Public Accounts Committee on Oct. 30th, 2014

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Thank you.

The Auditor General, at paragraph 8.50 of his report, spoke of job vacancy data and of being informed by users that because of “shortcomings, available information on job vacancies is of limited value to them”.

The Auditor General, at paragraph 8.55, made a recommendation that you “should assess the feasibility of more fully addressing user needs for data from small areas and subpopulations”.

Then I read that, in fact, you have begun work on a quarterly job vacancy survey.

I'd like to connect those dots. Is this quarterly job vacancy survey intended to address this issue, and if so, how? I know it focuses on more numbers of employers surveyed, and it focuses on data by economic region. Could you expand on how this will address the issue the Auditor General has raised?

[Wayne Smith]

The data that we had at the time of the Auditor General's review simply gave the job vacancy numbers at the national and to some extent provincial level, and gave no detail by occupation, and certainly not for smaller geographies and was therefore really not meeting the need that was being expressed.

But in order to be able to collect and publish data for detailed occupations for small, local areas you need a very large survey.

The staff of the Minister of Employment and Social Development Canada, Minister Kenney, approached us to say that they would like to fill this information need and could we design a survey and tell them what it might cost to be able to do that.

We have designed a survey that will allow us to publish data by occupation, with wages, at a fairly detailed geographical level. That survey should largely meet the kinds of needs that have been expressed in terms of information. It represents, as Minister Kenney indicated in a public statement, an investment of about $14 million, which is why Statistics Canada could never have undertaken it on its own.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

I'm glad that the government has moved on that, but can you give me some notion of the timeline when that will be implemented, or is it already?

[Wayne Smith]

We anticipate starting collection at the beginning of 2015, and publishing data later that year but I can't say exactly when at this point.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

Thank you.

Mr. Woodworth, your time is up.

Moving over and back to Mr. Simms, again.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Thank you, sir. I just want to highlight section 8.25, and again, I address this to Mr. Ferguson:

[...] users told us that the Statistics Canada website is challenging to navigate. According to website evaluations conducted annually by the Agency, user satisfaction with its website averages 67 percent. The Agency is working to increase user satisfaction by developing a new corporate dissemination model to make its data easier to find.

But at 67%, is that a threshold you consider to be not satisfactory when it comes to the Stats Canada website and user satisfaction?

[Michael Ferguson]

I think that in terms of what we've identified here, it was that when we were talking with users some of them identified that navigating the website was challenging.

I'm not going to say whether 67% is satisfactory or unsatisfactory. I think probably all organizations strive to improve the satisfaction and usability of information that they provide to their users. It was identified to us as something that some of the users were concerned about. The surveys of satisfaction indicated 67% and the agency indicated that they are trying to increase that satisfaction. I think that paragraph explains everything we found on that issue.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

The only thing I would add to that is, can you give an example of what they found hard to navigate?

[Michael Ferguson]

It's not something that I have right at my fingertips. Again, I think this was a general conversation with users and it was something they indicated to us, so I don't think I would have any more specifics on that.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Mr. Smith, can I get your comment on that?

[Wayne Smith]

We are not satisfied with 67%. We'd like to see a much higher number.

Of the 33% who are missing, some of them are people who came looking for statistics that we simply don't have. When they don't find it, obviously they're dissatisfied. But there is a lot of dissatisfaction with our search engine. People feel that if they type in words they don't feel it gets them directly to the kinds of information they are looking for. They find that the structure to drill down into the website is awkward and it's using terminology that's not familiar to them.

This information is currently being used to try to do a comprehensive redesign of our website that will make the flow much easier.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

It's one thing to say it's about form and format. That can easily be fixed. What I get in my constituency and from stakeholders in my province is talk about how they used to obtain certain information that they can no longer get.

[Wayne Smith]

I guess the survey itself wouldn't indicate that this is a significant concern. There is, certainly, information that used to be available that no longer is, and there is information available now that wasn't available previously.

This has not been a theme of the feedback we've received from users as a predominant issue for them.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Would you get access, then, to what was in that survey?

[Wayne Smith]

We're the ones who did the survey.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

All right. That was my next question.

I would assume, then, that it probably has to do more with style and substance and format and how people are able to navigate than with the actual data itself.

[Wayne Smith]

Most of the commentary is regarding the use and usability of the site, but there were people who raised specific issues about what information they were looking for. When people who need to know results search for things, we monitor that, in part because if they conduct a search that says there are no results and there in fact was data available, it concerns us. But it also provides us some insight into the kinds of information people are looking for that in fact is not there and is a potential data gap.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Okay.

That's good.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

Thank you.

Here is one little thing. When you're doing that tracking, I assume that there's no tracking of the individuals in any way, shape, or form, but merely of the information they were seeking.

[Wayne Smith]

We ask them to fill out a questionnaire. We don't track them.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

Good. Thank you.

We'll move along.

Mr. Albas, you now have the floor.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again I'd like to thank all of our witnesses for their testimony and also for their service to our country.

I'm going to be directing some of my questions to you, Mr. Smith, as the chief statistician.

I understand that you have begun a formal renewal of the various advisory committees you have. Is that correct, sir?

[Wayne Smith]

Yes, we're reviewing all of the membership, to ensure that it's appropriate and more broadly representative of the user community.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

I know you made some comments in your opening statement, but in the Auditor General's report there was mention of this. Can you give me a little more detail as to what these advisory committees do and how they contribute to the quality of your work?

[Wayne Smith]

Well, they play two roles, or more than two roles, actually. Some of the advisory committees are really committees of experts who are knowledgeable about such things as consumer price indexes or survey methods. We have an advisory committee on statistical methods composed of leading statisticians from around the world, particularly from the United States and Canada. That committee isn't designed to be representative of anything except experts who can advise us on our methods.

We have another committee on consumer price indexes, which is really of the same nature. Its principal purpose is to advise on methods, and it is populated by experts.

Other advisory committees on, for example, social issues are really there to advise us on the design of our programs, the design of specific surveys, and data gaps. That's a case in which, as the Auditor General has pointed out, we should have broad representation not only from academics, but also from the full range of users, including non-government organizations. Even businesses have some level of interest, as do municipal governments again.

That's fair commentary; they're not well represented in our advisory committees.