The City of Burnaby has joined a chorus of municipalities and advocacy groups calling on the provincial government to begin collecting race-based data on COVID-19.
In the U.S., race-based data is collected in a number of states, and it has generally shown Black, Indigenous and people of colour are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 infections and deaths.
But in B.C., only Indigenous data have been separated from the aggregated data, leaving questions unanswered about how the virus has impacted various racialized communities.
Both the City of New Westminster and the City of Vancouver have called on the province to begin collecting race-based data, with the former calling on the City of Burnaby to add its voice to the call. Council voted unanimously in favour of endorsing the collection of race-based data.
“Over the last few months, particularly due to the pandemic period, a lot of things have come forward, and we see that marginalized citizens of our city have been disproportionately suffering from many things, and that’s not evident just in our city, but across the country,” Coun. Sav Dhaliwal told council.
“One of the things that has highlighted the need for us to recognize what is the makeup of our cities and … what type of things are not working for our citizens. And this is a beginning to correct some of the deficiencies that currently exist.”
Dhaliwal said he hoped the city’s equity policy will pursue similar race-based data to inform its policies.
Premier John Horgan said late last month he wanted to begin collecting disaggregated race-based data. He gave the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner until late September to find a way to collect the data without infringing on privacy issues.
In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Information and Privacy Commissioner Michael McEvoy said it “could be a good idea if it’s done the right way” but urged the government to consult with the impacted communities.
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