Residents in communities across Canada will be invited to weigh in on a national cannabis survey Statistics Canada announced Friday.
During 2018, Stats Canada said it will invite 12,000 households each quarter to participate in a 21-question online survey.
When asked how households will be selected, Guillaume Bérubé, head of media relations for Strategic Communications and Stakeholder Relations Division of Statistics Canada, said it will be random.
“The first stage is to randomly select dwellings from a Statistics Canada survey frame that contains millions of records, and the second stage is to select a respondent within these dwellings,” he said, noting there are approximately 14 million private dwellings in Canada according to the 2016 Census.
The survey will be part of a larger initiative underway at Statistics Canada to track the impact of the legalization of non-medical cannabis, a change that may come into effect by mid-year.
In addition to the online survey, some residents will be contacted to see if they want to do the survey over the phone, Bérubé said.
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The survey will ask about frequency of use, amount and types of product consumed, prices paid and what changes in behaviour or consumption patterns have occurred.
While respondent information will be kept strictly confidential, survey results will be released five to six weeks after the end of each collection period and will be used in conjunction with other data sources to ensure that Canadians are well-positioned to understand the economic, health and social impacts of legalization.
Bérubé said the survey results will be made available to the public throught he Statistics Canada “The Daily,” which can be accessed at www.statcan.gc.ca.
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