Case study: Statistics Canada

Statistics Canada is undergoing an agency-wide modernization initiative to promote organizational efficiency, increase robustness of systems and processes and shorten implementation time for new projects.  One of the key principles guiding this review is: Create metadata at the beginning of every process and use them throughout the project life cycle.  A working group with members representing all phases of the statistical business process has been developing a strategy for statistical metadata management and an action plan to support these principles.  The goals being considered for the strategy relate to four themes: drive, make available, structure and manage.  Actions required to implement the strategy are expected to cover:

• Establishing governance;
• Creating centres of expertise;
• Adopting standard structure and content specifications (including GSIM);
• Developing a metadata portal to identify authoritative sources of metadata and make them available to users, and;
• Identifying metadata gaps required to enable metadata-driven processes.