While we view Statistics Canada as a national statistical office and, therefore, try to meet the needs of the entire nation, all Canadians, the reality is that with the budget available our focus is primarily on government and primarily on the two most senior levels of government. A lot of our program certainly addresses the needs of federal departments, and the provincial and territorial governments as well. The census particularly addresses the needs of municipal governments.
Most of the rest of the use of our program is really residual use of the information that we've created in response to the needs of those governments, by other organizations. So non-government organizations use our information to, for example, develop positions on government policies, as do businesses. Businesses use our information—for example, the census data—extensively in their marketing efforts. Financial institutions use our information extensively in their analysis of financial markets and adjust their strategies in response to that.
We do meet regularly. I recently met with a group representing service industries to talk about our program and how it meets their needs and where they felt there were gaps that should be addressed.
I also participated recently in a business round table to talk about how our data is used in conjunction with, for example, big data sources in order to meet the needs of the private sector.
Every time we release the national accounts—the gross domestic product, for example—we meet with a table of senior economists from the private sector to talk about their views of the data we've just released, any concerns they have.
We've added three or four members to our national statistical council, who come from the business community, to hear their voices.
In our economic statistics programs and our advisory committees, we have representation from the business sector, and business associations as well. It's a very broad-based effort to make sure we're engaging with them.