I think national data would be better. We keep very minimal data going from different provinces to be able to see that one province is doing well and another province isn't. I think keeping proper data on education and graduation rates or employment and income outcomes would be extremely beneficial, and requiring provinces to submit this data to StatsCan or the federal government each year. It would give us a better idea of how we can tackle this.
I think a big issue as well is with the education and post-secondary supports. People from care rush into post-secondary education as a way to escape the life of care and step up the economic ladder, when a lot of the time we aren't ready. Then when we go in, sometimes there will be tuition waivers, for example, but lots of data supports that solely providing these waivers isn't adequate enough.
There's been some research coming out of the Atlantic provinces, specifically by Dr. Jacqueline Gahagan. She found that creating wraparound supports through mental health, housing, financial stability, and providing all of those supports to people through post-secondary education was also a significant factor. What I've found is the only thing that really closes the wage gap from people from care compared to non-people from care is getting at the very least a college degree. There's a report called “'Half the time I felt like nobody loved me': The Costs of 'Aging Out' of State Guardianship in Ontario”. It estimates that people from care are making about $326,000 less than people not from care because they're primarily only going into minimum-wage or low-stability jobs, if they are even going into the employment market.
There are lots of nuances. There are homes for non-verbal autistic adults who most likely won't enter the job field. It's a very nuanced situation.