The Museum
MOT.2026.072On View

Permanent Collection · Hall of the Authoritative Number

The Aggregate

A single figure, measured three ways, published as one

Dimensions
Two orders of magnitude, rounded to certainty
Date
Manufactured 2016–2019. Conserved 2026.

The Vitrine — Evidence

  1. Figure01

    Gig work — three instruments, one phenomenon

    0.3% — Labour Force Survey (2016). 8.2% — administrative tax data (2016). ~30% — Bank of Canada survey of informal paid work (2019).

  2. Figure02

    The underground economy

    $72.4 billion, ~2.5% of GDP — published as an upper-bound estimate, cited downstream as settled fact.

Wall LabelAs authorized

Official statistics give Canadians an authoritative, objective measure of the labour market. The national statistical office reports the share of gig and informal work so that policymakers and citizens can rely on a single, trustworthy figure.

The museum presents the number as settled fact.

Conservation Notes

  1. 01
    Placement

    Issued by the national statistical office — the surface where a number stops being an estimate and becomes 'the' number.

  2. 02
    Layering

    A definitional choice (what counts as 'gig work') painted over as a measurement; the chosen figure used to overrule the figures it excludes.

  3. 03
    Integration

    0.3%, 8.2%, ~30% — same phenomenon, same year. The single published figure is the one coat you were meant to see.