Real-Time Grain Movement by Rail

Detailed information for 2023

This document accompanies the inaugural introductory release of the GSCD and presents the conceptual structure of the railway movement, the data and computation methods, and current limitations. The GSCD is released as an experimental data product.

Data release - May 11, 2023

• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The Ag Transport Coalition will voluntarily provide the Centre for Special Business Projects (CSBP) with data on rail cars movement of grain in Canada. Statistics Canada will develop a visualization tool, including an interactive map and dashboard showing near real-time location of rail cars containing grain in Canada.

Reference period: Data is available starting August 01, 2016 to present

Collection period: Daily

Subjects

• Agriculture and food (formerly Agriculture)
• Crops and horticulture
• Transportation
• Transportation by rail

Data sources and methodology

Target population

Industry Stakeholders
Canadian public

Instrument design

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Sampling

This methodology does not apply.

Data sources

Administrative data source(s) used and information about each administrative source including:
- Agriculture Transport Coalition
- To produce the Grain Supply Dashboard
- Data is aggregated in R to produce public metrics

Error detection

All edits are done at the micro level to aggregate data to macro level.

Imputation

No imputation was done.

Estimation

Individual rail car records are aggregated at the station and corridor level to be shown on the map as well as in the table provided in the grain supply chain dashboard.

Quality evaluation

Data and methods are checked by the Agriculture Transport Coalition before publication.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

In order to prevent any data disclosure, confidentiality analysis is done using the Statistics Canada Generalized Disclosure Control System (G-Confid). G-Confid is used for primary suppression (direct disclosure) as well as for secondary suppression (residual disclosure). Direct disclosure occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of or dominated by few enterprises while residual disclosure occurs when confidential information can be derived indirectly by piecing together information from different sources or data series.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

Data will be revised quarterly. This will be done by applying data received late to it's proper date.

Data accuracy

Data received does not include one shipper and blurs the origin of all trips. This results in roughly 2% missing data.