Frontier Counts (FC)

Summary of changes

Activity on this program started: 1972

Reference period of change - July 2024

In July 2024, updates were made to some country names to align with the Variant of the Standard Classification of Countries and Areas of Interest 2022 for Travel Statistics. (https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p3VD.pl?Function=getVD&TVD=1521179)

Reference period of change - May 2023

Additional levels of aggregation have been added to the following tables for the items listed:
1) Table 24-10-0057 - Vehicle Type (Vehicles), Traveller Characteristics (International Visitors Entering or Re-entering Canada), and Traveller Type (Travellers).
2) Table 24-10-0058 - Geography (Canada; provinces and territories), Vehicle licence plate (Vehicles entering Canada; Vehicles registered in the United States of America entering Canada; Canadian-Registered Vehicles Entering Canada), and Vehicle Type (Vehicles)
3) Table 24-10-0059 - Geography (Canada; provinces and territories), and Vehicle licence plate (Trucks entering Canada; Trucks registered in the United States of America entering Canada; Canadian-registered trucks entering Canada)

Reference period of change - April 2023

To align with the 2019 Standard Classification of Countries and Areas of Interest variant for travel statistics, the following territories have been realigned: British Indian Ocean Territory, East Africa; Christmas Island, Micronesia; Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Micronesia; and Norfolk Island, Melanesia.
Additional levels of aggregation have been added to the following tables for the items listed:
1) Table 24-10-0053 - Traveller characteristics (Residents of countries other than the United States of America, seaway, ferry, direct; Residents of countries other than the United States of America, seaway, ferry, via the United States of America; Residents of Canada returning from countries other than the United States of America, seaway, ferry, direct; Residents of Canada returning from countries other than the United States of America, sea, ferry, via the United States of America)

Reference period of change - December 2022

With the December 2022 release, totals for Europe, Africa, and Asia have been revised for the 1972-1989 data in table 24-10-0050 for non-residents visitors entering Canada.

Reference period of change - June 2021

Terminal 1 of Toronto Pearson International Airport fully deployed Primary Inspection Kiosks (PIKs) in June 2021. The PIKs replace the E311 declaration cards.

Reference period of change - January 2020

With the release of data for January 2020, the following revisions were made to the 2019 data:
1) Changes were made at certain ports to include data that were missing or received late, which led to the numbers of Canadian, U.S. and overseas residents being adjusted.
2) For most marine commercial, the information provided from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) ports was used to split the duration into overnight or same-day arrivals instead of using an imputed rate. In addition, for pedestrian and train arrivals at certain ports, the information provided from the CBSA ports was used to allocate overnight and same-day arrivals instead of using an imputed percentage.
3) For specific ports, the overseas countries breakdown was changed to the information provided from the CBSA ports instead of using an imputed rate.

Reference period of change - May 2019

Calgary International Airport deployed Primary Inspection Kiosks (PIKs) in May 2019, joining Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier (March 2017), Vancouver International (April 2017), Toronto/Lester B. Pearson Terminal 3 (June 2017), Edmonton International (September 2017), Halifax/Robert L. Stanfield (October 2017), Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau (November 2017), Québec/Jean Lesage (December 2017), Toronto/Billy Bishop Toronto City (May 2018) and Winnipeg/James Armstrong Richardson (June 2018), which had previously deployed them.
The PIKs replace the E311 declaration cards. Data users are cautioned that the switch from E311 cards to PIKs has impacted the historical comparability of some data series, especially for Canadian travellers returning from overseas trips via the United States to report that they are returning from the United States only and not overseas via the United States. Further information on the switch from E311 cards to PIKs is available in the document "Impacts on Statistics Canada travel and tourism data resulting from replacement of E311 declaration cards with Primary Inspection Kiosks."
Initially, while awaiting receipt of PIK data, Statistics Canada prepared preliminary estimates for airports at which the PIK system was deployed. In December 2018, historical PIK data for May to December 2017 were introduced, replacing the previous modelled estimates. Because of data quality issues with early PIK data, modelled estimates for Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier in March and April 2017 and Vancouver International in April 2017 were not replaced with PIK data.

Reference period of change - January 2019

Statistics Canada updated the method for determining trip durations for U.S. residents travelling to Canada and Canadian residents returning from the United States. This change affects the relative proportions of same-day and overnight travellers arriving in Canada by air and other modes of transportation (e.g., train, marine private, pedestrians, other vehicles). Therefore, caution is advised when comparing data from 2019 and beyond with data from earlier periods for these modes of transportation.

Reference period of change - December 2018

Frontier Counts began to expand the use of Integrated Primary Inspection Line (IPIL) Highway data to include bus and pedestrian traffic at some ports of entry, as well as to expand its use for automobile, truck and motorcycle traffic at ports where it was not currently used. This revision was done throughout 2017 and 2018 as additional data became available. Some residual cases were added in 2019 and 2020, and available data continue to be evaluated for use on a monthly basis.

These additional IPIL Highway data replace paper tally forms. The transition from tally forms to IPIL Highway data was done in consultation with CBSA ports and following thorough analysis of the two sources in all cases to ensure that coverage of the target population could be achieved using IPIL data.
Although it is possible that there could be differences because IPIL is electronic and tally forms were completed manually, there is no specific reason why users should expect to see differences and—ultimately—IPIL should provide more accurate and timely information.

Reference period of change - October 2018

Non-seasonally adjusted data were revised for October 2018 at Kingsgate Port, British Columbia.
Corrections were made to non-seasonally adjusted data from January 2018 to October 2018 for Toronto/Lester B. Pearson Terminal 1. The revision involved counts of travellers from overseas and counts of "Other travellers, immigrants and former residents."

Reference period of change - September 2018

Data on the duration of travel for Canadian and U.S. residents from April to September 2018 were revised.

Reference period of change - August 2018

Frontier Counts updated its data sources for counts of overseas residents entering Canada at land ports, which represents about 10% of total overseas travellers to Canada. For these overseas residents arriving in Canada by land, estimates based on paper-based counts were replaced with electronic counts provided by the CBSA.
Frontier Counts also implemented a new method for estimating the country of residence breakdowns of overseas travellers entering Canada at most land ports. When a breakdown is not available, if ports of entry are able to provide a separate detailed breakdown of overseas travellers by country of residence, this distribution is used. However, if no such distribution is available, the country of residence breakdowns for air travellers in PIK data for the given province or region are used to estimate the country breakdowns of overseas land travellers. This method replaces the historically based imputations that were used previously.
Total counts of overseas travellers were revised to reflect new data sources at some ports. Therefore, users are advised to use caution when comparing changes in travel to Canada with data from previous months for individual overseas countries.