Question Period Note: STATISTICS CANADA – DISAGGREGATED DATA ACTION PLAN

Budget 2021 provided new funding to Statistics Canada to implement a Disaggregated Data Action Plan. What progress has been made?

• For Canadians to reach their full potential, they need to properly understand the diversity of people’s circumstances and the barriers they face.
• Statistics Canada’s Disaggregated Data Action Plan is providing better data to address gender gaps and systemic barriers faced by specific groups of Canadians.
• Since 2021, Statistics Canada has released new disaggregated data, published gender diverse profiles, developed disaggregated population projections, and completed consultations with Indigenous and racialized communities.
• Under the Plan, a diversity and intersectional lens has been added to data on topics including labour markets, health outcomes, social inclusion, homelessness, and evolving business conditions.

Statistics Canada is enhancing many of its statistical programs on people’s health, society, the economy and the environment. New ways to get the most out of the data collected are also explored, for instance by combining census and other data securely. Within the first two years of the Disaggregated Data Action Plan, the following activities were undertaken by Statistics Canada:
o Released new data disaggregated by specific racialized groups, Indigenous persons, and women in areas including labour market participation, health behaviours and outcomes, mental health status, social inclusion, civic participation, and homelessness.
o Reported on the evolving conditions of business owned by women, Indigenous persons, and racialized groups, with a focus on growth, access to funding, employment intentions, and obstacles.
o Enhanced access to disaggregated data by developing interactive dashboards and data hubs to provide users with easy-to-access locations for related data, including:
 Developed the Rural and Small Town Canada Interactive Dashboards in the Rural Canada Statistics Portal, offering comprehensive insights into the dynamic social, economic and environmental landscape of rural and small town Canada.
 Launched the Centre for Municipal and Local Data, providing a primary platform for municipal users to access data at the level of geography most relevant to municipalities.
 Developed the Food Price Data hub, offering Canadians access to comprehensive food price information and interactive tools. This platform provides insights into price changes throughout the food supply chain, from farm prices to retail markups, including factors such as transportation costs.
o Conducted the Indigenous Peoples Survey (First Nations peoples living off reserve, Métis and Inuit) in 2022, which focused on social and economic outcomes related to education, employment, health and access to services. Results and analyses were released in 2023 and 2024.
o Released a comprehensive profile of the gender diverse population for the first time using the 2021 Census data in April 2022. Additional census 2021 data were released in July and August, including on family and household characteristics, Canadian military experience, income profile and linguistic diversity, respectively.
o Released Census 2021 products including the following: Statistics on Indigenous peoples; immigration, ethnocultural and religious composition of the population; education, labour force, journey to work and minority official language.
o Completed consultative engagements with Indigenous and racialized communities to develop options for appropriately collecting and disseminating data on interactions with the police.
o Completed a consultative process to reassess the concept of "visible minority." This engagement involved partners, stakeholders, ethnocultural groups, and the general public, aiming to determine more appropriate terminology and categories for population description and data collection.
o Reported on several major projects undertaken through the Disaggregated Data Action Plan during its first two years through published annual reports: Disaggregated Data Accomplishments report 2021-22: Better Quality Data for Better Decision Making (statcan.gc.ca), and Disaggregated Data Accomplishments report 2022-23: Building on a solid foundation (statcan.gc.ca).
o Produced labour force population projections in 2023-24, which helped inform the development of labour market availability targets used in relation to the Employment Equity Act, for the four designated EE groups.
o Revised the variables 'gender of person' and 'sex at birth of person' for the 2021 Census of Population.
• Looking ahead, other activities planned by Statistics Canada include:
o Reporting on several major projects undertaken through the Disaggregated Data Action Plan in fiscal year 2023/24. This will be released in a report in the fall of 2024.
o Enhancing its methodological infrastructure to allow the linkage and integration of more administrative data to existing data holdings and the creation of rich microdata sets that can be disaggregated according to priority categories and at the lowest level of geography possible.
o Continuing to provide subject area advice to GoC regarding the standards for concepts on diverse population groups.
o Continuing to work every step of the way to ensure diverse communities and population groups reflected in granular level data.

• In Budget 2021, the Government of Canada provided $172 million over five years, plus an ongoing $36 million, in funding to Statistics Canada to implement the Disaggregated Data Action Plan.
• This plan has led to new data on grocery and cellular prices, business ownership rates among women, Indigenous People, racialized groups, as well as persons with disabilities.
• It has also contributed to more disaggregated and granular data on rural communities across Canada.
• This information will enable the government to better work with relevant groups and communities to bring more fairness and inclusion in decisions that affect all Canadians.