-sharing agreements, please contact Statistics Canada at 1-800-386-1273 or visit our website at www.statcan.gc.ca.

Thank you for completing this questionnaire.

Please retain a copy for your records.

1st Quarter 2011

Business Special Surveys and Technology Statistics Division

This report covers the period from: month 2011 to month 2011

Confidential when completed

Respondent company

• Legal Name
• Operating Name
• Contact Person
• Job Title
• Street
• City
• Province
• Postal Code
• Telephone
• Fax
• E-mail
• Website

Correct as required

• Legal Name
• Operating or Trade Name (if different from legal name)
• Contact person responsible for this survey (please print clearly)
• Job Title
• Street
• City
• Province
• Postal Code
• Telephone
• Fax
• E-mail
• Website

Information for Respondents

Survey Purpose

This survey collects financial and operating data for the statistical measurement and analysis of the telecommunications industry. These data will be aggregated to produce national estimates of activity by industry. Those estimates are used by government, the private sector, international telecommunications organizations, academics, analysts, and the general public to better understand this sector's role in the social and economic fabric of Canada.

Authority

This quarterly survey is conducted under the authority of the Statistics Act, Revised Statutes of Canada 1985, Chapter S19. Completion of this questionnaire is a legal requirement under this Act.

Confidentiality

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information from this survey which would identify a person, business, or organization, without their permission or as permitted by the Statistics Act. The confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act are not affected by either the Access to Information Act or any other legislation. Therefore, for example, the Canada Revenue Agency cannot access identifiable survey data from Statistics Canada.

Data Sharing Agreements

To reduce response burden and to ensure more uniform statistics, Statistics Canada has entered into a data sharing agreement under section 12 of the Statistics Act to share information from all respondents with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

Subsection 12(2) of the Statistics Act provides that where a respondent gives notice in writing to the Chief Statistician that the respondent objects to the sharing of the information by Statistics Canada, the information not be shared with the department or corporation unless the department or corporation is authorized by law to require the respondent to provide the information.

The CRTC is authorized by law to require the respondent to provide the information under section 37 of the Telecommunications Act. Information provided to the CRTC will be treated in accordance with the requirements of section 39 of the Telecommunications Act.

Planned Record Linkage

To enhance the data from this survey, Statistics Canada may combine it with information from other surveys or from administrative sources.

Return Procedures

Please return the completed questionnaire(s) within 30 days of receipt. If you anticipate difficulty in making this deadline, please inform Statistics Canada of your expected filing date. Statistics Canada advises you that there could be a risk of disclosure during facsimile or other electronic transmission. However, upon receipt, Statistics Canada will provide the guaranteed level of protection afforded all information collected under the authority of the Statistics Act.

Reporting Instructions

Please complete all questions that pertain to your operations.

To reduce the chances of call-backs to verify data, please record "N/A" for those items that are not relevant to your company.

Detailed instructions and definitions of terms used in the questionnaire are found in the Reporting Guide.

Assistance

If you require assistance, please contact:
Jo Anne Lambert
Telephone: (613) 951-6673
Facsimile: (613) 951-9920
E-mail: joanne.lambert@statcan.gc.ca

Thank you for your co-operation

Revenues (in thousands for the quarter)

1. Telecommunications operating revenues

1. Local and access  (include basic local service, optional local features, contribution, equipment, and other local and access)
2. Long distance (include settlement)
3. Data
4. Private line
5. Internet
6. Mobile and paging
   • Retail
   • Wholesale
7. Broadcast distribution (basic and non-basic programming)
8. Other operating revenues

• Total operating revenues

Network and subscribers (in thousands at quarter end)

2. Number of fixed network lines by market (Voice-grade equivalents) - Access dependent and independent

1. Residential
2. Business
3. Wholesale
4. Lines for internal use (OTS)

• Total network lines

3. Number of mobile and paging subscriptions

1. Retail (Residential and business)
2. Wholesale     

• Total mobile and paging subscriptions

4. Number of Internet subscriptions

1. Dial-up
2. High speed - Cable modem
3. High speed - Digital subscriber line (DSL)
4. High speed - Other

• Total number of Internet subscriptions

5. Number of multi-channel video services subscriptions

1. By phone line
2. By cable
3. By satellite
4. Other

• Total multi-channel video services subscriptions

Volume (in thousands at quarter end)

6. Long distance minutes - Fixed               

1. Retail
   • January
   • February
   • March
   • Total
2. Wholesale
   • January
   • February
   • March
   • Total

• Total long distance minutes
  • January
  • February
  • March
  • Total

Note: Please include Domestic, US, and International long distance minutes.

7. Number of short message service (SMS)

1. To mobile devices
2. From mobile devices

• Total number of short message service (SMS)

8. Mobile voice minutes 

1. Toll minutes (Long distance)
2. Non-toll minutes (Basic voice)

• Total mobile voice minutes

Capital expenditures (in thousands for the quarter)

9. Capital expenditures

Remarks

Certification

Please print the name of the person responsible for this return:

Signature:

I certify that the information provided in this report is complete and correct to the best of my knowledge.

• Phone no.
• Position
• Date