Data quality, concepts and methodology: Methodology

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The Federal Government is a principal funder of science and technology in Canada. This report presents information on the disposition of monies and human resources for science and technology (S&T) by federal departments and agencies. The information has been assembled to serve as a reference document for program managers, government officials, the media and the general public. It records the allocation of S&T resources for the last five years.

The statistics are collected through the survey of Federal Science Expenditures and Personnel, which records past, current and preliminary expenditures for activities in the natural and social sciences. The survey is designed to correspond as much as possible to the system of budgetary estimates used by the federal government. This is done to ease the response burden, assist in editing and, most importantly, to produce comparable data for policy planning and program evaluation. Thus, the questionnaire covers the same time span as the estimates including: actual expenditures for the past fiscal year, e.g. 2007/2008; forecast expenditures for the current fiscal year, e.g. 2008/2009; and proposed estimates for the fiscal year, e.g. 2009/2010 (as also reported in the Public Accounts).

Sixty-four different federal government departments and agencies either perform science and technology (S&T) activities or have a budgetary allocation to fund S&T. In addition to the expenditures attributable to program budgets, there are additional costs attributable to scientific activities which must be included if a full picture of the resources devoted to science activities is to be obtained. These include other sources of funds and other S&T costs which are defined below:

Transfers into the program from other federal government departments and agencies, net of transfers out;

Income from external sources such as industry and provincial governments;

Other S&T costs: Non-Program Costs (indirect costs) are costs that are not part of the budgets of scientific programs and include services provided by other departments, such as:

1. accommodation by Public Works and Government Services Canada and own department;
2. employer's share of health and employment insurance premiums paid by Treasury Board;
3. employee compensation under Workers Compensation Acts paid by Human Resources and Social Development Canada;
4. cost of legal services provided by the Department of Justice;
5. cheques issue cost by Public Works and Government Services Canada.

Indirect costs are included in departmental totals; however, these costs have not been included in expenditures classified by socio-economic objective.

The values for non program costs (cost of services without charge) are no longer publicly available through the Government Expense Plan and Main estimates due to a change in the structure of government reporting. Statistics Canada is currently investigating alternative sources for these values. If suitable alternative avenues are not forthcoming, commencing in 2011/2012, Statistics Canada will discontinue the inclusion of non program costs in the dissemination of Science and Technology (S&T) expenditures of Federal government departments and agencies.

According to international convention, science and technology activities are divided into two fields; natural sciences and engineering (NSE) and social sciences and humanities (SSH). These fields of science are further divided into research and development (R&D) and related scientific activities (RSA). The Federal Government may choose to perform S&T in its own laboratories (intramural expenditures) or may pay another organization to perform S&T (extramural expenditures). Data are presented in this article on S&T activities funded by the federal government for R&D and RSA and distinguished by performer (that is, intramurally by the government itself or extramurally, by business enterprises (industry), universities, provincial and municipal governments, Canadian non-profit organizations, other performers and foreign performers). Definitions of these terms are provided in the Technical Notes section. Crown corporations which have an industrial function are not included. They are treated as commercial enterprises and the crown corporation expenditures in aggregate are included in the Statistics Canada report, Industrial Research and Development, Catalogue No. 88-202-X

Considerable effort has been expended to maintain the continuity and compatibility of the data series to permit analysis and study of the impact of scientific activities. Efforts of the departments and agencies in ensuring accurate and complete information are gratefully acknowledged.

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