Thank you.
In response to calls for better demographic data to understand health inequities and COVID-19, in May CIHI released an interim race data standard, intended for use by any jurisdictional organization that decides to collect this kind of data. However, as you probably heard in the first panel and after that, many advocates have criticized this approach because it's voluntary. They say the federal government has a leadership role to play to ensure there's consistent pan-Canadian data, regardless of jurisdiction.
Since the current gap in information makes it impossible to target resources and care where they're most needed, should the federal government impose mandatory national standards with respect to the collection and sharing of socio-demographic data related to COVID-19?