Martin Lachance, Statistics Canada

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Reconciliation of the 2006 Canadian Census of
Agriculture with the Farm Register
The Third International Conference on
Establishment Surveys

• Martin Lachance, Statistics Canada

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Introduction
Census of Agriculture - CEAG

• Collection hand in hand with Census of
  Population, mail-out field

• Reference date May 16, 2006

• Collected contact info commodities
  practices financial info

• Survey Frame Crops, Livestock,
  Environmental surveys, etc

3
Introduction
Farm Register - FR

• Repository list of farms contact info
  historical profiling

• Manages survey collection

• Reference for Census of Agriculture coverage

4
Introduction
Reconciliation gt Integration
CEAG Census of Agriculture
FR Farm Register

• May 16, 2006
• 230,000 farms
• 330,000 farm operators
• 3 operators/farm (max)

• Evolves constantly
• 280,000 farms
• 410,000 farm operators
• 3 operators/farm (max)

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Overview
FR Snapshot
May 16, 2006
Missing known operations? (Match Follow-Ups
Unduplication)
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Overview
FR Snapshot
Pre-reconciled
May 16, 2006
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CEAG
Different collection methods gt different
sources of errors
Aside from response errors...
Method Farms () Specific Source of Error
Paper 80 Handwriting affecting scan
Computer Assisted Telephone Interview 15 Typos, phonetics
Internet 5 Typos
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Coverage Pre-reconciliation

• Prior to 2006 Census
• Link to Snapshot only
• no reconciliation of administrative info
• Census coverage

FR Snapshot
Pre-reconciled
May 16, 2006

• 2006
• Census coverage
• Link micro-editing of CEAG administrative info

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Matching Operations
CEAG Census
FR Snapshot
May 16, 2006 (farms)
May 16, 2006 (farms) UPDATED
May 16, 2006 (households)
Census of Population
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Benefits of Pre-reconciliation

• Take advantage of powerful match systems
• CEAG has cleaner administrative data (May 16,
  2006)
• Increased linkage to the Census of Population
  and FR Snapshot thanks to cleaner data
• Link to Census of Population may bring
  information missing on both CEAG and FR
• e.g. Same people on CEAG and FR,
• living together according to the Census
  of Population,
• but missing the date of birth of one
  operator,
• only available on Census of Population.

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Benefits of Pre-reconciliation

• Provide Reconciliation with links at the
  operator level
• Help to identify inconsistencies on the Farm
  Register
• dates of birth mixed up (criss-cross information
  on operators)
• identify duplicates of operators still on Farm
  Register
• Reconciliation accelerated for most Farm
  Register farms with no survey updates since
  Census Day (May 16, 2006)
• Farm Register Snapshot Farm Register live

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Pre-reconciliation
Pieces of information considered (for matching
operations to be reconciled)
1. Telephone numbers 2. Operators name, date of
birth gender 3. Address, municipality postal
code 4. Farm name corporation name 5. E-mail
address Fax number
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Pre-reconciliation
Resolve missing info Correct inconsistencies
CEAG John H Smith 3 Scott Street Ottawa K1H 3M6 613-742-2552
CEAG Smith John Ottawa K1H 3W6 619-742-2552
POP John H Smith 3 Scott Street Ottawa K1H 3M6 613-742-2552
Increase linkage Verify quality of links
Fix scanning errors
First Name Last Name Date of birth Phone Number
CEAG Johm William Smith 28-10-1962 613-745-1908 YES
FR John W Smith 00-00-1963 819-745-1908 YES
POP Smlm Jolhx 25-10-1963 613-775-7908 ???
CEAG John William Smith 25-10-1963 613-745-1908 YES
YES
Same person?
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Pre-reconciliation
CEAG farm operators with no link (to FR, Census
of Population)
Names not appearing in home-built DICTIONARY of
names were manually examined
Correct errors introduced by Missing Farm
Follow-Ups
Before phone call
After phone call
Name Phone Birth Year etc
Ted Earl 204-382-2410 1937 ...
Ann Earl 204-382-2410 1941
Marco Earl 204-382-2218 1962
Name Phone Birth Year etc
Marco Earl 204-382-2422 1962 ...
Ted Earl 204-382-2410 1941

1937
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Pre-reconciliation
Resolution of farm operators linked to multiple
operations
Region CEAG farm FR farm CEAG Family Name CEAG First Name CEAG Road Name CEAG Phone Number FR operator Census of Pop person
SASK 22 18 Gregor Anthony J 31 Ashley Road 773-4023 410 526
SASK 36 ?? Gregor Tony Jay RR1 33 Ashley Rd 773-4023 410 526

SASK 46 6 Steen Kenneth 239 Dunster 782-1011 122 303
SASK 56 40 Steen Ken H 239 Dunster Rd 782-2622 122 303
ALB 66 ?? Steen Keneth H 7 Red River 782-1011 ?? 303
1 2 3
Farm 1 Kenneth has a partner who lives in
Alberta (farm 3) Kenneths home address phone
. Farm 2 Operated by Kenneth alone 782-2622
is the farms phone number.
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Pre-reconciliation
Resolution of farm operators linked to multiple
operations
Region CEAG farm FR farm CEAG Family Name CEAG First Name CEAG Road Name CEAG Phone Number FR operator Census of Pop person
SASK 22 18 Gregor Anthony J 31 Ashley Road 773-4023 410 526
SASK 36 ?? Gregor Tony Jay RR1 33 Ashley 773-4023 410 526

SASK 46 6 Steen Kenneth 239 Dunster SK 782-1011 122 303
SASK 56 40 Steen Keneth H 239 Dunster Rd SK 782-2622 122 303
ALB 66 ?? Steen Ken 7 Red River SK 782-1011 ?? 303
Kenneth H 239 Dunster Rd
Kenneth H 239 Dunster Rd
1 2 3
Farm 1 Kenneths home address phone
Kenneth has a partner X who lives in Alberta
(Farm 3) Farm 2 Operated by Kenneth alone
782-2622 is the farms phone number. Farm 3
Questionnaire filled by partner X 7 Red River is
the farms address located in Saskatchewan.
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Pre-reconciliation
Last step resolution of multiple phone numbers
Operator Name CEAG FR (main) FR (alternate) Census of Population
John Smith 204-732-5450 204-732-2479 306-325-7409 306-325-7409

• Only two phone numbers are kept per farm
  operator.
• The farmer could operate more than one farm!
• gt synchronize the numbers among the farms

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Pre-reconciliation Tools
MixMatch

• Record linkage system with interesting tools
  LIKENESS, address proxy, etc

Farm Name First Name Last Name Civic Address Town
Lost Valley Acres Ted Earl RR 3 237 Gilmor Ave Rosedale
Lest Vahey Acre Edward Eml 237 Gilmour Rosedahe
SAS programs

• Automated resolution of suggested links

• Batching for manual resolution quality checks

Manual work (tool images, SQL queries,
electronic phone book)

• Manual resolution of links, inconsistencies
  quality checks

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Reconciliation
FR Farm Register
CEAG Pre-reconciled
34,559 farms
194,814 farms

• Automated match
• Manual searches
• Use questionnaire images and links to Census of
  Population
• Non-linked CEAG farms are birthed on the Farm
  Register

• Reconcile farms first, then operators

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Auto-Combine

• Auto-Combine
• Operation not surveyed after 2006 Census gt CEAG
  over FR
• Add/remove/modify operators on FR
• Update operator information as follows

CEAG FR Reconciled
John Smith John Smith John Smith
Year 1976 Year 1976
798-1412 798-0656 798-1412
971-6762 (parents) 971-6762 (parents)
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Auto-Reconcile

• Auto-Reconcile
• Operation surveyed after 2006 Census gt FR takes
  priority
• Keep existing operators on FR
• Update administrative information as follows

CEAG FR Reconciled
John Smith John Smith John Smith
Year 1976 Year 1976
798-1412 798-0656 798-0656
971-6762 (parents) 971-6762 (parents)
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Summary of Reconciliation
Census of Agriculture Farming Operations 229,373
Linked to Farm Register 194,814
Automated Reconciliation 94
Manual Reconciliation 6
Potential births 34,559
Linked to Farm Register live 6
Auto-birthed 94
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Conclusion

• Pre-Reconciliation (1)
• New first time
• Major challenges
• Coordination of activities with CEAG processing
  flow (Match, Unduplication, etc)
• and management of resources

• Reconciliation (2)
• 2006 system was an adapted version of 2001 system
• Countless benefits from Pre-reconciliation
• links to Census of Population to identify related
  people,
• extra phone numbers for surveys, finished
  earlier, etc

gt Combine (1) and (2) and make it part of 2011
CEAG processing flow
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Martin Lachance [phone] Martin2.Lachance_at_st
atcan.ca