Real Time Remote Access (RTRA) System

The University of Toronto, through the Map and Data Library, subscribes to Statistics Canada's Real Time Remote Access (RTRA) system.

RTRA, is an on-line remote access system that allows users to run scripts (SAS) against microdata sets located in a central and secure Statistics Canada location. RTRA is appropriate for researchers looking for aggregate data that is not available through PUMFs (Public Use Microdata Files) do not have access to Statistics Canada's Research Data Centres (RDC) https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/microdata/data-centres. For more information on the RDCs, please see the University of Toronto's RDC website http://sites.utoronto.ca/rdc/.

RTRA APPLICATION

To begin your application process, follow the instructions here. It takes one week to create an account. Once approved, you will receive one login for 1) the EFT service to submit your SAS program online and 2) the FTP server to access and download survey resources that will help you in writing your SAS program. To access the FTP server, download and set up FileZilla using the instructions here.

RESOURCES

The following resources are useful to begin writing your SAS program.

• Identifying a survey of interest:
  • List of RTRA surveys and metadata
  • Survey specific guide (FTP resource)
• Identifying variables of interest:
  • Questionnaire(s) for survey of interest
  • Dummy survey dataset (FTP resource)
  • Survey dataset codebook (FTP resource)
• Writing the SAS code:
  • RTRA parameters such as survey data set name, TAG name, weight variable name and deleted variables
  • List of RTRA procedures (scroll to the bottom of the webpage)
  • RTRA system limitations

For more information on RTRA, see Statistics Canada's web page https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/rtra/rtra

For technical instructions on extracting data from the RTRA system, please see our RTRA SAS Programming Guide (https://mdl.library.utoronto.ca/technology/tutorials/rtra-sas-program-guide)