This page contains information regarding the legislative history of the Vital Statistics Council for Canada. By selecting a time period below you can view the legislative history for that period.

• 1600's.
• 1700's.
• 1800's.
• 1900's.

1600's

• Early 1600's: The first counts of population in Canada were kept by missionaries and explorers in the early 17th century in what was then known as the colony of New France.
• 1622: The collection of vital statistics began with the Catholic Church requiring events such as baptisms, marriages and burials to be registered with the parish priests in New France (then the area along the St. Lawrence river).
• 1665-1666: The first formal census (of European inhabitants only) of the colony of New France was taken.

1700's

• 1763: New France was ceded to the British; unfortunately the British did not count the population as often as the French. Also because Loyalist settlers changed the demographic make-up of the population, registrations of vital statistics were unreliable as people were increasingly beyond the authority of the Catholic Church and government.

1800's

• 1847: Following the joining of the colonies Upper and Lower Canada, the British realized that better population information was needed for such purposes as setting electoral boundaries and direct taxation. Thus the Census and Statistics Act was passed in 1847, providing for registration of births and deaths and the creation of a Board to register vital events and conduct the decennial census.
• 1867: The British North America Act (1867) ("BNA Act"), which now forms part of the Canadian constitution, pursuant to The Constitution Act (1982), created the Dominion of Canada through the union of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with most other provinces/territories joining the Dominion by 1905. "The BNA Act does not mention vital statistics per se, but it does specify that the census and statistics are the responsibility of the federal government. The BNA Act also gave the provinces exclusive powers to establish, maintain and manage hospitals, asylums and other charitable institutions...and gave them jurisdiction over matters of merely local or private nature. Public health became a provincial responsibility in most provinces, but only through federal-provincial agreement." [M. Fair, ibid., page 362.]

1900's

• 1867-1918: Between confederation and the first federal-provincial conferences in vital statistics, a number of significant events occurred in the evolution of vital statistics in Canada. These included: passage of legislation in the English-speaking provinces enforcing registration of births, marriages and death by civil authorities; federal legislation for a permanent decennial census and instructions for gathering and publishing vital and other statistics; and adoption of a uniform statistical classification of disease.
• 1905: Establishment of the first permanent Census and Statistics Office.
• 1912: Foster Commission calls for a "system of cooperation with the provinces with regard to statistics on births, marriages, death, public health, industrial accidents, hospitals and charities", coordinated by a central statistical agency. [p.15, Fair and Silins].
• 1918: Passage of federal Statistics Act (1918) creating the Dominion Bureau of Statistics (renamed in 1971 to Statistics Canada). "The Act mandated the Bureau... to collect, abstract, compile and publish statistical information relative to commercial, industrial, social, economic and general activities and condition of the people" [M. Fair, ibid., page 366].
• 1918-1919: The first dominion-provincial conferences of officials responsible for vital statistics and national statistics occurred in 1918 and 1919, shortly after the creation of Statistics Canada, then known as the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. The central purpose of these conferences was the establishment of a national system of vital statistics - a system that would prevent duplication and ensure standard method of collecting, compiling and publishing vital statistics. The key accomplishment of these conferences was reaching agreement on regulations regarding the formation of a national system of vital statistics.
• 1919-1944: To join the national co-operative system of vital statistics, provinces had to demonstrate that they were registering at least 90% of the vital events taking place. The first national annual report in 1921 included 8 participating provinces that met the 90% criteria. Registration techniques and procedures were continually modified and improved through this federal-provincial co-operation.
• 1944-1945: Federal-provincial cooperation was furthered with the launching of the federal family allowance program in 1945. A dominion-provincial conference was held in 1944 to discuss the implication of the program on the national system of vital statistics and particularly to modify the system to provide the necessary birth verification in a timely, accurate and efficient method. At this conference, two important matters were agreed upon: a modernized national system of vital statistics and the establishment of the Vital Statistics Council for Canada.
• 1945-present: A National Vital Statistics Index was developed in anticipation of other social programs requiring verification of other vital events, such as immigration, adoptions, marriages, stillbirths and deaths.
  Revised agreements have been proposed periodically since 1945, which some provinces have signed. However, to date no revised agreement has been signed by all provinces and territories since 1945.
• 1992: Criteria established and agreed to on death data exchange between provinces/territories.