The reductions identified in the Government of Canada’s Budget 2025 and the Comprehensive Expenditure Review confirmed Statistics Canada’s need to streamline operations while continuing to deliver the trusted data Canadians rely on. These government-wide measures are intended to reduce spending on operations while protecting priority programs and investing in areas that support Canada’s economic and social well-being.
In response, Statistics Canada entered a workforce adjustment period in January 2026 and has made targeted adjustments to programs to ensure the long-term sustainability of Canada’s national statistical system. Our most critical programs, such as the Census of Population, the Consumer Price Index, gross domestic product, trade, and employment statistics, continue without interruption. These core indicators remain priorities and will continue to be available to governments, businesses, and communities across the country.
Most changes affect how data are collected and produced, rather than the availability of data. To reduce duplication and focus resources where they have the greatest impact, some surveys and statistical programs will be discontinued where the data can be obtained through alternative sources or methods. Statistics Canada will continue to deliver trusted data by increasing the use of administrative data, modelling, automation and artificial intelligence, and by adjusting release frequency or level of detail where appropriate, while maintaining the quality, integrity, and continuity of Canada’s key national indicators.
Throughout this period of change, Statistics Canada remains committed to responsible stewardship of public resources and to fulfilling its mandate under the Statistics Act. Whether we collect administrative, alternative, or survey data, one thing remains certain—Statistics Canada continues to operate in accordance with governing instruments and frameworks, including those guiding the use of automation and artificial intelligence, and our commitment to protecting privacy and safeguarding the confidentiality of data remains unwavering. As Canada’s national statistical agency, Statistics Canada continues to provide high-quality, objective, and trusted data that support informed decision-making and public confidence in official statistics.
Reducing duplication and focusing resources
Statistics Canada has identified several program adjustments that will help us meet our expenditure reduction requirements for the Comprehensive Expenditure Review.
These decisions were made through a thorough, agency-wide process that looked at what Canadians rely on most and where changes could be made with the least impact. As a result, these adjustments aim to ensure organizational stability and sustainability while continuing to provide high-quality data and trusted information to Canadians, even with reduced funding.
There will be reductions in scope, frequency and/or granularity to elements of various statistical programs, including the following specific changes:
Revised activities:
- Agriculture Program: Reduced frequency for the monthly poultry and eggs statistics and the monthly deliveries for the major grains to quarterly. The production of the January occasion of the Biannual Livestock Survey will change to a model-based approach and the Biannual Potato Area and Yield Survey will be collected as part of the Field Crop Reporting Series.
- Centre for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion: There will be a reduction in the number of analytical publications focused on disaggregated populations. Following this reduction, the Centre will prioritize reporting under the Gender Results Framework.
- Demography Program: Selected components of the Family Demography Program have been reduced, including custom tabulations related to marriages and divorces. However, the fertility interactive dashboard will continue to be updated annually, as well as fertility indicators, which are used in other Statistics Canada programs, such as population projections.
- Environment Statistics Program: The scope of the Census of Environment program will be reduced. The main focus will remain on data products and outputs for core ecosystems (e.g., land, forests, oceans and coastal, agriculture, urban, freshwater, wetland), but there will be reductions in engagement activities, governance and the frequency of updates to existing products, as well as longer durations for research and development activities.
- General Social Survey Program: The General Social Survey is undergoing a transformation to more effectively meet the social statistics needs of Canadians. On an annual basis, the survey will now collect Quality of Life indicators, previously collected in the Canadian Social Survey. In addition, the survey will move away from distinct thematic designs (e.g. Time Use Survey, Survey on Family Transitions, etc.) towards a single streamlined data collection vehicle with limits on questionnaire length.
- Gross domestic product by industry: There will be a reduction in the number of industries included, with the monthly national and annual provincial-territorial GDP programs having streamlined and harmonized their industry classifications. The new structure now includes 174 industries at both levels, reducing the number of industries by 22 nationally and 52 provincially-territorially. Some smaller manufacturing and construction industries were combined, while greater detail was added to selected industries where it was deemed analytically or statistically useful.
- Health Statistics Program: The scope of the survey work related to sexual and reproductive health will be reduced. The Canadian Survey of Gynecological Health will proceed as planned, and the Survey of Abortion Providers in Canada will not proceed.
- Household Expenditure Program: The program will be modernized to better align with priority data needs, with a frequency change to publishing annually instead of quarterly.
- Integrated Social Data Program: Use of web panel surveys with pre-recruited respondents will be reduced.
- Labour Statistics Program: Granularity and frequency for selected labour market indicators will be reduced, along with a reduction in the number of Employment Insurance-related products. Specifically, the collection and dissemination of the Labour Market and Socioeconomic Indicators (LMSI) are suspended for the 2026-27 fiscal year. The LMSI supplement was a voluntary quarterly survey conducted following the completion of the Labour Force Survey. As a result of this suspension, the production of annual labour market indicators for persons with and without disabilities will also be paused. Other data sources on persons with disabilities, including information on their labour market outcomes, will remain available through the Canadian Survey on Disability.
- Macroeconomic Accounts Program: Selected components related to Industrial Capacity Utilization Rates and Non-Bank Financial Intermediaries will be eliminated, and frequency and granularity will be reduced for other elements.
- Social, Justice Statistics Program: Selected survey components within the program will be descoped, including the Survey of the Diversity of Not-for-profit Boards.
- Transportation Statistics Program: The granularity for selected surface transportation programs will be reduced, including, for example, rail operating statistics, and data on length of track and diesel fuel consumption. The release of monthly Aircraft Movement Statistics will move to a quarterly frequency.
Discontinued and ending activities
- Annual Electric Power Generating Stations Survey
- Annual release of Vehicle registrations
- Biennial Agriculture Water Survey
- Biennial Drinking Water Plants Survey
- Biennial Industrial Water Survey
- Canadian Social Survey
- Canadian Survey of Business Conditions
- GDP by Census Metropolitan Area (CMA)
- Health Care Access and Experiences Program
- Households and the Environment Survey
- Integrated Social Data Program—Longitudinal Social Data Development Program (LSDDP)
- Model-based Principal Field Crop for July
- Monthly Civil Aviation Survey
- Municipal Data Strategy
- Municipal wastewater systems
- Physical Flow Account for Plastic Material
- Quarterly Civil Aviation Survey
- Small area data on field crops
- Weekly Aircraft Movement Statistics
- Wool disposition and farm value