The Canada Land Inventory land use classification divided the land into a maximum of 13 classes, based on air photo interpretation, field surveys, and census information. The land use information was originally compiled on maps at a scale of 1:50,000. This information was later generalized to a scale of 1:250,000 and land use classes were combined where necessary to facilitate the input of information to the computerized Geographic Information System. Only a handful of maps were selected for publication from that series of 1:250,000 maps.

  The land use information is valid only for the year in which the air photos were taken or the area was field checked. As evidenced on the few printed maps (Montreal, Truro,Woodstock,Winnipeg and Prince Edward Island), this date varies from 1950 to 1970. Moreover, the date for one map sheet can vary as it is made up of sixteen 1:50,000 sub-components which themselves could have had variable dates. The average date of the inventory as a whole may be considered as 1966 but there is as yet no supportive evidence to this assumption. It may also be considered as 1961 vintage based on the evidence that the 1961 census was utilized the separate cropland from improved pasture.

  Some of the stated limits of the classification include: