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The Integrated Business Statistics Program: An Overview

Keywords: integrated system, response burden, efficiencies

In 2010 Statistics Canada has embarked on an ambitious four year initiative to develop an integrated model for producing economic statistics. This model is based, to some extent, on the existing Unified Enterprise Survey program. However, the initiative will incorporate a number of major new methods and processes designed to improve the existing model and will additionally cover all stages of the statistical process: from content determination to publication. The high level objectives of the project are to: - Achieve long-term cost efficiencies while preserving data quality - Reduce response burden - Improve flexibility of survey production

The paper will focus on the major pillars of this project and the extent to which work to date has proved that they could be successfully implemented. These pillars are:

- Maximize the use of tax information to reduce response burden and achieve cost efficiencies; - Implement electronic questionnaires as principal mode of data collection - Develop a personalized approach to collecting data from large and complex enterprises - Use of active collection management to achieve cost efficiencies.

The intent of the new model is to apply it to the vast majority of the ongoing and cost recovery economic surveys at Statistics Canada.