Integrating Alternative and Administrative Data into the Monthly Business Statistics: Some Applications from Statistics C anada

In recent years, Statistics Canada has expanded the use of administrative data in many of its programs in the context of its modernization initiatives. Unsurprisingly, the monthly business statistics programs were no exception with some of them starting to integrate alternative data and/or expand the use of administrative data. These new approaches aimed to reduce the response burden, provide more granular data, and/or reduce the collection cost while improving or maintaining quality. This chapter will present applications in the use of alternative or administrative data in three monthly business programs. The first one is the replacement of survey data with the Goods and Services Tax and the Harmonized Sales Tax (GST) data in the Monthly Survey of Food Services and Drinking Places. The second one is the use of scanner data to replace survey commodity data in the Retail Commodity Survey. The last one is the use of small area estimation techniques that integrate survey data and administrative data in the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing. For each project, a description of the context, the methodology, and the impact will be described. Lastly, the impact of the pandemic and future initiatives for the monthly business statistics programs will be discussed briefly.