Chief statistician resigns over government's failure to 'protect the independence' of StatsCan

Canada's chief statistician has resigned in protest over what he says is the federal governments' failure to protect Statistics Canada's independence.

Wayne Smith says the government's decision to create Shared Services Canada and centralize all information technology services across government has compromised Statistics Canada's ability to fulfil its mandate.

Offered Wages Are Falling Across Canada, StatsCan Data Shows

StatsCan has some bad news for job-seekers: You’re likely going to be offered less money for a job today than you would have been a year ago.

The wages that Canadian employers are offering when hiring took a sharp downward turn during 2015, Statistics Canada data shows. It's a sign of worsening economic conditions. Employers are either more confident they can easily find employees, or they can no longer afford their earlier pay scale, or both.

Inflation Subdued, But Gas, Food, Housing Prices Rising: StatsCan

• Gas prices rose sharply for 2 straight months
• Meat up 6.6 per cent, overall food up 3.4 per cent
• Core rate at 2.3 per cent

OTTAWA -- The Canadian consumer price index was up 1.0 per cent in June compared with a year ago as higher prices for food and shelter were offset in part by lower gasoline prices, Statistics Canada said Friday.

Poverty In Canada: 1 In 7 Lived In Low-Income Families In 2012, StatsCan Says

OTTAWA - Statistics Canada says 13.8 per cent of the population lived in low-income households in 2012.

The agency says its measure of after-tax low-income deems a household to be low income if it has less than half the overall median income.

Voters' list numbers don't match StatsCan data in 100 ridings

In nearly one-third of all federal ridings, the number of people on the voters list maintained by Elections Canada exceeds Statistics Canada’s calculations of the number of people who should be eligible to vote, suggesting potential problems with the accuracy of the data used on election day.

In 100 of the 308 ridings in the 2011 election, the National Register of Electors contained more entries than the number of Canadian citizens age 18 or older – the only people eligible to cast a ballot – estimated in the National Household Survey conducted the same year, a Citizen analysis has found. Most of these ridings with discrepancies were in Quebec.

Real Estate, Finance, Oil And Gas Earnings Soar In Canada: StatsCan

Given the slump in Canada’s job market this year, wages are holding up reasonably well, StatsCan’s latest survey of payroll hours and earnings shows.

But some parts of the economy are much stronger than others, and that’s coming through in the wage gains seen in various industries.

Real estate professionals are seeing Canada’s biggest gains, with average weekly earnings soaring 12.8 per cent over the past year, Stats Can found.

Phone, Internet Costs Soar In Canada, StatsCan Data Shows

A little more than a year ago it looked like Verizon was coming to Canada, and the big Canadian telcos were busily slashing prices in preparation for the spectre of some serious competition.

Then Verizon said it wasn’t coming to Canada, and prices started creeping back up.

Let’s rephrase that. Prices didn’t creep up; they soared. According to data from StatsCan, the cost of telephone services, both landline and mobile, shot up 7.6 per cent over the past year.

StatsCan's Job Numbers May Be 'Extraordinarily Misleading'

OTTAWA - Statistics Canada is unveiling its monthly jobs numbers today at a time when the federal government's labour data is under heightened scrutiny.

The Labour Force Survey comes just days after the auditor general's spring report found Statcan's job-vacancy survey too vague, concluding the figures provided little value to governments and other users.

And it comes with the Conservative government under sustained fire over alleged abuses of its temporary foreign workers program, which was created to fill labour shortages in certain sectors.

StatsCan's New House Price Index Up Most In 2 Years

OTTAWA - Statistics Canada says its new housing price index rose 0.3 per cent in January, following a 0.1 per cent gain in December.

It says the national increase was the largest since May 2012 and was mainly due to strong gains in the Prairie region.

Metropolitan Calgary was the top contributor to the January rise, with prices up 1.3 per cent, the largest increase since April 2007.

The biggest monthly price gain in January was in Saskatoon, where prices were up 1.4 per cent, the largest monthly increase in the city since March 2008.

Prices were down 0.3 per cent in the Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo region for the second consecutive month and new house prices also fell 0.3 per cent in Charlottetown.

Prices were unchanged in seven of the 21 metropolitan areas surveyed in January.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.ca/
Author: CP

When good data goes bad: The 2011 National Household Survey

Two findings stand out in the National Household Survey (NHS) data released Wednesday, both critical in this post-recession era of uncertainty:

1. A quarter of Canadian households spent 30 per cent or more of their pre-tax income on shelter, the official measure of housing affordability.

2. There was virtually no change in the rate of home ownership between 2006 and 2011. It was 68.4 per cent in 2006, and 69 per cent in 2011.

NHS Low-Income Results, Census Estimates Cannot Be Compared: StatsCan

The latest data from the National Household Survey marks the first major update to information on Canadians' incomes since the 2006 census. In that time, Canada has gone through the worst economic crisis the world has seen since the Great Depression.

But unfortunately, we can't find out from the new data just how low-income Canadians performed on income since that time. Thanks to the Harper government's elimination of the long-form mandatory census, StatsCan says Canada's new income data is not comparable to the old data.

StatsCan report shows new historical lows in EI coverage

The painful toll that job loss and unemployment can unleash on Canadian families has traditionally been managed with Canada's once quite functional Employment Insurance (EI) program. However, Statistics Canada's EI report for October, confirms that government policy have produced new lows in Employment Insurance coverage of the unemployed.

Last month's report showed that September coverage fell to a new historical low of 30.5 per cent. Some speculated that it was an aberration, but the October report confirms that we have indeed entered an new era as the rate of EI coverage for the unemployed came in at a mere 31.8 per cent, the second lowest in more than 30 years (seasonally unadjusted). The trend is clear in the data (see graph) as we are witnessing the destruction of a once effective social safety net. There are strong seasonal factors in EI claims, but the trend line in the chart below clearly shows we are sinking to new lows in coverage for this program.

Statistics Canada cuts compromise the tools used to understand the state

For many of us, it started with the census. In a controversial move, our government switched from a mandatory to a voluntary census in the summer of 2010. The former Statistics Canada chief, the media and the research community reacted with shock and largely opposed to the change to no avail.

Last week, StatsCan quietly continued this trend when it published a media advisory listing programs identified for elimination or reduction to meet savings targets that were announced in the Economic Action Plan 2012 ($33.9 million by 2014-15).

Canada GDP: April Saw 0.3 Per Cent Rise Mostly On Mining And Oil, StatsCan Says

OTTAWA - Canada's economy had a second month of growth in April, building momentum with a 0.3 per cent increase in gross domestic product compared with March, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

Canada's economy took a step backwards in February — when output was affected by a number of production shutdowns — but resumed growth in March, when the GDP advanced by 0.1 per cent.

Canada Income Inequality: StatsCan Cuts Will Harm Ability To Understand Wage Gap, Observers Fear

Just as Canadians are expressing concern about the country’s income gap in seemingly unprecedented numbers, our ability to find out what’s happening with incomes is about to take a serious hit.

In announcing last week that Canadians’ wages have been stagnating since the financial crisis of 2008, Statistics Canada added a little note declaring that it’s discontinuing its Survey of Labour Income Dynamics.

Canada Youth Employment Stuck At Recession-Era Lows: StatsCan

May marks the start of summer jobs season, making it an important time for young people looking for work. But according to the latest jobs report, last month brought more pain to the young and unemployed, who continue to face jobless rates that have barely budged since the depths of the recession.

As recent grads took their first steps into the job market, Statistics Canada data shows that the unemployment rate among those aged 15 to 25 hit 14.3 per cent in May, up 0.4 per cent over April. The number of people with jobs in this group, meanwhile, was down 1.8 per cent over the same time last year.

Privacy, quality of StatsCan information could be compromised: report

OTTAWA -- A new agency the Conservatives created with the intention of strengthening the government's email and data systems could make it difficult for Statistics Canada to maintain the quality and confidentiality of the information it gathers, chief statistician Wayne Smith warns.

The caution, one of several that paint a grim picture of the agency's future, is included in its annual planning report tabled recently in the House of Commons.

In August 2011, the Conservatives announced a new entity called Shared Services Canada, which was tasked with streamlining the government's information technology systems that currently cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Conservative cuts put half of Statscan jobs at risk

Nearly half of the roughly 5,000 people working at Statistics Canada are being warned that their jobs are at risk, suggesting deep cuts are in store for one of the country’s most trusted sources of information.

The notices to staff that their employment could be affected by cuts are the second major blow to the organization in recent years, after the Conservative government’s 2010 decision to replace the mandatory long-form census with a voluntary one. Canada’s chief statistician resigned in protest over the change.

Everyone from the Bank of Canada to academics, economists, marketers, urban planners and public policy researchers use Statistics Canada surveys.

The agency has a shortfall of nearly 10 per cent due to a mix of budget cuts and a plunge in revenue as other federal departments, such as Human Resources and Transport Canada for which it does surveys, face cuts themselves.

“There is no doubt that the cuts can’t be absorbed without reducing the amount of information Statistics Canada produces,” said Michael Veall, president of the Canadian Economics Association and an economics professor at McMaster University.

Tories spent first year in power surprising Canadians over pensions, health care and environment

OTTAWA — The morning after Prime Minister Stephen Harper won his long-sought majority victory on May 2, 2011, he told journalists there would be no "surprises" in the next four years. The Tories would only do what they promised to do.

A year later, that pledge appears to have been broken in some key areas. Future seniors' pensions are being cut. Health-care funding is being curtailed. Environmental controls for energy projects are being loosened.

And thousands of public servants are losing their jobs — which will presumably affect the quality of services given to Canadians — despite Harper's assessment in last year's campaign that the bulk of the "modest" savings could be handled through retirements and "consolidation" of computer systems.

As parliamentarians prepare to mark the one-year anniversary on Wednesday of the Tories' majority victory, there are starkly different views about what Harper has done so far with his mandate.

The Conservatives proudly point to a string of promises that have been kept: passage of the omnibus crime bill; the abolition of the long-gun registry; and the dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board. As well, the government has reached a perimeter security border deal with the United States; and have put a continued emphasis on striking trade deals throughout the world.

Budget cuts leave Statscan girding for fewer surveys, less staff

Fiscal restraint is rippling through Canada’s national statistical agency, prompting it to start slicing surveys and warn staff of cost cuts and impending layoffs in what it calls a “year of sacrifice” at the organization.

Not only is Statistics Canada facing reductions from the federal budget of about 8 per cent, it is also grappling with an “unprecedented” drop in revenue from other government departments that fund surveys, its chief statistician says.

As a result, “in planning for next fiscal year, we are facing an exceptional degree of financial uncertainty,” said Wayne Smith in an April 2 address to staff that was obtained by The Globe and Mail and offers a rare glimpse into the impact of austerity on a government agency.

Trims are already under way – last Tuesday, the agency said on its website it will discontinue monthly new motor vehicle sales (it will still collect the data, but not publish it in its Daily release). Soon it is expected to end its leading indicator index, which tracks business cycles in the economy.

These cuts will likely affect the agency’s ability to introduce new surveys and update existing surveys to reflect current population trends. Statscan now produces about 350 surveys on topics ranging from crime rates and mental health to the country’s gross domestic product.