Abstract

Statistics Canada has maintained statistical registers for decades. The statistical Business Register has for many years provided the frames and reference data needed for business and institutional data, while the Address Register served the needs of the Census of Population and other social statistics programs by providing residential dwelling frames used for household data.

More recently, these registers have been in transformation, as part of Statistics Canada’s pursuit of a modernized data ecosystem than can meet today’s demands for detailed information while at the same time continuing to keep the private information of Canadians secure.

The tools and processes of the Statistical Business Register (SBR) are thus being modernized, and the Address Register has transitioned to become the Statistical Building Register (SBgR), with coverage expanded to include both non-residential and residential buildings and their constituent units. The SBR and SBgR together comprise a more integrated registers infrastructure designed to facilitate linkage of business- and social- data to the buildings where businesses conduct their operations or the places where people live.

The presentation will provide a brief overview of the existing statistical registers infrastructure and discuss evolving plans regarding how the registers can best support the efficient safekeeping of de-identified population data within StatCan program areas.

On this matter, the need for statistical effectiveness must be jointly taken into account with the imperative for maintaining public trust with respect to the handling of private information, and also cost effectiveness. This topic has been a main feature of StatCan’s internal planning and also of stakeholder consultations for work to put in place a secure infrastructure for data integration based on a central frame of continuously maintained statistical numbers for individuals.
The presentation will explain the approach that has been under consideration and also explore the feedback received from key partners, including data users and privacy advocates. It will close with recent developments that have shifted the development timelines and structure of the project and how the existing statistical registers will help support a more modular approach.