Four main survey databases were used to generate the statistics that appear in this report: the 1991 Health and Activity Limitation Survey (HALS); the Census of the Population (1991 and 1996); the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) 1993 to 1997, and the Aboriginal Peoples Survey (1991).

Census

Conducted every five years, the Census of the Population provides national coverage of the entire Canadian population. It can be used to provide information on the situation of persons with disabilities in the areas of employment and income. Census employment data used in this report refer to the working age population of people aged 15 to 64 years, and excludes full-time students.

Limitations

Reference year
The reference year for the 1996 Census is 1995. This coincides with the height of the effects of the recession experienced during the early 1990s on persons with disabilities. It captures employment and income indicators at a time when they would likely be at one of their lowest points. The 1991 Census, on the other hand, provides a pre-recession view of these indicators. While this might pose some methodological concerns, the data from SLID provide a complement to census data.

Aboriginal population
The Census undercounts the Aboriginal population because of an incomplete enumeration of Indian reserves in both the 1991 and 1996 surveys. The 1996 Census does not include information on 77 Indian reserves and Indian settlements. In 1991, 78 reserves were not enumerated.

The reasons for this exclusion include: enumeration was "not permitted", enumeration was "interrupted", enumeration "occurred too late", or the "quality of data collected was considered inadequate." Statistics Canada estimates that the size of the population affected by these problems might have been about 44,000.

However, the data on Aboriginal persons included in this report are provided only at the national level, thereby reducing the overall impact of the missing data in these 77 locations. The missing data from the Aboriginal population might affect the overall number estimate, but is unlikely to have much of an impact on percentages calculated from these numbers and overall trends observed.

Also, although there were some differences in the sections used to identify Aboriginal people in the 1991 and 1996 Census questionnaires, this report maximizes the identification information available to provide comparable estimates for both Census years.

Health and Activity Limitation Survey (HALS)

The 1991 HALS remains the most comprehensive source of data on persons with disabilities in Canada. As a post-censal survey, HALS relies on a lengthy series of questions about one's ability to perform various activities of daily living to identify persons with disabilities. As such, it allows the identification of disability type and severity, and levels of unmet need for disability supports.

Limitations
Because the reference year for the data is 1990, the information used from HALS in this report is now quite outdated. But despite this, HALS remains the most recent source of detailed information on disability.

Aboriginal People Survey (APS)

The APS 1991 is a post-censal survey and respondents include persons who identified with at least one Aboriginal group (North American Indian, Métis, Inuit, or a specific group, such as Ojibway, Cree or Inuvialuit) and/or who indicated that they were registered under the Indian Act of Canada.

The APS was planned and developed with input from Aboriginal organizations and collected detailed information on employment, education, culture, housing and other characteristics of persons identified with Aboriginal origins. The APS also included a large subset of the questions that were used to identify persons with disabilities in the HALS, providing a comparable source of information on Aboriginal people with disabilities.

Limitations
Because the sample is drawn from the Census, the APS also tends to undercount the number of Aboriginal persons due to incomplete enumeration of reserves. Also, as with the HALS, the reference year for APS is 1990 but it remains the most recent national source of data on Aboriginal people with disabilities.

Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID)

The SLID is an ongoing longitudinal survey that interviews each sample respondent each year over a six-year period and can be used to generate both longitudinal and cross-sectional data. The data from SLID provide an excellent complement to the Census data since they capture the effects of the recession on employment and income in the period immediately following the recession, from 1993 to 1997.

The SLID data in this report refers to the working age population of people 16 to 64 years of age, excluding full-time students.

Limitations
The population for SLID excludes people living in the territories, residents of institutions, persons living on reserves, and full-time members of the Canadian Armed Forces living in barracks.

The SLID cannot provide adequate estimates for the Aboriginal population since it does not target any of the territories or Indian reserves where a large percentage of Aboriginal persons reside. We have no data available to determine if the recovery profile of Aboriginal persons with disabilities is similar to that of all persons with disabilities.

Note on Low Income Cut-Off
Of the several different measures of low income that are used in Canada, the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) was chosen for this report. LICO is a relative measure that establishes a dollar figure below which a family is considered to be living on low income. It can be reported on pre- or post-tax income and vary depending on family size. The figures expressed here are based on the after-tax LICO because it is considered that this provides a better indication of the disposable income that is available to families.

It should also be noted that Statistics Canada does not define LICO as 'the poverty line'. It helps to identify trends and the way wealth is distributed and so it refers to people living below LICO as living in "straitened circumstances". Because the measure is relative there will always be people below the average, but the goal is to identify trends with regard to groups consistently being over represented in the low income categories.

Although the data in this report refers to the LICO, the Market Basket Measure (MBM) is a new measure that has been developed by the federal, provincial and territorial governments.

The MBM identifies income levels required for a basic, adequate standard of living that is above the subsistence level. These income levels are based on the actual costs of goods and services in various communities across Canada. The measure identifies how many people live in households that fall below a defined standard of living.

Compared to existing measures, the MBM takes into account more precisely differing living costs by geographical location.

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