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This paper reconstructs the development and evolution of the Canadian agricultural statistical system. It describes the expanding and increasingly important role of administrative data, which is integrated into survey and census information in order to complement, supplement or replace survey information or to assist with frame maintenance.

This paper describes the experiences, the issues and the expectations of the many different players involved in the implementation of document imaging for the Canadian Census of Agriculture.

This paper describes the issues around updating the low income cut-offs as well as Statistics Canada's findings and proposes a course of action.

This article focuses on characteristics of primary Internet service providers (ISPs), that is, firms reporting that 50% or more of their revenues come from ISP activities. It looks at challenges facing ISPs including barriers to growth, competing in the Internet sector, complaints and practices regarding offensive content and conduct, as well as ISPs' perceptions of what is important to their customers. These items are analysed after classifying ISPs into four different size categories, enabling one to see any differences in perception or conduct between ISPs of varying sizes.

The latest issue consists of the article "Wood manufacturers have been stimulated by the strength of the domestic market" by Gilles Simard. The effects of the decrease in interest rates in Canada in 1996 were felt fully in 1997. The increased activity in housing development in Canada, and to a lesser extent, in the United States, has stimulated the wood industry. However, the crisis in Asia during the summer of 1997 was a heavy blow to British Columbia, the province that provides half of Canada's lumber. This article, based on the results of the 1997 Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM), briefly describes changes in the industry in 1997 and 1998 and looks at recent events in.

This publication presents a timely picture of employment, earnings and hours which is vital for Canada's businesses and governments for planning and decision-making purposes. The tabulations focus on annual labour market information and historical data series. The major economic variables for over 280 industries are provided at the national and provincial/territorial level. The publication includes notes on the concepts and methods of the monthly survey. The "Help-Wanted index 1981-1999 supplement" is included in this publication.

Reduced barriers to trade across North America and increasingly mobile populations have created a heightened need for information on transportation services and infrastructure. North American transportation highlights provides key summary statistics on trade and travel, safety, and energy use of transportation in Mexico, the United States and Canada. Statistical tables and charts contained within the report are accompanied by data sources and notes describing data categories and definitions relating to each country.

The report was developed under the framework of the North American Transportation Statistics Interchange representing the transportation and statistical agencies of Mexico, the United States and Canada. Participating agencies include the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, the Instituto Mexicano del Transporte, and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática from México; the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the Census Bureau from the United States; Statistics Canada and Transport Canada. It was produced and released by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) in December 1999 and is part of more comprehensive report, North American transportation in figures (catalogue no. 50-501-XIE) released in October 2000.

There is a diversity of manufacturing activity that contributes to Canada's regional economies. The spatial distribution of these activities is far from symmetrical, with most activity being concentrated within the Québec City - Windsor corridor. In 1997, the provinces of Ontario and Québec accounted for approximately 76% of Canada's value of shipments. Using data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures, two maps have been created to highlight the predominant manufacturing activity by census division in 1983 and 1997. Employing advanced mapping software, it is possible to accurately make maps which show the correspondence between manufacturing activity and the ecumene. The brief discussion herein will help readers to interpret the enclosed maps.

The Manufacturing, Construction and Energy Division is engaged in finding alternatives to presenting data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures using advanced mapping technology. This technology enables us to present a coherent spatial representation of manufacturing activity across Canada. The interactive map presents provincial principle statistics and highlights, with a view to disseminating knowledge and stimulating discussion.

This bulletin is a preliminary release of 1998 annual data for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry (including PCS and ESMR service providers) with accompanying data from 1995.

The most recent issue contains "Food producers maintain expansion" by Peter Zylstra. Food commodity processors are engaged in a multitude of manufacturing activities. The aggregate performance of these is the subject of this article. Common influences on all processing industries that make up the Food Industries Major Group are examined, while specific ones that impact some and not others are also discussed. Growth in food industries has always been a function of population growth. In addition, health considerations and new product development are important factors. The summary of recent developments is based on results of the 1997 Annual Survey of Manufactures. Other sources are also used for industry analysis as well as for the provision of industry environment and economic background.

This article is divided into three sections. Section 1 describes results for small for-hire carriers; section 2 contains data for owner operations; and section 3 provides a general discussion of Annual Motor Carriers of Freight survey data quality.

This study presents 1997/1998 LFS earnings estimates for about 85,000 drivers employed by for-hire carriers (companies whose principal business is transportation of goods for a fee) in comparison to drivers employed in private trucking (companies that transport their freight by truck, but whose principal business activity is not trucking) and the overall labour force. Wages and earnings estimated presented in this study exclude owner operators and self-employed workers.

This publication shows expenditures, by industry, for the various types of packaging materials.

The cable and other program distribution industry has reported revenues of $3.1 billion in 1998, a 10.0% increase over 1997. This relatively strong growth is due in large part to the fast growing non-basic services segment. While revenue from basic services grew moderately (2.1%) revenue from non-basic and other services increased by 29.0%.

In the final paper of this special issue, Estevao and Särndal consider two types of design-based estimators used for domain estimation. The first, a linear prediction estimator, is built on the principle of model fitting, requires known auxiliary information at the domain level, and results in weights that depend on the domain to be estimated. The second, a uni-weight estimator, has weights which are independent of the domain being estimated and has the clear advantage that it does not require the calculation of different weight systems for each different domain of interest. These estimators are compared and situations under which one is preferred over the other are identified.

This study uses data to study differences in labour productivity gains across domestic and foreign-controlled establishments in the manufacturing sector for the period 1973 to 1993. In doing so, it also examines the extent to which labour productivity differences exist between small and large establishments and across industry sectors and how they have been changing over time.

The analysis consists of three parts. In the first section, the connection between labour usage and output is examined. This analysis investigates differences in marginal labour propensities for the different subgroups in the short and long-run. Here volatility is seen to be lower for foreign-controlled establishments. The second section examines the difference between the growth in average labour productivity for the same groups. Here foreign-controlled establishments are seen to have the highest growth rates. The third section investigates whether any trend can be found in the rates of growth for large and small, domestic and foreign establishments and finds that these differences have been increasing over time.

Foreign ownership in the Canadian telecommunications industry has always been an important policy issue, and recent events have further emphasized the significance of this topic.

The purpose of this short report is to provide basic information on the relative importance of the different players in the industry.

In recent years, several economic forces have caused a change in the structure of the economy. Factors such as globalization and trade liberalization, among others, have intensified competition resulting in reallocation of resources among sectors in Canada. As business services, communications and wholesale trade emerged as engines of growth, it is generally perceived that the manufacturing industry has lost its significance. In contrast, a review of historical data on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) show that the share of manufacturing output was slightly up, from 17.2% in 1961 to 17.8% in 1998.

This paper reflects upon the importance of manufacturing in the economy and focuses on one industry - Primary Textiles. It concentrates on the evolution and significance of this industry within an overall changing economic structure using Statistics Canada's data base, CANSIM, results of the Annual Survey of Manufactures (1988 to 1997) along with current findings of the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing (1998 and 1999).

The latest issue consists of the article "Strong growth propels the electrical and electronic products industry into the 21st century" by Russell Kowaluk. Despite the recent turmoil in global stock markets, manufacturing in Canada is finally reaping the benefits of prosperity on many accounts, and such positive indicators are prevalent in one of Canada's more innovative, and dynamic industries, the electrical and electronic products industry (Major Group 33). Following a brief pause in 1996, the value of shipments surpassed the $30 billion mark in 1997. Employment levels recorded their strongest growth in ten years, while international trade estimates again achieved record highs.

This review paper highlights the results of the 1997 Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM), and details various prevailing economic indicators, illustrating the growth in the electrical and electronic products industry. These factors will be highlighted and analyzed, and the electrical and electronic products sector will be compared to other industries and measured relative to the manufacturing sector as a whole. Key current indicators to be investigated include the value of shipments and costs of production, international trade and labor statistics.

This study investigates the determinants of failure for new Canadian firms. It explores the role that certain factors play in conditioning the likelihood of survival - factors related to industry structure, firm demographics and macroeconomic cycles. It asks whether the determinants of failure are different for new start-ups than for firms that have reached adolescence, and if the magnitude of these differences is economically significant. It examines whether, after controlling for certain influences, failure rates differ across industries and provinces.

Two themes figure prominently in this analysis. The first is the impact that certain industry characteristics - such as average firm size and concentration - have on the entry/exit process, either through their influence on failure costs or on the intensity of competition. The second centres on how the dimensions of failure evolve over time as new firms gain market experience.

This paper presents data from several of the most important income series. These integrated series use the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) data up to and including reference year 1995. From 1996 onwards, the data come from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID).

The most recent issue contains "Non-Electrical machinery industries post strong growth in 1997, with market uncertainty on the horizon" by Russell Kowaluk. Based on statistical information provided by the Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM), this article explores the machinery industries (except electrical machinery), discussing various key statistics including shipment value, input costs and labour information. Other significant economic indicators to be assessed include monthly manufacturing estimates, international trade statistics, and rates of capacity utilization and investment.

Canada's machinery industries remained one of the fastest growing manufacturing sectors in 1997. However, during the later half of 1998 and into 1999, recent developments confirm that the tide of prosperity the industry has benefited from in recent years has tapered off. The ensuing article discusses the industry, detailing the results of the 1997 ASM, and highlighting the economic climate now challenging the sector.

The economic performance of this industry is examined through its value of shipments, trade performance, capital expenditures and, employment trends. All four variables point to growth and another year of recovery from the recession of the early 1990s. The Free Trade Agreements and construction activities are the driving forces behind this decade's trends for the non-metallic mineral products industries.

Often, the same information is gathered almost simultaneously for several different surveys. In France, this practice is institutionalized for household surveys that have a common set of demographic variables, i.e., employment, residence and income. These variables are important co-factors for the variables of interest in each survey, and if used carefully, can reinforce the estimates derived from each survey. Techniques for calibrating uncertain data can apply naturally in this context. This involves finding the best unbiased estimator in common variables and calibrating each survey based on that estimator. The estimator thus obtained in each survey is always a linear estimator, the weightings of which can be easily explained and the variance can be obtained with no new problems, as can the variance estimate. To supplement the list of regression estimators, this technique can also be seen as a ridge-regression estimator, or as a Bayesian-regression estimator.

The U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey uses two instruments, a diary and an in-person interview, to collect data on many categories of consumer expenditures. Consequently, it is important to use these data efficiently to estimate mean expenditures and related parameters. Three options are: (1) use only data from the diary source; (2) Use only data from the interview source; and (3) use generalized least squares, or related methods, to combine the diary and interview data. Historically, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has focused on options (1) and (2) for estimation at the five or six-digit Universal Classification Code level. Evaluation and possible implementation of option (3) depends on several factors, including possible measurement biases in the diary and interview data; the empirical magnitude of these biases, relative to the standard errors of customary mean estimators; and the degree of homogeneity of these biases across strata and periods. This paper reviews some issues related to options (1) through (3); describes a relatively simple generalized least squares method for implementation of option (3); and discussed the need for diagnostics to evaluate the feasibility and relative efficiency of the generalized least squares method.

The geographical and temporal relationship between outdoor air pollution and asthma was examined by linking together data from multiple sources. These included the administrative records of 59 general practices widely dispersed across England and Wales for half a million patients and all their consultations for asthma, supplemented by a socio-economic interview survey. Postcode enabled linkage with: (i) computed local road density; (ii) emission estimates of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxides, (iii) measured/interpolated concentration of black smoke, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants at practice level. Parallel Poisson time series analysis took into account between-practice variations to examine daily correlations in practices close to air quality monitoring stations. Preliminary analyses show small and generally non-significant geographical associations between consultation rates and pollution markers. The methodological issues relevant to combining such data, and the interpretation of these results will be discussed.

The artificial sample was generated in two steps. The first step, based on a master panel, was a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) carried out on basic variables. Then, "dummy" individuals were generated randomly using the distribution of each "significant" factor in the analysis. Finally, for each individual, a value was generated for each basic variable most closely linked to one of the previous factors. This method ensured that sets of variables were drawn independently. The second step consisted in grafting some other data bases, based on certain property requirements. A variable was generated to be added on the basis of its estimated distribution, using a generalized linear model for common variables and those already added. The same procedure was then used to graft the other samples. This method was applied to the generation of an artificial sample taken from two surveys. The artificial sample that was generated was validated using sample comparison testing. The results were positive, demonstrating the feasibility of this method.

Electricity rates that vary by time-of-day have the potential to significantly increase economic efficiency in the energy market. A number of utilities have undertaken economic studies of time-of-use rates schemes for their residential customers. This paper uses meta-analysis to examine the impact of time-of-use rates on electricity demand pooling the results of thirty-eight separate programs. There are four key findings. First, very large peak to off-peak price ratios are needed to significantly affect peak demand. Second, summer peak rates are relatively effective compared to winter peak rates. Third, permanent time-or-use rates are relatively effective compared to experimental ones. Fourth, demand charges rival ordinary time-of-use rates in terms of impact.

We use data on 14 populations of coho salmon to estimate critical parameters that are vital for management of fish populations. Parameter estimates from individual data sets are inefficient and can be highly biased, and we investigate methods to overcome these problems. Combination of data sets using nonlinear mixed effects models provides more useful results, however questions of influence and robustness are raised. For comparison, robust estimates are obtained. Model-robustness is also explored using a family of alternative functional forms. Our results allow ready calculation of the limits of exploitation and may help to prevent extinction of fish stocks. Similar methods can be applied in other contexts where parameter estimation is part of a larger decision-making process.

This user's guide provides a detailed description of the CD-ROM Income trends in Canada (13F0022XCB). It also provides a glossary, a description of the major concepts as well as an overview of the data source, the Survey of Consumer Finances.

This paper outlines the process of delineating the agricultural land base (ecumene) in Canada based on data from the 1991 Census of Agriculture.

This paper reconstructs the development and evolution of the Canadian agricultural statistical system. It describes the expanding and increasingly important role of administrative data, which is integrated into survey and census information in order to complement, supplement or replace survey information or to assist with frame maintenance.

This paper describes the experiences, the issues and the expectations of the many different players involved in the implementation of document imaging for the Canadian Census of Agriculture.