Mr. Speaker, today Statistics Canada provided Canadians with a first glimpse of the latest national statistical portrait with the results of the 2016 census count on population and dwellings.
I am proud to be part of a government whose first action was to restore the mandatory long form census.
We made a commitment to bring back the long form census, and we kept that promise. This means that Canadians once again have access to reliable and accurate data.
Without this data, our communities could not plan ahead. Everything from transit planning to housing strategies, to support for new Canadians was made more difficult.
Results of today's release show that over 35 million people now call Canada home. This is 10 times greater than in 1871, when the first census after Confederation recorded 3.5 million people in Canada.
The information gathered through the census is central to our evidence-based—