By Canadian Press

B.C. tables anti-racism legislation, promises to hold public bodies accountable

Apr 11, 2024 | 2:02 PM

VICTORIA — British Columbia has introduced legislation its attorney general says is designed to hold public bodies accountable for addressing systemic racism in policy and programs.

Niki Sharma says the legislation would cover provincial ministries, agencies, health-care and social service providers, and will require the development of a public action plan using data the government has collected on systemic racism.

She says the legislation gives her ministry the power to issue compliance orders if it sees that public bodies or ministries are not responding to the action items in the plan.

Sharma says the government will establish a committee on anti-racism to help guide the development of the plan by June 1, 2026, and develop standards and targets.

The legislation also requires public bodies to develop and implement a training curriculum on Indigenous history, set targets for the recruitment and retention of Indigenous and racialized people, and regularly assess their policies and programs.

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B.C.’s Anti Racism Data Act came into effect in 2022, allowing for the collection and use of personal information for the purposes of identifying and eliminating systemic racism, and requires the province to release statistics annually.

Sharma says the first statistics will be released soon and will give the ministries and agencies a baseline to start from.

“What this act requires is government to take action on that (data),” she says.

“So, to receive the data, come up with clear action plans that are public for how they’re going to address what they’re seeing in the data, and then we have external structures to keep government to account moving forward.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press