Thank you.
I'd like to thank all the witnesses for being here with us virtually today, with an especially warm welcome to those from Seniors First B.C. and the Council to Reduce Elder Abuse. These B.C. organizations do important work in my home province.
Ms. Baker, I found your itemized list of issues and federal supports that would be beneficial to be particularly useful. Thank you.
I will be directing my first questions to Mr. Latimer and Ms. AuCoin from Statistics Canada, and maybe just just Ms. AuCoin if Mr. Latimer is sidelined a bit.
We know the importance of data in addressing issues relating to elder abuse, data that, as this committee has heard throughout our study, is largely missing. The testimony of the Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse emphasized that group's disappointment that the 2021 budget did not commit to better collection of elder abuse data to inform our policy-making, especially since the mandate letters of both the Minister of Justice and Minister of Seniors call for exactly that.
Could you elaborate on where, in your professional opinion, the gaps exist in data collection with respect to elder abuse?