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Article History

Received: 15 November 2022

Accepted: 16 January 2023

First Online: 23 January 2023

Declarations

:

: Statistics Canada obtained informed consent from all CCHS respondents. The CCHS data analyzed in this study were collected by Statistics Canada (Canada’s National Statistical Office) under the legislated Statistics Act and provided to the Public Health Agency of Canada under the Agency’s national health surveillance mandate. Statistics Canada granted PHAC access to CCHS data in accordance with the Statistics Act. One of Statistics Canada’s duties under the Act is to “collaborate with [other] departments of government in the collection, compilation and publication of statistical information”. Therefore, it is deemed unnecessary for Statistics Canada and other departments of the government collaborating with Statistics Canada to seek ethics approval by an IRB to collect, compile, analyse and publish statistical information that pertains to the people of Canada, as the Act ensures that data are utilized in an ethical manner. Additionally, as per Articles 2.2 of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, this research is exempt from IRB review as it relies on data that are publicly available through a legislated or regulated mechanism and is legally protected by Statistics Canada. All researchers with access to the data were employees of the Public Health Agency of Canada and had therefore obtained at a minimum Reliability Status as outlined in the Policy on Government Security. All CCHS data provided were anonymized, and the study was completed exclusively as secondary analyses which did not allow identification of participants.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.