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.

Related MCP server: ontario-data-mcp

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

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