BC Stats provides a variety of services ranging from producing monthly or quarterly reports with data tables and an article reporting on a current issue of relevance, to custom work provided on a fee-for-service basis. BC Stats publications are available on paper or electronically covering a wide range of topics such as population, labour market, business and economics. Some of these releases require a subscription or can be purchased one issue at a time from the BC Stats' web store.

Each section of BC Stats performs custom work on a fee-for-service basis as detailed below.

Data Services
BC Stats operates a statistical enquiry service in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, which is available to government employees and the public by telephone or personal visit. Data Services staff respond to inquiries from both government personnel and the general public, as well as providing liaison and coordination between Statistics Canada and British Columbia government ministries. There is a minimum charge for non-government requests requiring research and response via email, fax or postal service.

Often, questions cannot be answered by consulting only one publication. The staff of Data Services have the expertise to help analyse questions and determine which publications can best help you do your research. If your question requires greater detail, the staff will refer you to an expert in another section of BC Stats who can explain how statistics were gathered and what they mean. In some cases, you may be referred to the resources or publications of another organization.

The public and government employees are welcome to use our resource centre, which has many of Statistics Canada's catalogued publications, as well as our own publications. In addition, there are some statistics from other provinces, and from municipal, commercial, foreign and international sources.

Use of the resource centre is free and is open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Data Services staff can be contacted by e-mail or phone.

Business Statistics
The Business Statistics Section is responsible for the production of data and analysis related to business and industry, including the small business and high technology sectors. It is also responsible for tabulating international exports and imports and has a database with detail on commodities by Harmonized System Code (at the 8-digit level for exports and 10-digit level for imports), by value and quantity, origin/destination of goods (including U.S. states), mode of transport, province of origin/clearance and month of export/import. For more information, call Dan Schrier at (250) 387-0376.

Economic Statistics
The Economic Statistics Section is responsible for producing data and analysis related to measures of economic activity (including GDP) and for performing economic impact assessments. With the help of the Business Section, the section has produced several reports on non-standard sectors of the economy such as tourism, fishing and aquaculture, manufacturing and high technology. Reports on other sectors can be produced on a contract basis with details on GDP, revenue, employment, wages and salaries and international trade (exports and imports). For more information, call Lillian Hallin at (250) 387-0366.

Labour and Social Statistics
The Labour and Social Statistics Section is responsible for developing indicators on labour and social conditions within BC. A series of Socio-Economic Profiles and Indices provide measures on education, labour, crime, health and economic hardship for Regional Districts and Local Health Areas. On a fee for service basis, the section will develop socio-economic profiles for user defined areas where data sources permit. Measures of dependency on the social safety net (income assistance and employment insurance rates) can be calculated for user-defined areas.

Labour and Social Statistics section can assist users in specifying their data acquisition requests to Statistics Canada for Labour Force Survey, Census labour and social data as well as helping to locate data to meet particular needs. Custom reports providing data for BC government ministries as background for their Human Resources succession planning is a particular area of expertise offered on a fee-for-service basis. For more information contact Karen Kirby at (250) 356-7870.

Population Statistics
The Population Statistics Section is responsible for producing sub-provincial estimates and projections of population. Some of the data for standard regions like development regions, regional districts and local health areas is available for free on this website, but detailed regional projection data is available for a fee and can be purchased in the BC Stats web store. The Population Section can also do custom projections of non-standard regions on a fee-for-service basis. For more information, call Dave O'Neil at (250) 387-0335.

The Population Section is also responsible for maintaining the translation master file (a postal code to region index) and for providing mapping services. The presentation of population data on maps can make the job of market assessment much easier. Areas can be quickly scanned to see how they compare with one another. The use of mapping software allows BC Stats to produce client-specified, computer produced, colour thematic maps for many geographical levels of British Columbia. For more information on our electronic mapping services call Pamela Tudge at (250) 387-0330.

In addition to mapping and profiling specified areas, we can also pinpoint locations and profile concentric circles around them that define trading area populations—say a one, five, and ten kilometre radius of a store location. For more information, contact Pamela Tudge at (250) 387-0330. Alternatively, Tetrad now offers demographic consulting at 1-800-663-1334.

Surveys and Analysis
The Surveys & Analysis Section was established to conduct surveys and analysis for BC government ministry, crown corporation and agency clients on a cost-recovery basis. Research projects range from client satisfaction surveys to program evaluations to full-blown cross-industry economic impact analyses.

The section is designed to assist government ministries, crown corporations and agencies with the development of surveys from start to finish. This includes providing expert advice on establishing the survey objective, developing the population list, appropriate sampling techniques, designing the questions and the questionnaire, pre-testing the questionnaire, handling field operations, editing and tabulating the data, estimation and weighting techniques, and reporting accurately on the findings.

There are several advantages to using the services of the Special Surveys and Analysis section. The first is confidentiality—BC STATS operates under the Statistics Act which guarantees the confidentiality of individual responses. The second advantage is that BC STATS has a legislated mandate to coordinate the statistical activities of government. By bringing your research project to the attention of BC STATS, we can help you ensure there is no duplication with other ministries or crown corporations or help you find partner organizations to share the cost of the research as appropriate. Working with the Surveys and Analysis section allows government to save time and money—most government clients set up a simple memorandum of understanding with us and our billing is only on a cost-recovery basis.

If your branch is planning or considering a survey or other research project, you should try to answer our list of questions for those planning a survey. After that, if you would like some assistance with your project, we will meet with you at no charge to discuss the particulars of the project and how we might be of assistance. To set up an appointment to review your branch's information needs or to get advice on an upcoming survey project, please contact Lee Herrin at (250) 356-0025.