Globe and Mail Series on Canada's Data Deficit

On the weekend, the Globe and Mail newspaper published a series of articles on what it calls Canada's data deficit, or the often large gaps in the data available in Canada to inform decision-making.

I am copying the links and summaries from the website Librarianship.ca:

• In the dark: The cost of Canada’s data deficit
  When it comes to basic data about its own citizens – from divorce rates to driving patterns to labour trends – Canada simply doesn’t have the answers. If information is power, this country has a big problem. 
• What went wrong at Statscan? A history of secrecy, small-time thinking and statistics
  Parts of Canada’s data history have gone missing. Others are hidden from public view by layers of bureaucracy. Here’s how we ended up here
  Flying blind: Why does Canada know so little about itself?
  Last year, Globe journalists set out to understand the gaps in information about how Canadians live. This is what we found – and we’re just getting started. 
• In the information age, Canada is falling behind
  On everything from public health to housing, the economy and education, the country does not have the data it needs to make smart decisions. We are tracking the gaps and their effect on your everyday life

Articles added on January 27:

• Experts urge Ottawa to fix Canada’s data deficit
  Canada could fix gaps in public data by improving co-ordination between provinces, copying ideas from other countries and reforming key pieces of legislation that stifle access to information, according to academics, former Statistics Canada workers and international experts. 
• Data is knowledge, and Canadians deserve to know themselves
  In Statistics Canada today, the cart is leading the horse with new funding going toward the implementation and administration of policy decisions already taken, whether or not they are supported by the evidence.

The paper's reporters identified 28 data deficits, areas where it is difficult to get a clear picture, based of dozens of interviews, research reports, government documents, international searches and feedback from its own newsroom. Examples include:

•  What are the wait times for mental-health services?
•  Which cities have the lowest vaccination rates?
•  At what rate are workers being killed on the job?
•  How often are tenants being evicted?
•  Do children with disabilities have the services they need?
•  How many Indigenous women are missing?
•  Which fish species are in danger?
•  Do our judges reflect the Canadian population?