On May 2, B.C. government introduced the Anti-Racism Data Act — new legislation aimed at breaking down barriers for racialized people in accessing services and ensuring they are fairly represented.
Developed with the help of input from over 13,000 British Columbians, the act became law on June 2.
Institutional racism exists everywhere, including government programs and policies. Data related to race, ethnicity, faith and other factors can be crucial to identify equity gaps in policies and programs.
As a first step toward tackling the problem, the provincial government elected 11 members to a committee mandated to collect data and support anti-racism legislation.
Simon Fraser University (SFU) associate professor June Francis was elected to spearhead the committee as a chair along with instructor Daljit Gill-Badesha and director of Institutional Research and Planning Zareen Naqvi.
According to Francis, the data legislation would help the government pinpoint racial disparities and come up with ways to address them.
"The governments have been slow," she said. "I would say almost nonexistent in collecting race-disaggregated data. So for too long, it has been on Indigenous and racialized communities. The burden has been placed on them, to continue to argue that racial disparities exist. I think this is a great move forward, but the real thing about the committee is that it's our jobs now, to ensure that the spirit of the legislation works in a way to address racial inequities."
Francis stresses the importance of inclusion in the committee — with the government's attempt to ensure at least half of the committee comprises racialized and Indigenous people.
She said she hopes the committee will provide an "equity lens" to reflect the needs of communities affected, and that it will restore trust among those communities in the way data is secured and used.
"The hope I have is that the committee will put its eyes and its experience towards ensuring that we're effective at collecting the kind of data and information that can create clarity to the root causes of the problems," she said. "Where the problems is, and their causes in such a way and that we can then turn around and hold the government accountable to fixing these inequities."
While every sector needs addressing, she said, some require extra attention — like incarceration of marginalized groups, education, employment, health and housing, where the greatest disparities lie.
The committee's inaugural meeting will be held on Oct. 14, and regular meetings will follow, to help the province develop new standards. The report on data collected will be published by the committee in June 2023, along with research priorities.
In the long run, the legislation itself aims to address systemic racism in the province and help government devise solutions to drive action and change.
Francis said that she hopes governments will budget from an equity perspective, meaning they "will need to put more money and more attention [toward] the areas of greatest harm and biggest problems."
"We should be able to know if Black and Indigenous and racialized people are able to take advantage of these programs and are benefiting from them to the same extent. We should know when we look at the spending on health that Indigenous and racialized communities are getting access to the same level of care and therefore their health.
"We're hoping that we'll be putting in place data standards, data collection that will help us to answer everything from whether the government itself is equipped to with through its own policies, and whether it's therefore providing the services to the communities in an equitable way."
This is a first step in the right direction, she said. But she hopes that in the end, every ministry will take a closer look at the data and address issues brought up by the people. She also encourages the private sector and non-profit organizations to work towards a more inclusive and equitable B.C..
