statcan-mcp

An MCP server that gives Claude and other LLMs live access to Statistics Canada — all 8,200+ data tables from the Web Data Service: CPI, GDP, labour force, housing starts, population, trade, and more.

No API key required.

Sibling project: bank-of-canada-mcp for Bank of Canada rates and FX.

Why this exists

StatCan's API is powerful but hostile: POST-only lookups, opaque numeric vector IDs, 10-position "coordinate" addressing, and numeric code enums everywhere (scalarFactorCode: 3). This server translates it into something an LLM can actually drive:

Discovery flow built into the tools — search tables → inspect dimensions → fetch data, with each tool description pointing to the next step.
Context-friendly by default — a CPI dimension has 359 members and a series can span a century; members are capped and keyword-filterable, data defaults to the last 12 periods.
Codes decoded at runtime via StatCan's own code-set endpoint — responses say "scale": "thousands" and "note": "use with caution", not scalarFactorCode: 3, statusCode: 5. Nothing hardcoded to go stale.
Forgiving inputs — vector IDs accepted as v41690973 or 41690973; coordinates padded automatically.

Quick start

Claude Code

claude mcp add statcan -- npx -y statcan-mcp

Claude Desktop — add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "statcan": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "statcan-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

The same npx invocation works in Cursor, Windsurf, and any other MCP client.

Tools

Tool	What it does
`search_tables`	Keyword search across all ~8,200 data tables
`get_table_metadata`	A table's dimensions and members (capped, filterable) — the map you need to pull data
`get_data_by_vectors`	Time series by vector ID(s), date range or latest-N
`get_data_by_coordinate`	Time series by table + one member choice per dimension
`get_series_info`	Decode a mystery vector ID into its title and source table

Example prompts

"What's Canada's current unemployment rate, and how has it trended over 12 months?"
"Compare gasoline price inflation in Ontario vs Quebec since 2024."
"How many housing starts were there in Canada last quarter?"
"What is vector v41690973?"

Development

npm install
npm test           # offline unit tests (vitest)
npm run build      # tsc → dist/
node scripts/smoke.mjs   # live smoke test against the real API

Architecture: src/wds.ts is a plain WDS client with pure, unit-tested logic (catalogue search, coordinate padding, code decoding); src/index.ts is the MCP wiring. API failures (unknown vector, bad coordinate) come back as MCP tool errors carrying StatCan's own message so the model can self-correct.

Notes

Data is © Statistics Canada, used under the Statistics Canada Open Licence. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Statistics Canada.
English output only for now (the API also carries French — see roadmap).

Roadmap

French-language output (*Fr fields are already in the API responses)
Full-table CSV download for bulk analysis
Streamable HTTP transport for remote deployment

License

MIT