The Canada 2006 Census is a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day is May 16 2006. The next census following will be the 2011 Census.

Summary

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Over 12.7 million households, 32.5 million people are expected to be counted. Canada Post will deliver census forms by mail to 70% of the country, primarily residents in urban areas. Census Enumerators will deliver to the remaining 30% of households. Every fifth home will receive the long questionnaire (53 questions versus 8 questions on the short form). For the first time, Canadian residents will be able to go online to fill in their forms. Statistics Canada expects approximately 20% of households to file their surveys electronically. Persistent census staff will be contacting tardy households. The total estimated cost of the 2006 census is $567 million spread over 7 years, employing more than 25,000 full and part-time census workers.

New in the 2006 Census Questionnaire:

• Education. Where did individuals receive their highest level of education? (Only on extended questionnaire)
• Income. Permission to use income information from individual's income tax file. Income from child benefits. Income tax paid. (Also only on extended questionnaire)
• Access to Personal Information. Permission to make information public in 92 years.

Questions not asked in the 2006 Census:

• Religion. Normally asked only once every 10 years, and the religion question was asked in the 2001 Census.
• Education. The number of years of schooling received.

Modified questions:

• Education. A separate question for each level of schooling, and type of school attended.

Data products

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Once the data is collected and digitized, Statistics Canada will begin to release a series of census data. In early 2007, the first batch of data will cover geographical information and population and dwelling counts. This will be followed by other census reports, to be released by the summer of 2008.

Advertising

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In contrast to 1996 focus-groups that found it important to know the legal requirement at the outset, participants of 2005 focus-groups were annoyed or provoked by draft ads reminding Canadians about the census law. As a result of the finding, StatsCan's initial newspaper, radio and TV ads will avoid mention of the legal requirement. Instead, reference to the census law will be highlighted only in ads appearing after census day, to capture late filers.

To encourage participation, StatsCan has set aside $13 million for "saturation" advertising, including billboards, bookmarks, inserts in municipal tax bills, and ads on bags of sugar and milk cartons. For comparison, the United States Census Bureau budgeted $166.6 million USD for paid advertising over 3 years for the 2000 Census.

Outsourcing

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StatsCan reports less than 20% of the work will be outsourced, spending $85M over 5 years. Despite an open public tender process, controversy arose on the announcement of a $43.3 million deal awarded to Lockheed Martin Canada -- a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense contractor by defense revenue -- for the purchase of scanning and printing software and hardware.

Criticism and controversy

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Special interest groups have criticised StatsCan over the design of questions, accuracy, and the future of the census data:

• Question 6: Relationship. Couples in same-sex marriages are offended by and/or object to StatsCan's instruction that they use the write-in field "Other" instead of checking the "husband or wife" box.
• Question 16: Mother tongue. An anonymous email misinformation campaign advises bilingual francophones to not mention their knowledge of English.
• Question 53: Election to release census data after 92 years. Genealogists worry future research will be hampered if Canadians don't check this box.

The quality of data is further hampered by individuals advocating minimal cooperation or non-cooperation.

In addition, StatsCan's online questionnaire has been criticized over accessibility issues:

• Failure to comply with Treasury Board guidelines to meet W3C accessibility recommendations for the visually impaired.
• Failure to support open source operating systems. Support for Linux was eventually added, but support for other operating systems was not.

See also

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• Demographics of Canada
• Statistics Act

References

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External links

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• 2006 Census - Statistics Canada's page on the 2006 Census.

2006 in Canada | Demographics of Canada | National censuses | Lockheed Martin