The Canada 2016 Census is a forthcoming detailed enumeration of the Canadian population scheduled for May 2016. The census, to be conducted by Statistics Canada, is in the planning stage, and will be Canada's seventh quinquennial census.[N 1] Statistics Canada has identified May 10, 2016 as the official census day.[2] The 2016 census will mark the reinstatement of the mandatory long-form census, which had been dropped in favour of the voluntary National Household Survey for the 2011 census.[3]
Consultation with census data users, clients, stakeholders and other interested parties closed in November 2012. Qualitative content testing, which involves soliciting feedback regarding the questionnaire and tests responses to its questions, is scheduled for the fall of 2013, with more extensive testing to occur in May 2014. Statistics Canada will submit its census content recommendations for review by the Parliament of Canada in December 2014 for subsequent final approval by the Cabinet of Canada.[4]
