StatCan Notes

2012-2017 Data Contract Issues
Update from meeting with Statistics Canada, Toronto Office
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
STC: Amanda Colina and Peter Pathinater
CCSD Consortium Program: Michel Frojmovic and Harvey Low

1. Schedule of Meetings, Milestones and Participants
o       Key Milestones:
              Sept 30, 2011: Draft contract for non-Census/NHS products
              March 31, 2012: Final contract for non-Census/NHS products; preliminary contract for Census/NHS
o       Meet over the summer whenever Peter/Amanda are in Ottawa or when Michel/Peggy are in Toronto
o       Accelerate pace and intensity of meetings in the Fall

2. Community Data Product list
o       Establish the universe of STC Community Data Products: products which allow for reporting at CSD level or smaller for a critical mass of Consortia
o       Currently, we have a list of 26 data products. This will be shortened by testing these products against a sample of CSDs drawn from Census Divisions with populations of 50,000+

3. Target Consortium Membership
o       Target is a total of 50 consortia
o       Based on tiered pricing system, 50 consortia would cut per-consortium costs roughly in half based on the last order; 100 would result in ¼ the per consortium cost.

4. Consortium Boundaries
o       Boundaries are to be based on building blocks of Census Divisions. In principle, One Census Division = One Consortium. Exceptions may be made based on programming costs.
o       We will not support Consortia seeking customised Consortium boundaries.
o       Consortia consisting of multiple CDs will be considered, though these may be defined as a Consortium of multiple consortia.
o       Consortium fees/data costs for Consortia with multiple CDs will be based on a mix of increased costs due to additional programming offset by per-consortium cost savings due to increased # of total consortia.

5. Rolling over terms of the last agreement
o       Confirmation from STC is required with respect to several of the key provisions of the agreement:
       Data sharing among all consortia members
       Pricing structure based on # of consortia, not # of members
       Tiered pricing system (more consortia reduces per consortium costs)
       Waiver of licensing fees for selected products, including Census
       Fees charged to individual consortia are determined by the CCSD Consortium Program.
o       At present, STC is not in a position to confirm these terms, though the sense is that the status quo should prevail.

6. Pricing
o       Preliminary Pricing of non-Census/NHS data products is needed by September 30.
o       Census/NHS pricing will not be possible in September, and may be possibly by March 31, 2012

7. Census/NHS validation
o       Importance of open lines of communication between STC, CCSD and Consortium leads regarding testing and validation
o       Explore opportunities/appropriateness of involving Consortium members in the testing/validation process

8. Custom sub-CSD geographies and custom cross-tabulations
o       Agreement on these two areas delayed the production cycle last round
o       New STC geography files will be published in late-2011/early-2012

9. Ordering new custom cross-tabulations during the 5 year agreement
o       Possibility of including in the Data Contract provision for annual or bi-annual orders of new tables by consortia
o       We would include a fee within the contract that could be “drawn down” when new orders are submitted
o       Would require all leads agreeing to a common set of new tables
o       All new tables would be available to all consortia