Question Period Note: DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION ACCOMPLISHMENTS SINCE 2018

Summary of accomplishments on diversity and inclusion since 2018

• The Government of Canada is committed to building a stronger and more inclusive Canada by investing in Indigenous Peoples, and Black, racialized and religious minority communities and combatting all forms of systemic racism and discrimination.
• Government of Canada investments, to build a more inclusive Canada include:
o $200 million for the Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative, $200 million to the Black-led Philanthropic Endowment Fund, and over $200M towards the anti-racism strategy and the action plan on combatting hate.

The Government of Canada endorsed the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent in 2018, recognizing the urgent need to address the unique challenges faced by Black communities across the country. This announcement acknowledged Black Canadians as a distinct group for the first time, and established Canada as the only OECD country to recognize the UNDPAD Decade.

Subsequently, the Government announced several budget and mandate commitments specific to addressing the needs of Black and racialized communities, including:

• Committing $200 million until 2024-2025 for the Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative (SBCCI), which aims to build capacity in the vibrant Black communities in Canada by providing funding to Black-led and Black-serving community organizations.
• Investing over $200M since 2019 in the initial anti-racism strategy as well as in the new Strategy and the action plan on combatting hate. These investments include:
o $95M under Building a Foundation for Change: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy, 2019-2022, comprised of $45M (Budget 2019) and $50M (2020 Fall Economic Statement); and
o $110.4M under Changing Systems, Transforming Lives: Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy 2024–2028, comprised of $85M over 4 years, starting 2023-2024 (Budget 2022), and $25.4M over 5 years, starting 2023-2024, and $0.6M ongoing (Budget 2023).
• Committing $200 million to the Black-led Philanthropic Endowment Fund, which was established in 2023 and is dedicated to supporting Black-led, Black-focused, and Black-serving charities and non-profits in their efforts to combat anti-Black racism and improve social and economic outcomes for Black communities.
• Establishing a Task Force to conduct an independent review of Canada’s Employment Equity Act to improve equity, diversity and inclusion in federally regulated workplaces and to keep pace with the economic, demographic and social changes in recent decades.

In February 2024, the Prime Minister announced a domestic extension of the federal government’s efforts within the frameworks of the UN Decade to promote equality and empower Black Canadians until 2028.

In addition to the budget and mandate commitments the Government has made to support Black communities across the country, Canada has participated in all three sessions of the United Nations Permanent Forum for on People of African Descent since 2022. At the third session in Geneva in 2024, Canada signaled its intention to endorse a second decade for people of African Descent should the United Nation Declare one.

To strengthen federal leadership against racism, the Government of Canada recently unveiled Canada’s new Anti-Racism Strategy: Changing Systems, Transforming Lives, which the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat, created in 2019, leads and coordinates. It works with federal organizations as well as hundreds across Canada to remove systemic barriers on Indigenous Peoples, Black, racialized, and religious minority communities.

Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative (SBCCI)

In recognition of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent, Budget 2019 provided $25 million over five years to create the Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative (SBCCI) to celebrate, share knowledge and invest in vibrant Black communities in Canada. Since this initial investment, the Government of Canada has announced an additional $175 million to continue supporting capacity building in Black-led, Black-serving, and Black-focused organizations and the work they do to promote inclusiveness.

To strengthen foundational infrastructure in Black communities, ESDC works in collaboration with National Funders: Groupe 3737 (Montreal), Tropicana Community Services (Toronto), Black Business Initiative (Halifax) and Africa Centre (Edmonton) to ensure that federal investments respond to the local needs of Black communities in Canada. The National Funders Network provides funding to support capacity building to help Black-led organizations diversify income sources and financing; enhance operational management effectiveness and efficiency and strengthen capacity for governance for Black-led organizations. To date, the National Funders Network has awarded over $67 million in grants to 1300 projects. In addition, ESDC has funded, more than 1,300 projects with a total investment of more than $82 million in capital project assistance to purchase equipment and, retrofit and renovate spaces so Black-serving grassroots organizations are better equipped to fulfil their mission.

SBCCI also supports emerging priorities and important legacy initiatives that address specific needs in Black Communities. One such initiative is the former Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children, for which $2.2 million in funding was provided to renovate and transform this major historical site into an accessible community hub for the African-Nova Scotian community. The site reopened on October 23, 2022, as the Kinney Place, an incubator for Black business and an intergenerational hub for the community. SBCCI is also providing $2.1 million to CCAM to fund the renovation and expansion of an inclusive cultural centre in Montreal focused on the preservation and promotion of Black communities’ cultural heritage in Quebec.

Additionally, ESDC is currently in the process of implementing a national institute for people of African descent. The primary function of the institute will be to inform and influence policy and program development at all levels of Government from a Black-centric perspective through a variety of mechanisms, including applied research, knowledge development, information sharing, stakeholder engagement and network building.

In addition to funding to community organizations, ESDC launched the SBCCI External Reference Group (ERG) in November 2022 address calls to have Black communities’ voices represented and integrated into policy decisions. The ERG consists of up to 15 members of African descent from across Canada who will work to support the Minister in ensuring the meaningful implementation of the SBCCI to help build capacity within communities by providing strategic advice, expertise and insight on the emerging priorities of Black Canadians, and to support the advancement of the Government of Canada’s commitments related to the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent.

Black-led Philanthropic Endowment Fund

Black-led, Black-focused and Black-serving charities and non-profits provide targeted support to the over 1.5 million Black people in Canada who continue to face long-standing socio-economic inequities and anti-Black racism. Despite the important role these organizations play, they have been consistently underfunded.

In 2017 and 2018, Black-serving community organizations received only 0.7% of the total grants given out by Canadian foundations and Black-led community organizations received only 0.07%. Philanthropic leaders have said that the lack of representation of Black communities in philanthropy, inadequate data, and systemic barriers, including anti-Black racism, have led to this severe underfunding, and that a Black-led foundation is required to redress this imbalance.

In response to this underfunding of Black-led, Black-focused and Black-serving charities and non-profits and in recognition of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent, Budget 2021 provided $200 million to establish the Black-led Philanthropic Endowment Fund to create a sustainable source of funding for Black communities in Canada.

In February 2023, ESDC announced it selected the Foundation for Black Communities (FFBC), a national Black-led and Black-serving organization, to administer the Endowment Fund. FFBC is responsible for investing the Fund and using the income earned on those investments to support their operating costs and provide funding to Black-led, Black-focused and Black-serving charities and non-profits for projects that aim to combat anti-Black racism and improve social and economic outcomes for Black communities.

FFBC will administer the Endowment Fund with the support of partners they select who have expertise in investing and fund delivery, including one or more investment advisors and/or portfolio management firms and an allied public foundation. The program will run for a minimum of 10 years, until March 31, 2033.

FFBC launched the first call for proposals supported by the Fund, called the Black Ideas Grant, on December 18, 2023. The call for proposals closed on February 1, 2024, and made over $9 million, including $5.88 million from the Fund, available to eligible organizations for projects that aim to combat anti-Black racism and improve social and economic outcomes for Black communities in Canada.

Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy

The Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat was set-up in 2019, as a signature initiative of Building a Foundation for Change: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy, 2019-2023.
Under the “Demonstrating Federal Leadership” pillar of the Strategy, it is tasked with coordinating federal action and driving the overall strategy, by leading federal institutions to identify and coordinate responsive initiatives, identify gaps, assist in developing new initiatives, and consider the impacts of new and existing policies, services and programs on communities and Indigenous Peoples.
Over the course of the last four years, the Federal Secretariat has played a leadership role across the federal government by assisting several government organizations in developing and implementing policy and other initiatives that address the needs of populations with lived experience of racism. It has involved persons and communities most affected by racism to inform its whole of government policy change work, and hosted commemoration activities to mark the history and contributions of racialized and religious minority populations.
The Federal Secretariat has also contributed on the international stage, facilitating the signing of trilateral and bilateral agreements, and informing the work to advance Canada’s anti-racism, human rights, diversity and inclusion, and democratic value foreign policy objectives.
Under Budget 2022, the Government committed to deliver Canada’s new Anti-Racism Strategy and the country’s first ever Action Plan on Combatting Hate. The Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat has been active in informing the development of both priorities, notably through an extensive public engagement and consultation process with populations most affected by racism as well as with key sectors of society.
Canada’s new Anti-Racism Strategy: Changing Systems, Transforming Lives: Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy 2024–2028 was launched in Spring 2024. It covers over 70 federal initiatives and takes a more comprehensive approach to eliminating systemic racism and discrimination in Canada.

If Pressed (Supporting Black Canadian Communities)
• Supported Black communities through:
o Establishing a network of Black-led National Funders to provide funding to support capacity building in Black-led grassroots community organizations. Since 2020, the National Funder Network has provided grants to support over 1300 projects to build capacity – in areas such as fundraising, financial accountability strategic planning, board development, and performance measurement – supported by an investment of $67 million.
o Investments in more than 1370 Black-led and Black-serving organizations to support capital projects – such as renovating work and community spaces and purchasing work-related equipment – so they are better equipped to fulfill their mission, supported by an investment of $82 million.

If Pressed (Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat)

• Shaping Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2024-2028 involved the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat leading engagement and commemoration activities, reaching people across the country. This included:
o 15 town halls;
o 2 national summits on antisemitism and Islamophobia;
o 1 national youth forum on anti-Black racism;
o 21 roundtables; and
o an online questionnaire on racism and discrimination, open to people in Canada.

• In coordinating federal action and driving the overall Anti-Racism Strategy 2024-2028, the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat works with federal departments and agencies to address the effects of systemic racism and discrimination. This entails helping federal institutions to identify and develop responsive initiatives, identifying gaps, assisting in developing new initiatives, and considering the impacts of new and existing policies, services and programs on Indigenous Peoples, Black, racialized communities and religious minorities.

If Pressed (underrepresented groups)
• Improved economic inclusion in the labour force through:
o Investments of $84.2 million over four years to double funding for the Union Training and Innovation Program to target more participation from women, Indigenous people, newcomers, persons with disabilities, and Black and racialized communities in Canada.
o Investments of $144.2 million in the Indigenous Skills and Employment Training Program in 2021-22 to increase support for Indigenous youth, persons with disabilities, and clients living out of territory and urban areas, as well as to enhance capacity of service delivery organizations and expand the Indigenous Labour Market Information Survey and Skills Inventory Pilot.
o Established the Women in Construction fund with allocated funding of $10 Million; the Apprenticeship Incentive Grant for Women with $19.9 Million over 5-years for a pilot project; and the Women’s Employment Readiness Pilot Program which has funding of $14.9 Million for 2023-2024.

KEY QUOTES / CITATIONS

“Black Canadian communities have played and continue to play an important role in building a strong and resilient Canada, despite experiencing continued systemic challenges and racism. By continuing to empower Black communities and the work they do to promote inclusiveness, we are bringing positive outcomes and changes that will ensure a more inclusive Canada where no one is left behind.”– The Honourable Karina Gould, former Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

" Our government recognizes the systemic barriers that Black communities continue to face, and we are committed to ensuring that the Black-Led Philanthropic Endowment Fund provides direct supports to Black-led charities and non-profit organizations across the country. We will continue to build on our progress toward a more inclusive and more equitable Canada where no one is left behind."– Former Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, Ahmed Hussen
"The Foundation for Black Communities (FFBC) is honoured to be entering into negotiations to administer the historic Black-led Philanthropic Endowment Fund with the Government of Canada. Now, more than ever, it's critical to invest in Black communities to create a more equitable system and break through the barriers that have challenged Black communities in Canada for generations. We are committed to ensuring this investment directly benefits Black Canadians across our nation and empowers transformational, community-led change. We are excited to work collaboratively with Black-led organizations to advance projects through the endowment and improve economic and social outcomes for Black communities."
– Gladys Ahovi, President and CEO of Foundation for Black Communities