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Canada Government Essentials

Economic data from the Government of Canada
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​ 
Overview
This product serves as a central source of Canadian government statistics and economic data. 
Example topics covered: 
Gross domestic product (GDP)
Retail sales 
Household income
Consumer Price Index (CPI) 
Foreign exchange rates
Total employment by industry 
Housing price indices 
Government of Canada debt securities 
Housing starts 
The data is sourced from Canada’s national statistical office, Statistics Canada.
Key attributes
Geographic Coverage
Canada
Entity Level
Geographic
Time Granularity
Monthly
Update Frequency
Varies by source; see table below​
History
Since January 31, 1914
Description
All Cybersyn products follow the EAV (entity, attributes, value) model with a unified schema. Entities are tangible objects (e.g. geography, company). Entities may have characteristics (i.e. descriptors of the entity) in an index table and values (i.e. statistics, measure) in a timeseries table. Data is joinable across all Cybersyn products that have a GEO_ID. Refer to Cybersyn Concepts for more details.
Timeseries and related metadata are loaded from Statistics Canada, reshaped to conform to Cybersyn’s schema, and joined with unique geographic identifiers. Canada Government Essentials is built around the Geography entity. 
Statistics Canada is an agency of the Government of Canada that produces statistical data and insights on Canada's economy, society, and environment. Sector-level inflation, pricing, and output data includes Consumer price index (CPI), industrial product price index (IPPI), gross domestic product (GDP), average retail prices, and housing price indices. Employment data covers total population, labor force size, employment (full-time / part-time), unemployment (totals / rates), and total employment by industry (NAICS). Household data covers household income, consumption, savings rates, and liabilities. Finally real estate development data includes housing starts, absorbed (completed and sold) and unabsorbed (completed but not yet sold) dwelling units, and economic statistics (e.g. salaries, wages, operating revenue) for real estate agents, brokers, and appraisers.
Retail and eCommerce sales by province, territory, and select metro areas as well as the Canadian dollar forex rates and Canadian-Dollar Effective Exchange Rate Index (CERI) from Statistics Canada is also included in this product.
Cybersyn is planning to expand this listing to eventually cover the entirety of StatCan and other related Government of Canada agencies that publish relevant data on the economy and environment. Email [email protected] to request the prioritization of specific additions.
Data Dictionary
Data Dictionary
Data Sources & Release Frequency 
As with all Public Domain datasets, Cybersyn aims to release data on Snowflake Marketplace as soon as the underlying source releases new data. We check periodically for changes to the underlying source and, upon detecting a change, propagate the data to Snowflake Marketplace immediately. See our release process for more details.
Tables Names
Source
Source Schedule
CANADA_STATCAN_ATTRIBUTES

CANADA_STATCAN_TIMESERIES
​Statistics Canada​
Varies by dataset from Statistics Canada
GEOGRAPHY_HIERARCHY

GEOGRAPHY_INDEX

GEOGRAPHY_RELATIONSHIPS

GEOGRAPHY_CHARACTERISTICS
​Data Commons​
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​US Census​


Data Commons is an aggregator of government data sources. Release calendars vary by underlying source.
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The US Census Bureau publishes datasets about the US people and it’s economy, release schedules vary by dataset.
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Notes & Methodology
Variable attributes
Not all fields in the canada_statcan_attributes table are relevant to each variable. For example, the product_group field specifically applies to measures related to consumer price index (CPI). Values will be NULL if a field is not applicable to that particular variable.
Example Use Cases & Queries
Canadian Industrial Price Index
Query the Industrial Price Index for select products to reflect price changes since January 2020
SELECT att.napcs AS label, ts.value, ts.date, ts.unit
FROM cybersyn.canada_statcan_timeseries ts
JOIN cybersyn.canada_statcan_attributes att
  ON att.variable = ts.variable
WHERE ts.geo_id = 'country/CAN'
  AND ts.date > '2020-01-01'
  AND att.napcs IN ('Dairy products',
                    'Refined petroleum energy products (including liquid biofuels)',
                    'Converted paper products (except for packaging)',
                    'Computers and computer peripherals',
                    'Basic chemicals')
  AND att.report = 'Industrial product price index';
Employment growth across Service sector
Time series of employed persons by sub-sector within the Services sector since 2010
SELECT att.naics, ts.value, ts.date
FROM cybersyn.canada_statcan_timeseries ts
JOIN cybersyn.canada_statcan_attributes att
  ON att.variable = ts.variable
WHERE ts.geo_id = 'country/CAN'
  AND ts.date >= '2000-01-01'
  AND att.naics IN ('Wholesale and retail trade',
                    'Transportation and warehousing',
                    'Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing',
                    'Professional, scientific and technical services',
                    'Educational services',
                    'Health care and social assistance',
                    'Accommodation and food services')
  AND att.seasonally_adjusted = TRUE
  AND att.trend_cycle = FALSE
  AND att.report = 'Employment by industry';
Monthly retail prices of consumer goods products
Times series of monthly retail prices for standard groceries (e.g. ground beef, ketchup, butter, coffee, bacon)
SELECT att.product_group, ts.value, ts.date
FROM cybersyn.canada_statcan_timeseries ts
JOIN cybersyn.canada_statcan_attributes att
  ON att.variable = ts.variable
WHERE ts.geo_id = 'country/CAN'
  AND ts.date >= '2000-01-01'
  AND att.product_group IN ('Bacon, 500 grams',
                            'Ketchup, 1 litre',
                            'Roasted or ground coffee, 300 grams',
                            'Butter, 454 grams',
                            'Ground beef, per kilogram')
  AND att.report = 'Monthly average retail prices';
Canadian dollar foreign exchange rate
Time series of the Canadian dollar forex rate for the U.S. dollar, Euro, Mexican peso, Australian dollar, Saudi riyal, Japanese yen
SELECT ts.date, ts.value, att.currency
FROM cybersyn.canada_statcan_timeseries ts
JOIN cybersyn.canada_statcan_attributes att
  ON att.variable = ts.variable
WHERE att.currency IN ('Saudi riyal',
                       'Mexican peso',
                       'Australian dollar',
                       'European euro',
                       'U.S. dollar',
                       'Japanese yen')
  AND date >= '2000-01-01'; 
 Census divisions with highest disposable income
Order census divisions by median after-tax income, as reported in the 2021 Census of Population
SELECT
	geo_rels.geo_name AS province_territory,
	geo.geo_name AS census_division,
	ts.value AS median_after_tax_income
FROM
	cybersyn.canada_statcan_timeseries ts
	JOIN cybersyn.geography_index geo ON geo.geo_id = ts.geo_id
	JOIN cybersyn.geography_relationships geo_rels ON geo_rels.related_geo_id = ts.geo_id
	AND geo_rels.level = 'State'
WHERE
	ts.variable_name = 'Census Profile: Private household income, Median total income of households'
	AND geo.level = 'CensusDivision'
ORDER BY
	ts.value DESC
LIMIT
	5;
Compare household savings rate and core CPI
Time series for Canadian household savings rate and core CPI since 2010
SELECT date, variable_name, value
FROM cybersyn.canada_statcan_timeseries
WHERE variable_name IN ('Current and capital accounts: Household saving rate, Seasonally adjusted at annual rates',
                    	'Core CPI: All-items excluding eight of the most volatile components and the effect of indirect taxes, seasonally adjusted')
  AND date >= '2010-01-01'
  AND geo_id = 'country/CAN';
Releases & Changelog
12/5/23 - Added interest rates posted by major chartered banks in Canada for selected products from Statistics Canada 
Added interest rates for selected products posted by the six major chartered banks in Canada to the CANADA_STATCAN_ATTRIBUTES and CANADA_STATCAN_TIMESERIES tables. The typical rate is calculated based on the statistical mode of the rates published by the six banks. 
The posted rates cover: 
Prime lending rate
Conventional mortgages
Guaranteed investment certificates
Personal daily interest savings
Non-checkable savings deposits
11/13/23 - Added 6 timeseries from Statistics Canada covering Canadian debt securities and real estate development
Added 6 new timeseries to the CANADA_STATCAN_TIMESERIES and CANADA_STATCAN_ATTRIBUTES tables from 3 of Statistics Canada’s underlying sources:
Bank of Canada: Government of Canada debt gross new issues, retirements and net new issues, and par values
Annual Survey of Service Industries: Real estate agents, brokers, and appraisers summary statistics (e.g. salaries, wages, operating revenue)
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation:
Absorptions and unabsorbed inventory, newly completed dwellings, by type of dwelling unit in select census metropolitan areas 
Absorptions and unabsorbed inventory, newly completed dwellings, by type of dwelling unit in census agglomerations of 50K+
Housing starts, under construction and completions in select census metropolitan areas 
Housing starts, under construction and completions in census agglomerations of 50K+
7/28/23 - Removed age_group measure and labour_force_statistic fields 
Removed three fields that were deprecated during the 7/16/23 release: 
age_group
measure
labour_force_statistic
7/16/23 - Added prices, output, and household income; schema changes in canada_statcan_attributes
New datasets:
Household income and finances: Household income and consumption, household credit liabilities, and household savings rates
Prices and output: Core consumer price index, gross domestic product by industry group, and new housing price indices
Updated datasets: 
StatCan archived a number of retail trade series and published new series. Old series are marked “Archived…” in the report field. The latest series have been included to replace these.
Schema changes: 
The following fields in the canada_statcan_attributes table were updated. The deprecated fields will be removed on 7/28/2023. 
age_group will be folded into demographic_group, which applies more broadly to age ranges, income groups, and household makeups (e.g., 35 to 44 years, lowest income quintile, elderly persons not in an economic family)
measure will be renamed report. The report column displays the StatCan dataset from which the data originates (e.g. Consumer Price Index, New Housing Price Index)
labour_force_statistic will be renamed statistic. The new statistic column will provide the label for the specific economic metric that is being reported (e.g. Median After Tax Income, Number of families)
Disclaimers
The data in this dataset is sourced here. Links to provider license, terms and disclaimers are provided where appropriate:
Statistics Canada: Terms & Conditions ​
Data Commons: License​
Cybersyn is not endorsed by or affiliated with any of these providers. Contact [email protected] for questions.


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Tables Names	Source	Source Schedule
`CANADA_STATCAN_ATTRIBUTES` `CANADA_STATCAN_TIMESERIES`	Statistics Canada	Varies by dataset from Statistics Canada
`GEOGRAPHY_HIERARCHY` `GEOGRAPHY_INDEX` `GEOGRAPHY_RELATIONSHIPS` `GEOGRAPHY_CHARACTERISTICS`	Data Commons US Census	Data Commons is an aggregator of government data sources. Release calendars vary by underlying source. The US Census Bureau publishes datasets about the US people and it’s economy, release schedules vary by dataset.
Last modified 3d ago
Geographic Coverage	Canada
Entity Level	Geographic
Time Granularity	Monthly
Update Frequency	Varies by source; see table below
History	Since January 31, 1914