Canada's chief statistician has resigned over the Conservative government's decision to eliminate the long census form.

Munir Sheikh announced his resignation in a statement posted on the Statistics Canada website.

He said that a voluntary survey, as that proposed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, can not be substitute for a mandatory census.

Sheikh said that under the circumstances, he tendered his resignation to Harper.

The long-time bureaucrat and economist said that he would not go into the details of the discussions he had with Industry Minister Tony Clement about the census.

But sources at Statistics Canada have refuted Clement's claims in the media that the agency recommended the option of going from mandatory census to voluntary survey.