Alberta poised to share driver’s licence data with StatCan after 5-year delay

Signage mark the Statistics Canada offiices in Ottawa on July 21, 2010. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Edmonton — The government of Alberta appears set to share its driver’s licence data with Statistics Canada after a five-year delay and three requests from the national statistics agency.

StatCan has been seeking the data for census purposes since 2016, according to a September 2020 briefing note to Anil Arora, the chief statistician of Canada.

The document was obtained by CTV News through an access to information request and describes how prior requests to two Alberta governments went nowhere.

“Statistics Canada attempted to engage numerous officials, ministers, and deputy ministers, with no success,” it reads.

“Multiple administrative and legal delays within the Government of Alberta, including a change in government and changes to departmental structures and personnel, prevented the fulfilment of this request.”

The note includes a renewed appeal to Alberta for the data that was later acknowledged.

A StatCan spokesperson told CTV News “we are well on our way to a successful agreement for Alberta to provide driver’s licence data.”

Service Alberta, the ministry that manages the province’s licence registration program, cited administrative changes for the delay and said it’s working to ensure privacy rules are followed.

“The motor vehicles system required to obtain it was undergoing a necessary update and so we were unable to gather the requested information,” reads a statement from Service Alberta.

“As that system update is now complete and Statistics Canada has again requested the information, we are working together on an agreement.”

The information sought by StatCan is found on Alberta licences but excludes individual biometric data such as height, weight, hair colour and eye colour:

An additional seven variables StatCan is requesting from driver’s license files were redacted from the document.

The agency wants the driver's licence numbers to augment its usual data collection process which was impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Driver’s licence files will improve the efficiency of census collection … by providing a more recent and more accurate residential address for highly mobile populations, reduce the response burden for citizens and businesses, and improve the availability of small-area data.”

The note outlines how the request was formally made in 2016 and 2017 and that StatCan officials attempted to “engage various officials in the government of Alberta” through 2019.

It cites how the information “has been supplied by other provinces for many years.”

Among all provinces and territories, only Quebec does not share its driver’s licence data with StatCan, according to the agency.

It says information on response rates to the latest census will be provided later this month.