Economists Raise Concerns Over Canada’s Data Quality
Desjardins says larger post-pandemic revisions, weaker survey response and trade data gaps are clouding forecasts and policy decisions, economists said.
- On Thursday, Desjardins economists released a report warning Canada faces a "data quality crisis" at Statistics Canada, with concerns about reliability described as an "open secret" among experts.
- Desjardins analysis found revisions to economic figures are significantly larger post-pandemic, as StatCan increasingly relies on modeling forecasts when hard data from the United States is disrupted.
- Struggling to secure public survey participation, StatCan reported a 0.1 per cent economic contraction last month despite consensus estimates of roughly 1.5 per cent growth.
- Randall Bartlett, deputy chief economist at Desjardins, warned that poor data quality could lead to "poor decisions," undermining evidence-based government policy and economic forecasting.
- While Budget 2025 instructs StatCan to increase efficiency and reduce costs, Bartlett argued the agency requires federal support, noting artificial intelligence could improve projection accuracy.
30 Articles
30 Articles
Colby Cosh: How long before Statistics Canada loses complete touch with the economy?
Last month, when Statistics Canada delivered unexpected bad news about a second consecutive quarter of negative real-GDP growth, there was a frenzy of pooh-poohing and counter-pooh-poohing about whether Canada was really in recession. On Thursday CP’s Craig Lord called attention to a different angle on the whole fuss, which isn’t the notional recession (yet), but the forecasting failure that preceded it. Economists at the Desjardins credit-union…
Most economists, including those of the Bank of Canada, were somewhat surprised when Statistics Canada announced at the end of last month that the economy had declined slightly in the first three months of the year.
The Toronto Star
These economists are worried Canada has a data quality problem
OTTAWA - Most economists, including at the Bank of Canada, were a bit surprised when Statistics Canada reported late last month that the economy contracted slightly over the first three months of the year.
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