Data Strategy Tracker
TBS, supported by Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), will progress the development of government-wide standards on data interoperability that will further the ability of Indigenous Peoples to reclaim their traditional names, as per Truth and Reconciliation Commission Call to Action #17
In fiscal year 2022–23, Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) conducted a departmental analysis of requirements in support of the government-wide response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Call to Action 17. This environmental study underlined the significance of the technical and policy considerations in properly addressing the issues around Indigenous name reclamation. The respective considerations brought forward questions and challenges, which are currently under ISC advisement.
These questions focus on:
• establishing system and data interoperability with the introduction of Indigenous languages characters and syllabics
• establishing the scope of Indigenous languages and characters in the implementation of Indigenous name reclamation
• addressing the lack of alignment between Indigenous mononym (that is, single names with one construct) naming practices and system requirements to input both first and last names for individuals
• evaluating the Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics (UCAS) character set in collaboration with an Indigenous advisory committee with the purpose of incorporating Indigenous characters and syllabics in their entirety and further establishing a process for adding and modifying characters
In light of the study findings and in collaboration with TBS, ISC is working to develop two data standards:
1. a data standard on name architecture
2. a data standard on character set recognition to enable interoperability
To develop these data standards, ISC is creating a survey of ISC systems. This survey aims to:
• evaluate the information management and information technology systems’ technical capabilities to accommodate Indigenous mononym naming practices
• investigate how ISC systems enter, store and retrieve Indigenous names that encompass characters beyond Latin alphabets and accented letters
The results of internal ISC work will be shared with TBS to understand how to scale this work up across the GC.
ISC and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) co-chair the sub-working group on person name architecture.
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