Survey of Provincial/Territorial Government Expenditures on Culture

Detailed information for 2005-2006

This survey is conducted in order to gain a better understanding of provincial and territorial government expenditures on culture in Canada.

Data release - November 10, 2008

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

Description

The following is a list of culture sectors included in this survey: 1) national libraries; 2) public libraries; 3) school libraries; 4) university and college libraries; 5) museums; 6) public archives; 7) historic parks and sites; 8) nature/provincial parks; 9) other heritage; 10) arts education; 11) literary arts; 12) performing arts; 13) visual arts and crafts; 14) film and video; 15) broadcasting; 16) sound recording; 17) multiculturalism; 18) multidisciplinary activities; 19) other.

The data from this survey are used by all levels of government for the assessment and development of culture policies and programs. They are also used by a wide variety of national, provincial, territorial, municipal and sectoral arts councils, agencies, advocacy groups, think tanks, arts organizations, institutions and researchers for the assessment and development of cultural policies as well as for resource justification purposes.

Reference period: Fiscal year (between April 1st of the reference year and March 31st of the following year)

Collection period: October to March

Subjects

• Culture and leisure
• Government spending on culture

Data sources and methodology

Target population

Provincial and territorial government departments and agencies responsible for the support of arts and culture.

Instrument design

The collection instrument was designed in consultation with data users and questionnaire design specialists. It was last revised in 1984.

Sampling

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

Data are collected for all units of the target population, therefore, no sampling is done.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2006-10-01 to 2007-03-30

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

The survey is a mail-out mail-back survey with fax and telephone follow-ups.

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

Error detection

A series of edits are designed to identify problems with the data. These include consistency and historic range edits which are completed after collection as part of processing.

Imputation

Problems of missing, invalid or inconsistent entries are resolved by contacting the respondents. However, in some cases, respondents cannot provide data about school, university and college libraries because the provinces and territories provide funding to the institutions as a whole and not to the libraries directly. While total spending on these libraries is obtained from surveys of school boards, and university and college education expenditures, these data do not show a breakdown of the provincial/territorial contribution to this total spending. Therefore, provincial/territorial funding to these libraries is imputed on the basis of the provincial/territorial contribution to the total revenues of the educational institutions. Because data on school libraries in some provinces and territories were not available in time from the survey on school boards, these data were imputed using the provincial and territorial growth factors for school board expenditures from the previous year.

Estimation

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Quality evaluation

In addition to historical trend analysis, data sources within and outside Statistics Canada are used to compare, reconcile, and validate the final data output.

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

Revisions to the data for previous year(s) are made if revised data are provided by the respondent(s).

Data accuracy

Since the survey is a census of all known provincial and territorial cultural departments and agencies, only non-sampling errors (coverage, non-response, measurement and processing errors) are possible. Coverage error was minimized by using multiple sources to update the frame. Careful design of the questionnaire, extensive manual and automated edits, imputation for non-response, and monitoring of survey operations all help to limit the magnitude of the other non-sampling errors. Imputed data on school, and university and college libraries accounted for about 20% of the total provincial and territorial cultural budgets.