Anti-Racism Data Legislation
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Overview
Who: All British Columbians
What: Introduce new Anti-Racism Data Legislation
Where: Province-wide
Why: To manage how demographic data is collected
How: Online
Engagement Summary
This engagement will help the Province introduce new data legislation to manage how demographic data such as age, gender identity and race is collected and managed across B.C. This data will shed more light on the experience of Indigenous, Black and other racialized communities using government services.
Collecting and using this data in the right way can help to show where there are systemic inequalities and help government to address issues of discrimination and gaps in services, and modernize sectors like policing, health care and education.
Led by Rachna Singh, Parliamentary Secretary for Anti-racism Initiatives, the Province has carried out extensive engagement with Indigenous Peoples and racialized communities to understand how they would prefer to identify, their experience of using government services, and their feedback on how demographic data should be used and stored.
Engagement and consultation timeframe
The engagement process for the anti-racism data legislation was designed with communities, for communities. Initial feedback from Indigenous leadership and racialized community experts, as well as the BC Human Rights Commissioner’s report, Disaggregated Demographic Data Collection in British Columbia: The Grandmother Perspective, emphasized the need to engage communities in the development of legislation to ensure that their needs are meaningfully addressed.
Between April 2021 and March 2022, people and communities were invited to engage in the discussion through three engagement streams:
- Indigenous Engagement
- Community-led Racialized Engagement
- Online Public Survey
This input helped to identify what was important to communities and to help make sure this statistical information is collected and used in the most safe and effective way to tackle systemic racism.
Learn more about the individual engagement streams and who we talked with.
Results
- Over 2,900 British Columbians completed the online public engagement survey
- British Columbians were invited to provide feedback in Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), English, Farsi, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Punjabi, Spanish, Tagalog, Urdu and Vietnamese on the engagement site
- Nearly 70 Indigenous and racialized community organizations were awarded grants from the Government of B.C. to host anti-racism data engagement sessions with community members across the province. They held more than 400 meetings, reaching approximately 10,000 people
- 58 First Nations participants took part in 26 events, including First Nations leaders, First Nations government officials, Chiefs, Councillors, staff, as well as Elders and community members.
- The BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres (BCAAFC) hosted 2 engagement sessions with representatives from Friendship Centres around the province to discuss the Government of British Columbia’s proposed Anti-Racism Data Legislation. A total of 36 participants attended across the two sessions, including members of the Elders Council, Peer Review Committee and the Provincial Aboriginal Youth Council
- In MNBC’s community consultations with Métis in British Columbia, approximately 100 participants were prompted by a series of questions encouraging participants to share their individual stories, as well as specific questions asking group members to share their thoughts on the future of Métis data
- View the engagement’s What They Heard reports.
Input leads to action
Feedback from this engagement is supporting government’s work to introduce anti-racism data legislation in Spring 2022. The Province will continue to work closely with Indigenous, Black and people of colour throughout the development and refinement of the legislation as part of its commitment to tackle systemic discrimination in all its forms.
On September 23, 2022, the Province announced the 11 members of the Anti-Racism Data Committee, who will collaborate with government to dismantle systemic racism in the public sector. Learn more about the individuals who are adding their voices to the table: Meet the Anti-Racism Data Committee
To learn more about the committee’s work, visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/27486
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