Canadian Commercial Aerospace, Defence, Commercial and Civil Marine and Industrial Security Sector Survey

Detailed information for 2011

The objective of this survey is to produce statistical information on the revenues, costs, investments, employment and markets of businesses engaged in the manufacture and delivery of products and services related to the commercial aerospace, defence, commercial and civil marine or industrial security sector in Canada.

Data release - July 2, 2013

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The objective of this survey is to produce statistical information on the revenues, costs, investments, employment and markets of businesses engaged in the manufacture and delivery of products and services related to the commercial aerospace, defence, commercial and civil marine or industrial security sector in Canada.

Sponsored by the Aerospace, Defence and Marine Branch of Industry Canada, the survey provides data which can be used to better understand the nature and competitive position of businesses in the target sector, as well as their needs in terms of Federal policies and programs to support their advancement.

Subjects

• Manufacturing
• Transportation equipment

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population comprises enterprises engaged in the manufacture and delivery of products and services related to the defence, aerospace and commercial and civil marine sectors in Canada. This population includes enterprises belonging to a diverse group of industries classified under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

Instrument design

The survey used one paper questionnaire to collect data from respondents. The questionnaire from the 2007 survey was updated and revised in conjunction with Industry Canada. This new questionnaire was then tested with potential respondents in the summer of 2012 - 6 English respondents in Toronto and 6 French respondents in Montreal. The questionnaire was then revised once again based on the comments and suggestions of the companies participating in the questionnaire testing.

Sampling

This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.

Industry Canada compiled a list of businesses that they identified as engaged in the manufacture and delivery of products and services related to commercial aerospace, defence, commercial and civil marine and industrial security sector in Canada. The list was matched to Statistics Canada Business Register at the enterprise level. Once the matching process was complete and inactive businesses were removed from the list, a final survey frame of 5,035 enterprises was obtained. This included 152 enterprises flagged by Industry Canada as "priority" for the purposes of collection. The Canadian Commercial Aerospace, Defence, Commercial and Civil Marine and Industrial Security Sector Survey was conducted as a census of this frame.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2012-09-24 to 2013-01-04

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

Before the questionnaire was mailed, businesses in the survey were pre-contacted by telephone to confirm that they were in-scope for the survey based on their activities, to identify the person best able to respond to the questionnaire and to collect their contact information. As a result of this pre-contact, questionnaires were ultimately mailed to 3,313 enterprises. They were asked to return the completed questionnaires within 30 days of receipt. Upon receipt, the collected questionnaires were imaged and the data from these questionnaires were captured using optical character recognition technology. Preliminary editing was also performed to ensure the validity of the collected data. However, no follow-up was done for collection edit failures.

Follow-up for non-response was conducted by telephone or fax. The "priority" businesses received up to four follow-up telephone calls and two fax reminders to encourage them to respond to the survey since their contribution to the survey estimates would be significant. The remaining non-respondents received three fax reminders to encourage them to complete the questionnaire.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .

Error detection

Consistency edits were applied during post-collection data processing. These edits ensure, for example, that the sum of total exports plus domestic sales is not greater than the value of total sales, or that the sum of sales to the various subsectors is equal to the value reported for total sales. If records failed one or more edits, they were reviewed to correct the problems.

Imputation

Only records for the "priority" businesses in this survey were imputed. Imputation was done manually based on information provided by Industry Canada and information reported by the same businesses for the 2007 iteration of the survey.

Estimation

Since the survey was conducted as a census of all units on the frame, each unit had a weight of one. No adjustment was done to the weights to account for non-response. Estimation was based on a simple aggregation of the reported or imputed data by businesses in the commercial aerospace, defence, commercial and civil marine and industrial security sector. Totals were produced at the national level for businesses conducting activities in each of commercial aerospace, defence, commercial and civil marine and industrial security, as well as for the entire sector.

Quality evaluation

Since the populations and the methodologies for the 2007 and 2011 iterations of this survey are different, the estimates for these two reference periods cannot be compared. Industry Canada has reviewed both the survey data and the estimates, drawing on their detailed knowledge of the sector and the businesses which belong to it. The feedback provided by Industry Canada was used to ensure that the data would be of the highest quality possible.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which 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.

Confidentiality analysis includes the detection of possible "direct disclosure", which occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of a few respondents or when the cell is dominated by a few companies. Residual disclosure occurs when confidential information can be derived indirectly by piecing together information from different sources or data series.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

This methodology does not apply to this survey.

Data accuracy

There are two types of errors which can impact the data: sampling errors and non sampling errors. Since this was a census survey, no sampling was done and therefore there were no sampling errors.

Non-sampling errors may occur for various reasons during the collection and processing of the data. For example, non-response is an important source of non-sampling error. Under or over-coverage of the population, differences in the interpretations of questions and mistakes in recording and processing data are other examples of non-sampling errors. To the maximum extent possible, these errors are minimized through careful design of the survey questionnaire, verification of the survey data, and non-response follow-up to maximize response rates.

The frame for the Canadian Commercial Aerospace, Defence, Industrial Marine and Industrial Security Sector Survey was based on a list of businesses identified by Industry Canada. The frame does not necessarily include all businesses active in the sector of interest for this survey. However, Industry Canada believes that any excluded businesses would not contribute significantly to the revenues and employment of the sector of interest. If some larger businesses in this sector have been excluded, the survey estimates may under-represent the target population which would contribute to the overall non-sampling error.

The overall response rate of the Canadian Commercial Aerospace, Defence, Industrial Marine and Industrial Security Sector Survey, 2011 was 41.8%. Data from this survey are representative of those establishments that responded to the questionnaire. Since no imputation was done for businesses which did not respond to the survey or which provided only some of the requested data (unless they were identified as priority units), the coverage of the estimates will differ across variables. Response rates by survey question are available to help evaluate the quality of the survey data in terms of their coverage.