Data

Mediated-access data are password-protected and/or may need to be accessed with the assistance of Library staff. These data may also be restricted to researchers meeting specific access criteria.

DLI (Data Liberation Initiative)
DLI is a partnership between postsecondary institutions and Statistics Canada for providing access to a large collection of Public Use Microdata Files and to a special collection of aggregate data tables. University of Alberta faculty, students, and staff can access data from the DLI Collection directly, or request data to be downloaded for them by Library staff via Data Help. Most DLI data are also available to the UA community through <odesi>. DLI data obtained through the University of Alberta library must be used for non-commercial purposes only.

Research Data Centres
Research Data Centres (RDCs) provide access to Statistics Canada confidential microdata files. RDCs operate under the provisions of the Statistics Act in accordance with confidentiality rules, and are accessible only to researchers with approved projects who have been sworn in as "deemed employees" of Statistics Canada.  RDC confidential microdata files contain most of the original information collected during survey interviews with the subject, derived variables added to the dataset afterwards, and the bootstrap weights used to calculate exact variance.

Real Time Remote Access (RTRA)
The RTRA system is an online remote access facility allowing users to run SAS programs, in real-time, against microdata sets located in a central and secure location. Researchers using the RTRA system do not gain direct access to the microdata and cannot view the content of the microdata file. Instead, users submit SAS programs to extract results in the form of frequency tables. As RTRA researchers cannot view the microdata, becoming a deemed employees of Statistics Canada is not necessary as is the mandatory procedure for the RDCs, enabling much quicker access to Statistics Canada data.