Government of Canada Introduces Legislation to Enable Access to Historical Census Records

OTTAWA, November 2, 2004 — An Act to amend the Statistics Act was introduced in the Senate of Canada today. The proposed bill would enable access to both past and future census records.

The bill has two key provisions.

Personal census records for censuses taken between 1911 and 2001 inclusive would be released 92 years after each census.

Starting with the 2006 Census, Canadians will be able to decide if they will allow their personal census information to be released publicly after 92 years. Individual census records would be released only when consent is given.

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