D. Country experience: Canada
13.28. Three different sources are used in Canada to generate trade in services statistics, except for travel and transport). First, the annual survey on trade in services (international transactions in commercial services (BP21S)) is sent to Canadian enterprises of varying size and economic sector.[1] The second data source is the set of approximately 15 annual industry surveys covering a large sample of establishments in service industries. The third source is administrative data on non-arm’s-length annual transactions between residents and non-residents.
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13.33. For the majority of the responding entities, data are available from only one of the three sources cited, in which case, reported values are kept by default. When data on a particular entity are available from more than one source, the data from the BP21S are used if those values are larger, equal to or even slightly lower than the other sources. Other situations are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Other analysis is also done to ensure the validity of the reported transactions: for example, compilers compare current reported transactions with data from the previous year.
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[1] To supplement the International Transactions in Commercial Services (BP-21S), more than 200 entities from the insurance sector are also surveyed, with two surveys of Canadian incorporated insurance companies and Canadian branches of foreign insurance companies. Both surveys collect financial transactions as well as service transactions.
[2] This identification number is assigned at the time of registration with the Canada Revenue Agency. For more information about the Statistics Canada Business Register, see http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb-bmdi/document/1105_D2_T1_V3-eng.pdf.