StatsCan defends its data collection

Statistics Canada would like to provide the following clarifications in response to the letter Is Statistics Canada misguided when it comes to farmers?, written by Kyle Korneychuk (Feb. 12).

It is part of Statistics Canada’s primary mandate to collect crop information. Data collected by Statistics Canada is available to all Canadians and may be used by all levels of government to make agriculture policy decisions and develop programs. Another very important use of this data is to better assess Canadian agriculture’s contribution to the global economy. Our intention is not to influence market signals while publishing accurate, trusted and reliable data. A few years ago, Statistics Canada published a paper on the virtual non-influence of our crop production releases on the markets. This article can be found on our website. Statistics Canada reports about volumes of grain in port terminals, exports, imports, deliveries, etc., as part of the supply and disposition of grains balancing exercises, three times a year.

It is important to note that Statistics Canada does not ask questions about crop quality in our field crop surveys. In order to reduce response burden to farmers, Statistics Canada ensures a specific farmer is not contacted more than twice a year for our field crop surveys. Moreover, Statistics Canada developed an innovative way to assess field crop production during the fall surveys using satellite imagery technology. This allowed the agency to reduce the number of calls placed to farmers in a typical crop year by approximately 10,000. Also, starting in 2018, survey respondents will have the ability to answer our questions using an electronic questionnaire over the internet, at a time of their convenience.

Guillaume Berube, Statistics Canada, Ottawa