By law, every household must complete the
Canada census form. In
May 2006, an Internet version of the census was made widely available for the first time. Another census was held in
May 2011, again with the internet being the primary method for statistical data collection. The
most recent census was held in May 2021, with the resulting data expected to be published in seven separate data sets throughout 2022. Additional data will be published at a future date which has yet to be determined.
2011 voluntary long form or National Household Survey On 17 June 2010 an
Order in Council was created by Minister of Industry
Tony Clement defining the questions for the 2011 census as including only the short-form questions; this was published in the
Canada Gazette on 26 June 2010, however a news release was not issued by Minister Clement until 13 July 2010. This release stated in part "The government will retain the mandatory short form that will collect basic demographic information. To meet the need for additional information, and to respect the privacy wishes of Canadians, the government has introduced the voluntary National Household Survey". On 30 July 2010 Statistics Canada published a description of the National Household Survey. Minister Clement initially indicated that these changes were being made based on consultations with Statistics Canada but was forced to admit that the change from a mandatory to voluntary form was not one of the recommendations received from StatsCan after the head of the agency
Munir Sheikh resigned in protest. Information was uncovered that indicated attempts on the part of the government to distance themselves from the decision, instructing Statistics Canada officials to delete the phrase "as per government decision" from documents which were being written to inform Statistics Canada staff of the change. Minister Clement had claimed that concerns over privacy and the threat of jail time were the reasons for the change and had refused to reverse his decision stating that the prime minister supported the legislation. The argument over privacy was subsequently undermined by a
privacy commissioner statement that she was "satisfied with the measures Statistics Canada had put into place to protect privacy". Other industry professionals also came out in defence of Statistics Canada's record on privacy issues. The government maintained its position, with Lynn Meahan, press secretary to the
Minister of Industry, stating that the new census would result in "useable (sic) and useful data that can meet the needs of many users." During the 2010 debates, the
Freedom Party of Ontario (FPO), a small group based on
Ayn Rand's writings, whose 42 candidates received 12,381 votes (or 0.26% of the popular vote) in the 2014 election, opposed the long census. They also opposed
bilingualism,
political correctness and the inclusion of a question on race on the
1996 Canadian census. FPO claimed that Canadian and British traditions had been dishonoured by
multiculturalism. They were among a minority who argued that using statistical data to analyse resource allocation is not beneficial. Central to the debate on this issue was the effect on the quality of data which would be collected by Statistics Canada under the new system. Many groups made the claim that a voluntary system would not provide a quality of data consistent with what Statistics Canada is known for Supporters of the change offered models of European countries who were adopting alternate systems, According to
The Globe and Mail, by 2015 an increasing number of economists had joined with organizations such as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce,
Canadian Federation of Independent Business,
Canadian Economics Association,
Martin Prosperity Institute,
Toronto Region Board of Trade, Restaurants Canada and the Canadian Association of Business Economics to call for a reinstatement of the mandatory long form. Edmonton's chief economist had preferred the long form and argued that the National Housing Survey was only useful at the aggregate city level and left "a dearth of data on long-term changes at the neighbourhood level and within demographic groups... making it difficult to make decisions such as 'where to build a library, where to build a fire hall' without specific demographic information," and it was used in the 2016 census.
Political reactions Former industry minister Tony Clement recanted on his support for the elimination of the long form. He avowed that there were ways to protect both indispensable data and Canadians' privacy. Blaming his party for a "collective" decision to terminate the long form, he said, "I think I would have done it differently." He implied incorrectly that Statistics Canada head Munir Sheikh had agreed with the cancellation when it was done. == Standard geographic units ==