Statistics Canada’s approach to gathering and disseminating economic data has developed over several decades into a highly integrated system for collection and estimation that feeds the framework of the Canadian System of National Accounts.

The key to this approach was creation of the Unified Enterprise Survey, the goal of which was to improve the consistency, coherence, breadth and depth of business survey data.

The UES did so by bringing many of Statistics Canada's individual annual business surveys under a common framework. This framework included a single survey frame, a sample design framework, conceptual harmonization of survey content, means of using relevant administrative data, common data collection, processing and analysis tools, and a common data warehouse.

The UES has been implemented gradually since 1997 when a limited number of industries participated in a pilot test. The first full UES, conducted for the reference year 1998, involved an expanded number of industries, including the wholesale industry.

Currently, the program provides detailed annual financial and other data (such as commodities) for about three-quarters of the Canadian economy, including many service industries, wholesale, retail, manufacturing, some transportation industries and aquaculture.

Custodian: Statistics Canada