Page 95 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 1

STS407 Étienne Saint-Pierre
3. The Integrated Business Statistics Program
In 2014, Statistics Canada launched the Integrated Business Statistics
Program (IBSP) in order to have a more effective model to produce economic
statistics. The IBSP provides a standardized and generic processing framework
from collection to dissemination and a set of common tools and systems for
a large number of heterogeneous economic surveys conducted at Statistics
Canada. By 2021, nearly 130 economic programs (annual, sub-annual, industry
specific, economy-wide, activity based, financial) will be integrated into this
harmonized framework, including all the ASP and the Census of Agriculture
2021.

4. The Census of Agriculture as an integrated component of the
Economic Statistics Program: Changes and opportunities
In this section, the most important elements of the migration of the CEAG
to the IBSP and their opportunities are highlighted.

i) Use of Statistics Canada’s Business Register as a common frame
As the Census of Agriculture program moved toward the integration of
alternate sources of information, the use of the Business Register (BR) as a
frame is an essential element. The BR is the common frame for all economic
surveys. The BR is an essential tool that helps to maintain and profile the
increasingly large and complex agricultural enterprises and their operations.
This database is kept up-to-date by combining administrative sources
(including tax data), survey feedback and results from direct contact with
business respondents.
In addition to being constantly up-to-date, the BR contains many variables
that are required to have efficient record linkages from different administrative
sources (business number, legal name, operating name, address, name of the
farm operator, geographic coordinate, etc…) and statistical programs. The
efficient linkages of multiple alternative datasets with the BR is a central
element to move toward the production of near-real time data with minimal
contact with respondents. The use of the BR as a frame, the timeliness of its
updates and the sharing of data with the tax agency has resulted in the
production of an annual census of farm operators and families to estimate a
range of financial variables without contacting respondents. These variables
will no longer need to be collected from respondents in the Census program
every five years.
In the last Census of Agriculture 2016, the frame consisted of two universes:
1) Businesses involved in agriculture identified on the Statistics Canada’s
Business Register (BR) which comprise all units in all economic sectors involved
in economic production in Canada and 2) Households identified through the
Census of Population questionnaire who could be involved in agricultural

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