Prepared for Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
For more information on this report, please contact the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada at info@fcac-acfc.gc.ca.
This public opinion research report presents the results of an online survey conducted by Ekos Research Associates Inc. on behalf of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. The research study was conducted with 8,412 Canadians 18 years of age or older between May 2021 and February 2022.
Information contained in this publication or product may be reproduced, in part or in whole, and by any means, for personal or public non-commercial purposes without charge or further permission, unless otherwise specified. Commercial reproduction and distribution are prohibited except with written permission from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.
For more information, contact
Financial Consumer Agency of Canada 427 Laurier Ave. West, Ottawa ON K1R 1B9
www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency
Aussi disponible en français sous le titre : Collecte de données pour le sondage de 2021-2022 sur le bien-être financier lié à la COVID-19.
© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Finance Canada, 2022.
Ekos Research Associates
Contact: Susan Galley
Ottawa Office
359 Kent Street, Suite 300
Ottawa, Ontario
K2P 0R6
Tel: (613) 235 7215
Fax: (613) 235 8498
E-mail: pobox@ekos.com
The COVID-19 Financial Wellbeing Survey has been identified as a key policy tool for the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) to monitor how Canadians are dealing financially with the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts on their financial well-being. This research is part of FCAC's mandate to monitor and evaluate trends and emerging issues that may have an impact on consumers of financial products and services in Canada. It will inform policy advice and guidance involving supervising financial institutions, monitoring their compliance with codes of conduct and public commitments they have adopted as well as government programs implemented due to COVID-19.
The FCAC commissioned Ekos Research Associates to conduct the Financial Wellbeing Survey. It was administered using Probit, a hybrid online-phone probability-based panel sample frame developed by Ekos Research Associates that allowed respondents to complete the survey either online or by telephone, depending on their own preferences. To capture some low incidence segments among Indigenous people and newcomers to Canada (past 10 years), the sample frame was augmented by random-digit-dial (RDD) phone interviews in key targeted geographic clusters.
The survey questionnaire was streamlined from the 25-minute core of the 2019 Canadian Financial Capability Survey (CFCS) and required approximately 17 minutes to complete by telephone. Some items were newly added or changed since the 2019 CFCS, and some items were retained for the purposes of tracking over time.
The survey was administered over the period from late May 2021 through February 2022. Data were not collected during the months of September and October 2021 because of the federal election. The eight months of data collection included 8,412 interviews with Canadians aged 18 years or older. The overall response rate was 11 percent using a mix of panel members (5,739 cases completed online and 2,195 completed by telephone), as well as RDD (478) as the sample source.
Survey results can be extrapolated to the broader general public of Canadians 18 years and older with an associated margin of error of +/- 1.0 percent at a 95 percent confidence level for questions posed to the complete sample. Topics covered in the core survey include:
The questionnaire originally provided by FCAC in 2020 continued to be used throughout 2021 and 2022. However, some questions were removed or added at various points in the collection. A small set of survey items were also collected bi-monthly starting late in 2020 to conserve space on the questionnaire. About a third of the items in the survey questionnaire were replicated from the previous 2019 CFCS. The primary purpose for retaining these questions was to track changes over time with the previous version of the survey conducted in 2019.
The survey was administered online and by telephone using a bilingual questionnaire. For the online administration, the bilingual survey questionnaire was installed on a secure web-server controlled by Ekos. Telephone interviews were completed on-site, using computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) software. The CATI software allowed interviewers to input responses from respondents as the survey unfolded. Interviewers were provided with detailed background on the study followed by practice interviews prior to beginning work. Ten percent of all work was monitored for quality control purposes.
A Random Iterative Method (RIM) weight was calculated using crosstabulation software to correct for response bias between the population distribution of the final sample and population estimates based on the 2016 Census. The weight was calculated according to population proportions for age, gender, region of the country, and education (post-secondary completion versus less education), as well as Indigenous and immigration status.
The value of this contract was $249,884.55 (including HST).
I hereby certify as Senior Officer of Ekos Research Associates Inc. that the deliverables fully comply with the Government of Canada political neutrality requirements outlined in the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada and Procedures for Planning and Contracting Public Opinion Research.
Specifically, the deliverables do not include information on electoral voting intentions, political party preferences, standings with the electorate, or ratings of the performance of a political party or its leaders.
Signed by: Susan Galley (Vice President)