Article by Danielle Goldfarb: “The United States is cutting and undermining official US data across a wide range of domains, eroding the foundations of evidence-based policy making. This is happening mostly under the radar here in Canada, buried by news about US President Donald Trump’s barrage of tariffs and many other alarming actions. Doing nothing in response means Canada accepts blind spots in critical areas. Instead, this country should respond by investing in essential data and building the next generation of trusted public intelligence.
The United States has cut or altered more than 2,000 official data sets across the science, health, climate and development sectors, according to the National Security Archive. Deep staff cuts across all program areas effectively cancel or deeply erode many other statistical programs….
Even before this data purge, official US data methods were becoming less relevant and reliable. Traditional government surveys lag by weeks or months and face declining participation. This lag proved particularly problematic during the COVID-19 pandemic and also now, when economic data with a one- or two-month lag is largely irrelevant for tracking the real-time impact of constantly shifting Trump tariffs….
With deep ties to the United States, Canada needs to take action to reduce these critical blind spots. This challenge brings a major strength into the picture: Canada’s statistical agencies have strong reputations as trusted, transparent information sources.
First, Canada should strengthen its data infrastructure. Official Canadian data suffers from similar delays and declining response rates as in the United States. Statistics Canada needs a renewed mandate and stable resources to produce policy-relevant indicators, especially in a timelier way, and in areas where US data has been cut or compromised.
Second, Canada could also act as a trusted place to store vulnerable indicators — inventorying missing data sets, archiving those at risk and coordinating global efforts to reconstruct essential metrics.
Third, Canada has an opportunity to lead in shaping the next generation of trusted and better public-interest intelligence…(More)”.
