Natural Resources committee  Essentially, the quality of the data that we're going to release will largely be a result of the data that feed into the system. In general, the higher the response rate, if we have more respondents, the better the quality of the data. The more timely we can get the information that we need, then the less we have to impute from missing data.

Natural Resources committee  It'll be hard for us to assess the quality of data that we don't produce, but we'd be happy to provide information on quality indicators relating to the energy statistics that feed into the work of my colleagues.

Natural Resources committee  In the data we're producing on energy consumption, that's correct.

Natural Resources committee  The data we're referring to is from our annual report on energy supply and demand. In that report, we're looking at the production and use of fuel by fuel type and by user: electric versus oil versus—

Natural Resources committee  To be clear, we're not making that calculation. We are producing the estimates of fuel consumption.

Natural Resources committee  Okay, but I would turn to my colleagues at the Department of the Environment and Climate Change, who are making that calculation based on the energy statistics we are producing.

Natural Resources committee  For certain, the initial focus would be for the departments and agencies that have been here this morning—the NEB, Environment and Climate Change, and Natural Resources Canada. They are the key users and key producers of information. Given the joint nature, the shared jurisdiction, that energy has, in very short order we'll need to do this in collaboration with the provinces.

Natural Resources committee  If you're talking about a single information hub, that is a model we've had in other places, and it's a model we could duplicate in energy.

Natural Resources committee  Again, I'm not an expert in the legislative backing behind the federal statistical system in the United States, but we already have within the Statistics Act the authority to survey businesses and individuals. We already have the authority to acquire administrative data from any jurisdiction, corporation, or organization.

Natural Resources committee  We already acquire data from various jurisdictions. We already acquire data from most provincial regulators. You are right. It would be a lot easier if we could get everybody to report to us the data in a similar format, using some similar definitions and metadata. In a way that's our job at Statistics Canada, to bring together disparate data sources and hammer them into a consistent framework.

Natural Resources committee  We can certainly play a role in the collection of information, bringing it together and publishing it. However, there is not one body that can do it all. It has to be done in collaboration with others.

Natural Resources committee  We have identified gaps in the data on renewables. We have a number of partners that are keen on our improving the timeliness of our data. We're continually being asked to produce more granularity. There is a concern among energy users that we are suppressing data cells if our data identifies what's happening within an individual business.

Natural Resources committee  I think I could answer. First, could we create a data hub? Yes, we've done that in other areas. Regarding the EIA itself, different countries organize their statistics in different ways. In Canada we have chosen to create one single national statistical office that assembles all official statistics together.

Natural Resources committee  We learned from Transport Canada that they were acquiring GPS information from trucks. We were able to acquire this GPS information from Transport Canada using AI techniques to identify when trucks were stopping. We could link this geospatial information to our business register and identify where the trucks were stopped, and we could infer what the trucks were doing.

Natural Resources committee  I believe that we have many of the data sources already there. Where we don't have the data sources, we should be working on identifying where the gaps exist. I think we have other models in place where we haven't had a change in the machinery of government in order to coordinate data holdings at various jurisdictions.