Where
CanadaStandsA Sustainable Development Goals
Progress Report

The British Columbia Council for International Cooperation is a network of civil society
organizations and individuals moving toward a better world based in British Columbia,
Canada. Through coordinating this report, BCCIC hopes to contribute informed
and reputable voices from civil society into the critical debate on Canada's role indeveloping and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
For more information on BCCIC or this report, go to: bccic.ca/HLPF2017
Or contact us:#550 - 425 Carrall Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 6E3
Phone 604-899-4475

Produced with the support of Global Affairs Canada. All intellectual content including omissions anderrors remains the responsibility and property of the BC Council for International Cooperation.

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ABO U T
BC C I C

The British Columbia Council for International Cooperation (BCCIC) is a coalition of international
development and civil society organizations that has engaged in sustainable development andsocial justice issues for over a quarter century. BCCIC supports its more than 100 members inbecoming more effective agents of change in their global cooperation efforts by disseminatingknowledge gained through collaborative projects, building relationships across different sectors
and networks, and developing the capacity of international development practitioners. BCCIC
represents members’ interests and advances policy recommendations on provincial, national
and international issues and the enabling role of civil society in these areas. BCCIC’s vision is toengage British Columbians in global cooperation for a just, equitable, and sustainable world;
its mission is to provide members and others in BC with networking, information sharing, andlearning opportunities that facilitate cooperation to achieve global development goals and increase
public awareness of, and support for, global development. BCCIC is registered as a charitableorganization in Canada and and receives core operating support from the Government of Canada,
provided through Global Affairs Canada, and from membership dues. The Council receives projectfunding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Kenoli Foundation.

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FOR E WO R D
By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem moremanageable and less remote, we can help all people to see it,to draw hope from it and to move irresistibly towards it.
- Former US President John F. Kennedy (1963)
Adopting the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was an historic moment for our global
community. All 193 Member States of the United Nations unanimously endorsed a broad, universal agenda to end
poverty, fight inequality and protect the environment by 2030. Looking forward, the success of the 2030 Agenda depends
on national action and international cooperation, where every country commits to achieving the goals through a set ofmeasurable targets and meaningful indicators.
Where Canada Stands is the first step by Canadian civil society to assess Canada’s progress toward fulfilling its 2030
Agenda commitments. While Canada is not submitting a Voluntary National Review (VNR) at the 2017 High Level Political
Forum (HLPF), this report aims to provide a national snapshot of the SDGs under review this year from a civil society
perspective.
This multi-thematic assessment sheds light on the leadership that Canada has already shown, but also the difficulty
inherent in translating a global set of goals to national and subnational action. Canada is the second largest country
in the world and recognized as a peaceful and industrious democracy with a high degree of regional variability. Such
conditions can make it difficult to capture progress toward a global goal intended to cover developed, developing, andtransition economies.
This report takes into account the gaps between the global framework and the national and regional realities, but at thesame time focuses on providing strategic recommendations for implementation of the SDGs in Canada. The report also
provides practical suggestions for the development of national and subnational indicators to track progress toward thegoals.
One of the unique features of this report is that it gives voice to a broad and diverse range of Canadians living andworking with these issues. Such diverse representation brings with it diverse recommendations for solutions and you
may therefore find expert advice that will seem at odds with each other. Whether it is changing individual values andbehaviours, or focusing on systemic change and evolving cultural norms, we at BCCIC believe that all the recommended
solutions presented in this report hold value and that together they can provide a multifaceted approach to sustainable
development.
This report builds on BCCIC’s publication of Keeping Score, which takes a BC perspective on the SDGs, and Keeping
Track, which proposes a suite of indicators to track progress on the goals. It also builds on an extensive regional tour
that involved 52 community roundtable meetings across the province and led to the publication of The Invisible Mosaic
report of findings, as well as the development of a digital map that supports community engagement around the SDGs.
I am confident that Where Canada Stands is a timely and useful contribution that will provide guidance to the Governmentof Canada on their path toward a more sustainable future for all Canadians.

Deborah Glaser
Senior Policy Analyst
British Columbia Council forInternational Cooperation

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TABL E O F
CONTENTS
Sustainable Development Goals

6

Executive Summary

7

Report Limitations and SDG Strategy for Canada

9

Acknowledgements

11

Cross-cutting Themes

12

Goal 1

14

Goal 2

26

Goal 338

Goal 550

Goal 962

Goal 1474

Goal 1786

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S US TA I N A BLE
DE VE LO P M EN T GOALSThe United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs), also known as the “Global Goals”,
are a framework of 17 goals that aim to address
the world’s environmental, social, economic,
and security challenges. Unprecedented innature, these new goals are:•••universal: the goals apply in every country,
including Canada
integrated: achievement of any goal islinked to the achievement of all the others
aspirational: acknowledging the needto move past business as usual and seek
transformative solutions

Some say the goals are unrealistic, there are too
many and the expectations are too high. Can wereally eradicate poverty everywhere in all of its
forms including extreme poverty in only fifteen
years? They point to too many specifics andclaim the agenda, estimated to cost trillions,will be too expensive. The entire process, theyclaim, is unrealistic. These critics fail to see the6point. The SDGs were developed from the bottom up,
across the entire planet over a period of years, based
not on what is realistic in our time but on what our
species aspires to. When we first proposed walking
on the moon it must have seemed unrealistic andexpensive. The SDGs are a dream statement, not ofwhat we can currently accomplish but what we must
accomplish. Like a stretch goal it is a statement about
imagination and hope and what our vision should bein its purest form. Anything less is a disservice to future
generations. Worrying about cost is to miss the point.
The original motivation for international cooperationand the UN itself is wrapped in the history of conflict.
War is more expensive than peace and without thefoundations of sustainable development we risk thismore expensive option. We easily find the motivation
today to spend trillions in regional conflicts. Finding
trillions to solve our greatest challenges to life on thisplanet is a matter of perspective and motivation. The
SDGs provide the visionary framework for us to movetoward this better world.

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E X E C U T I VE
S UM M ARY
Relative to the global context, Canada does
well on most Sustainable Development Goals(SDG) outcomes, ranking 13th out of 149
countries in the 2016 SDG Index. However,Canada must develop nationally-appropriate
SDG indicators better able to assess the
Canadian context.
BCCIC analyzed national quantitative data
against the United Nations global indicatorsand interviewed 15 experts from 12 civilsociety organizations (CSOs) across Canada
in an effort to provide a snapshot of Canadianperformance on the seven SDGs under review
at HLPF 2017. Combining this analysis with six
case studies of individuals and CSOs living andworking with these issues, our research showsthat Canada has a long way to go before it canclaim that “no one is left behind.”
There are 4.9 million people in Canada living
in poverty. As of 2012, more than 4 million
people lived in households that experienced
food insecurity, which led to higher rates ofchronic disease. In recent years, outcomes
related to violence against women andwomen’s economic participation have not
improved substantially. Canadian infrastructureis also aging and needs to be replaced withsustainable infrastructure, while Canada
has achieved only 1% of the 10% target ofconserving coastal and marine areas.
These aggregate findings mask the stark
regional and demographic variation in progress
toward SDG targets among Canadians. Rather,vulnerable minorities and those living in remoteand rural communities face more adversity
than the average Canadian, underscoring that
Canada’s SDG indicators must report at the
sub-national level to capture the diversity ofexperiences within Canada.

Exemplifying the stark inequalities within Canada,
Canada’s national child poverty rate is 18.5%, while
19.8% of all children in the province of British
Columbia live in poverty. This rate climbs to 60% forFirst Nations children living on-reserve nationallyand 76% of First Nations children living on-reservein Manitoba. On average, Indigenous people facehigher rates of poverty and food insecurity, poorer
health outcomes, and a lack of access to adequate
infrastructure. Further, LGBTQ2+ people, refugees
and immigrants, people with disabilities, children andyouth, and individuals struggling with mental illness
continue to be particularly vulnerable.
Understanding this regional and demographic
inequality highlights that all governments in Canada
must implement policies and programs developed
to ensure equitable outcomes, not only equality ofaccess. This will require improved data collection,
monitoring, and evaluation on social, economic, andenvironmental indicators.
Yet, even national rates of poverty remain unacceptably
high, especially as poverty fundamentally hinders
attaining the other SDGs. Experts explicitly linked
poverty to food insecurity, poor health andwellbeing, continued gender inequality, inadequate
infrastructure, and a lack of access to vital marine
resources. Making these connections, it is apparent
that all policy action and programing must be
developed through an integrated approach. Only in
breaking down departmental silos and jurisdictional
delineations can discontinuity in care and differential
spending that structurally under-resources the social
safety net for some be overcome.
Despite these challenges, there is cause for cautious
optimism with Canada’s commitment to implement
the National Poverty Reduction Strategy, the National
Food Policy, the National Housing Strategy, theNational Strategy Against Gender-Based Violence,and the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy.

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All of these plans are required to incorporatea gender focus with the new Gender-Based
Analysis + lens. This progressive frameworkbuilds upon Canada’s Feminist International
Assistance Policy, which considers all policy andprogramming through a lens that promotes
the rights of women and girls. Moreover, therecent passing of Bill C-16, which makes illegal
discrimination against transgender people,
shows that Canada is making progress towards
attaining equality for all.

These national strategies and commitments are also
being developed through extensive consultation
processes, exemplifying Canada’s commitment tobuilding meaningful and deep partnerships among
all governments within Canada, the private sector,
and stakeholder citizens. These plans and processes
illustrate that the Trudeau government is alreadymaking an effort to integrate the SDG framework intoa Canadian agenda in order to achieve the global
goals. With this step, there is promise that Canada
is, in fact, ‘back’ as a leader in ensuring equality andsustainability on the global stage.

References

Government of Canada. (2017). Canada’s feminist international
assistance policy. Retrieved from: http://international.gc.ca/worldmonde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/prioritiespriorites/policy-politique.aspx?lang=eng

Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions
Network. (2016). SDG Index & Dashboard. Retrieved from:https://www.dropbox.com/s/gy2zmh9065v0mr5/SDG_Index_
Dashboard_full.pdf?dl=0
Canada Without Poverty. (2017). Just the facts. Retrieved from:http://www.cwp-csp.ca/poverty/just-the-facts
First Call - BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition. (2016). 2016
BC child poverty report card. Retrieved from: http://still1in5.ca/
wp-content/uploads/2016/11/2016-BC-Child-Poverty-ReportCard.pdf
First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada. (2016).
Canadian human rights tribunal hearing. Retrieved from:https://fncaringsociety.com/i-am-witness8

Just the Facts. (2017). Retrieved from http://www.cwp-csp.ca/poverty/
just-the-facts/
Macdonald, D., & Wilson, D. (2016, May). Shameful neglect - Indigenous
child poverty in Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.policyalternatives.
ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2016/05/
Indigenous_Child%20_Poverty.pdf
PROOF Food Insecurity Policy Research. (2017). Monitoring Food
Insecurity in Canada. Retrieved from http://proof.utoronto.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2016/06/monitoring-factsheet.pdf
United Nations. (2016). The Sustainable Development Goals Report.
Retrieved from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2016/leaving-no-onebehind

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Towa rd a n S D G S tra tegy
fo r C a n a d a
We urge the government to create acomprehensive strategy to measure Canada’s
progress on the SDGs. In addition to the goalspecific recommendations outlined within thisreport, the indicator strategy should include thefollowing intersecting elements:
•

•

•

•

•
•

Quantitative indicators specific to Canada’s
context that go beyond the scope of the
UN indicators and qualitative indicators that
capture diverse experiences and contextual
information.
Community-level measurements that reveal
a fuller picture of regional and demographic
variation in Canada, with specific attention tocollecting data about the unique challenges
faced by First Nations, Inuit, and Métis
communities.
Indicators to track progress on implementing
the TRC Calls to Action and UNDRIP. Seethese resources from Indigenous Navigatoron UNDRIP indicators and connecting
UNDRIP to the SDGs.
Indicators relevant to Canada’s mostmarginalized groups, including: LGBTQ2+
people (extending goal 5 beyond thegender binary); refugees and immigrants;
individuals with disabilities; children andyouth in government care; individuals in
the criminal justice system; and individuals
struggling with mental illness.
Consultation with stakeholders on thedevelopment of indicators, including
marginalized peoples.
A sound monitoring and evaluation
framework, so that we can fully understandthe impact of government decisions. Thisshould include evaluation of individual
programs and policies, but also track interpolicy outcomes through an integrated,complex systems lens. Please see IIED’s
series of policy briefings on effective
evaluation for the SDGs.

Report Limitations
Our report is limited by a lack of standardized data.
Much of the data we do have is aggregated suchthat it does not reflect the diversity of regionaland demographic situations in Canada. We havesupplemented UN indicator data with data more
specific to the Canadian context, but we recognizethat there may be omissions and inconsistencies inmeasurement.
Included in these omissions, we acknowledge that thescope of the report is curtailed by the limitations andglobal nature of the SDGs themselves. Notably, theSDGs presume a binary notion of gender, developing
targets that monitor discrimination against womenand girls. However, gender equality must be
inclusively defined across all genders, recognizing
progress towards attaining equality, such as therecent passing of Bill C-16 that amends the criminal
code to “add gender identity and gender expression
to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination.”
Other areas where the SDGs are lacking include - but
are not limited to - emphasizing the importance ofproviding services for good mental health, ensuring
the rights of internally and externally displaced
persons, and evaluating supports for youth in care. As
Canada develops its own indicators, these limitationsof the SDGs must be addressed and incorporated ina national reporting strategy.
We approached Indigenous experts to speak oneach of the SDGs we reviewed, keeping in mind theconsultation principle “nothing about us, withoutus.” However, while we talked to Indigenous experts
for goals 1, 3, and 14, we were not able to arrange
interviews with Indigenous experts for goals 2, 5, 9
and 17 within our timeline.
Further, many of the views expressed in the report are
the opinions of the experts we interviewed. As such,some expert views may omit certain perspectives orappear to contradict one another. However, at BCCIC

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we acknowledge the value of a plurality of
approaches to sustainable development.
SDG Progress Requires Reconciliation
We would be remiss if we did not outline thatthe lagging outcomes for Indigenous people
are largely a product of Canada’s colonialism.
The Canadian government created a systematicplan to assimilate indigenous peoples, including
taking indigenous land without permission,banning traditional culture and languages,
and placing children in residential schools

References
Indigenous Navigator. (n.d.). Indicators for monitoring the UN
Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Retrieved from:http://indigenousnavigator.org/images/Documents/Tools/
Navigator_UNDRIPIndicators.pdf
Indigenous Navigator. (n.d.). Where are Indigenous peoples'rights in the Sustainable Development Goals? Retrieved from:http://indigenousnavigator.org/images/Documents/Tools/
Navigator_UNDRIP-SDGs.pdf

10where they were abused physically, emotionally, andsexually. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC) declared that Canada’s treatment of indigenous
peoples amounted to a cultural genocide.
The federal government has expressed a commitment
to moving toward reconciliation with Indigenous
peoples, which is an improvement over previous
governments. There are a few clear steps to making
progress; namely, the government must expediently
implement the TRC’s Calls to Action and the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

International Institute for Environment and Development. (n.d.).
Effective evaluation for the Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved
from: https://www.iied.org/effective-evaluation-for-sustainabledevelopment-goals
Parliament of Canada. (2016, May 17). Bill C-16 (42-1). Retrieved from:http://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/C-16/first-reading
The Caring Society. (2016). I am a witness. Retrieved from: https://
fncaringsociety.com/i-am-witness

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ACK N OW L ED GEMEN T S

We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to all those who contributed to thecreation of this report, without whom its production would not have been possible.
Specifically, thanks must go to our expert interviewees, listed in the order theirnames appear in the report: Megan Hooft, Daniel Wilson, Erin Dej, Dr. Valerie
Tarasuk, Drew Black, Scott Ross, Amanda Meawasige, Dr. John Millar, Kate McInturff,
Anuradha Dugal, Shannon A. Joseph, Amber Giles, Dr. Kim Juniper, Fraser ReillyKing, Erin Gilchrist.
Thanks must also be extended to those interviewed for case studies, their names
appearing in the order they do in the report: Jesse Thistle, Rob Scott, Helen Scott,
Julie Lalonde, Leah Oliveira, Wendy Harris, Devlin Fernandes.
We would like to recognize the incredible hard work and dedication of BCCIC’s
two full-time Sustainable Development Research Assistants, Fiona Jones and Sadie
DeCoste, who played a leading role in the development and coordination of thisreport.
We would like to recognize, in alphabetical order, the incredible hard work anddedication of the many volunteers, interns, and staff who contributed to outreach,research, writing, design and editing of this report: Adrian McKerracher, Ariel
Mishkin, Alejandra Paramo, Ben Ross, Dan Harris, Deborah Glaser, Jeffrey Qi,
Joanne Kilinski, Joelle Moses, Kareen Wong, Laila Telawi, Michael Simpson, Navid
Helal, Paddy Chen.

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CROSS-CUTTING
THE M E S
Across the goals, the report addresses three cross-cutting themes: Indigenous rights and issues, youth
voices, and climate change. We chose these because they highlight the intersectional component of
the SDGs and emphasize three aspects of Canadian society that deserve attention and focus. For thesethree themes, our findings centred around empowerment, engagement, and action.

Indigenous Communities

Canada must build true nation-to-nation relationships between thefederal government and Indigenous communities, affirming selfgovernance structures for community-led change.

Youth
Youth must be recognized as a vulnerable population and their
voices universally included in decision-making.

Environment

All levels of government must consider the climate impacts ofeach policy to ensure long-term resiliency and sustainability.

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Where Canada Stands: A Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report
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N O P OV E R T Y
End poverty in all its forms everywhere

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Ta r g ets
1.1

By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people
living on less than $1.25 a day

1. 2

By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living
in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions

1. 3

Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including
floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable

1. 4

By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, haveequal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control
over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate newtechnology and financial services, including microfinance

1. 5

By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their
exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social andenvironmental shocks and disasters

1. A

Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including throughenhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable meansfor developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes
and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions

1. B

Create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on
pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment inpoverty eradication actions

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Over vi ew
The first of the UN SDGs aims to “end poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030.” This is an ambitious,
multifaceted goal, as exhibited by its comprehensive aims “to ensure social protection for the poor andvulnerable, increase access to basic services and support people harmed by climate-related extreme
events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters”.
This integrated approach to poverty complements the calls from the experts interviewed for a holistic
understanding of poverty in Canada, while the goal’s universality emphasizes the vitality of addressing
the uneven distribution of poverty within Canada. In order to address these inequalities, poverty - andits related social impacts - must be framed as issues of human rights, understanding poverty reduction
as justice.

Fa c tsheet
•
•

•

16

According to the ILO, it would cost 249 million
USD to eradicate poverty in Canada, which isonly 0.01% of the GDP.
Although Canada does not have a National
Poverty Line, a household is at the thresholdof poverty if it is expected to spend 20% moreof their income on basic necessities than the
average household. By this measure, 8.8% of
Canadians live below the Low Income CutOff (LICO). Canada Without Poverty, basing
its estimates on the Low Income Measure,finds that 1 in 7 or 4.9 million Canadians livein poverty.
Only 40.5% of the unemployed populationis covered by social insurance, falling behindcountries like Germany, where 88% of theunemployed population receive benefits.
For workers with disabilities, the process toreceive a disability pension can be lengthy
and there is a high denial rate. It is estimatedthat only 52.3% of those who file a disability
pension application receive approval, often
after several dispute resolutions.

4.9
Million Canadians
1 in 7 Live in Poverty

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Data Source: Canada
Without Poverty

Data Source:TV Ontario

1 in
5

•

are children•

99% of Canadians have access to reliable andaffordable electricity, water and sanitation.
However, 200,000 people living in remotecommunities, mainly First Nations, still lackthese services.

•

Under formal treaties, Indigenous Peoples
own only 7.09% of Canada’s land (communitybased tenure) and 36.7% of the country’s area
is considered “designated”. On designated land,
Indigenous Peoples have some level of control,
but lack the full legal means to secure landclaims. With regard to full ownership, Canada is
below most countries with sizeable indigenous
populations.
Public Social Spending in Canada is 17% of GDP,
which is significantly below the OECD countries’
average of 22%.

How are we doin g ?
Introduction
Even with the many challenges associated withdefining poverty in Canada experts Erin Dej of
the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness,
Megan Hooft of Canada Without Poverty, andDaniel Wilson, Special Advisor to the Assemblyof First Nations and research associate with theCanadian Center for Policy Alternatives, arecautiously optimistic for the fruits of Canadianefforts to end poverty nationally. Collectively, theydraw attention to the need to re-frame poverty
and homelessness, shifting our understanding of
its causes and effects to a more integrated andcomprehensive definition.

on reserves in Manitoba, 76% of children live inpoverty, states Wilson.
These staggering rates of poverty, coupled with its
disproportionate demographic and geographicaldistribution, may begin to explain why the experts
interviewed on health, hunger, gender equality, andinfrastructure all cited poverty as a root cause of theissues they are working to address. But, with poverty
embedded across the Sustainable Development
Goals, it is difficult to even know what poverty is.

Poverty as a Human Right

Where is Poverty?
Hooft states that nearly five million people in
Canada live in poverty, representing one outof every seven Canadians. But, for Indigenous
children, this rate rises to 50%, a number that only
grows to 60% for status First Nations children
living on a reserve. For status First Nations living

In answering the question of what poverty is, Hooft
states that “poverty is a violation of human rights,”
but one that often goes unrecognized. Dej and Hooft
respectively argue that Canada is slow to recognize
poverty and homelessness through a lens of humanrights. Dej highlights that homelessness needs to be
directly linked to the right to housing. This rights-

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based discourse moves the conversation awayfrom poverty reduction as charity, and towards
poverty reduction as justice.
Explaining the connection between poverty andrights, “when people live in poverty, they lack basic
necessities required for an adequate standard ofliving,” including income, housing, food, health,education and political freedoms. Therefore,
poverty is fundamentally interconnected withthese universally accepted as human rights
aspects, highlighting that poverty must be
addressed in economic terms and in a holistic
framework.
Taking poverty in this interconnected frame,
Hooft argues that poverty arises from a lackof systematic integration, which silos services
such that individuals leaving hospitals, prisons,and foster care lack continuity of care, as these
institutions reach the extent of their designatedresponsibility.

A Broken Social Safety Net
The consequence of segmenting care and failingto consider poverty as an interconnected humanright, leads to, in Hooft’s words, “a broken social
safety net,” one which is predicated on provinces
determining their own welfare rates that keeppeople in poverty. Exemplifying this broken safety
net, in British Columbia, “incomes for those onsocial assistance are not just below the poverty
line, but thousands of dollars below it” finds a2017 report by the Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives and United Way. This contributes tothe findings in the annual homelessness count that
3,605 people were homeless in Metro Vancouver
on March 8, 2017. In Nunavut, overcrowding rates
are disproportionately high, with 38% of social
housing tenants living in overcrowded conditions.
Yet, as Dej highlights, even this number is too
low, accepting Single Room Occupancy (SRO)
options as adequate housing, despite their18

insufficiency and insecurity. Moreover, a common
failure to recognize the signs of rural homelessness
due to the use of an urban understanding, coupledwith youth homelessness that rose with vanishinghousing affordability in the 1980s, only serve to makethe issues of poverty more invisible. Intensifying
the national statistics that 35,000 Canadians are
homeless on a given night and, over the courseof a year, at least 235,000 Canadians experience
homelessness, Dej draws attention to the fact that thefederal government has not yet committed to ending
homelessness.
Likewise failing to commit to change, Hooft draws
attention to the fact that the province of British
Columbia is the only one that has yet to table avital poverty reduction strategy, despite having thesecond highest rate of poverty of any province inCanada. In British Columbia, one of the wealthiest
provinces, 13.2% of people live in poverty, with
rates of working poverty rising. As a result of thisbroken social protection system, Hooft states thatthe province’s population faces cycles of poverty andhousing crises.

Re-defining Poverty:
Abuse and Lack of Self-Government
Also, highlighting the failure of the social protection
net for all, Wilson states that federal government
funding of education on a per student basis is lower
for Indigenous children than for their non-Indigenous
peers. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has also
issued three decisions ordering Canada to address
the disparity in child welfare funding to children on
reserve. Wilson links this with poverty, emphasizing
the universal interconnectedness implicit within an
Indigenous perspective.
But, for Wilson, UN and federal understandingsof poverty are not only narrow in their economic
emphasis, but also in their focus on the individual,
masking the lived experience of communal poverty
for Indigenous communities. Emphasising thisWhere Canada Stands: A Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report
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communal experience in rejection of the
SDG’s individualistic one, Article 1 of the UN
Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
states that “Indigenous peoples have the right tofull enjoyment, as a collective or as individuals,of all human rights….” This article exhibits aninterconnected understanding of rights-based
issues that take the community and individual inequal parts.
Therefore, Wilson states that poverty not
only afflicts the individual, but is also a denialof rights to the collective resulting fromintergenerational trauma and “ongoing abuseof communities through the denial of rights andself-determination… [associated with] the illegal
taking of land.” Resultantly, Indigenous people
are distanced from decision-making, hindering
the mechanisms of accountability. Evidently,
connecting communal alienation from land andeconomic hardship, in 9 of 10 provinces, it is illegal
to sell hunted meat, despite its traditional andcontinued cultural and livelihood significance.
Consequently, Wilson argues that Indigenous
poverty must be understood distinctly, requiring“specialized systems for First Nations that are
different from those of other Canadians becauseof the unique history and the situation that thatunique history has created for people.”

Self-governance and Accountability
Despite these challenges in defining poverty andits deep roots within the colonial experience ofCanada, Wilson notes the now common rhetoricof nation-to-nation relationship building usedby the federal government. He hopes that, if
implemented, this approach will allow for more
localized responses that return self-governanceand accountability to First Nations communities.

Moreover, the 2016 and 2017 Federal Budgets
invested $11.8 billion over six years in First Nations
communities, with education taking a big proportionof the funding. Investments in improved housing,
infrastructure, water and many other programs arealso included.
This targeted funding moves to deal with the historicalimbalance and discrimination against Indigenous
people, taking the lens of substantive equality thatis codified in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
under Section 15. Substantive equality, in contrast to‘formal equality’ wherein all laws and programs are“applied in a similar manner to all,” recognizes that“differential treatment may be necessary in order forcertain groups to achieve equal status in a society.”

Federal Progress and Hope in Plans
Both Dej and Hooft also express a hope for poverty
reduction in Canada with the promised national
Poverty Reduction Strategy that is currently in its public
consultation stage and the federal government’s
commitment to releasing a comprehensive National
Housing Strategy before the end of this year.
Supporting the housing strategy, the federal budget
for 2017 committed $11.2 billion over 11 years toaddressing homelessness by increasing housing
affordability.
This builds on the federal government’s commitment
to almost double funding from 2015/16 to 2021/22
for the Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS),a program that provides direct funding to 61
designated communities and organizations. This
funding focuses on an increased investment in
Housing First initiatives following the At Home/
Chez Soi project that provided evidence for the
success of Housing First. Exemplifying this success,Medicine Hat in the province of Alberta, has almost
eliminated homelessness by focusing on Housing
First programming.

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Provincial Leaders

Comments on the Indicators

These recent federal initiatives build upon
ambitious provincial commitments to end
homelessness in Alberta and Ontario, with the2008 Alberta government’s declaration to end
homelessness in 10 years and Ontario’s 2015
target to end chronic homelessness in 10 years.
Supporting the realization of these commitments,
the Alberta’s Seven Cities on Housing andHomelessness have been working to centralize
funding and efforts to end homelessness since2001 and Ontario announced the upcoming
launch a three-year Universal Basic Income Pilot
trial.

Indicators of poverty need to start by creating
a definition of poverty based on a rights-based
approach, leading to the creation of a holistic set ofindicators that look beyond narrow, individualistic
economic measures. These indicators must be
consistent and reliable, but allow the flexibility to see
the different local expressions of poverty. Notably,
Wilson argues that metrics of poverty must look atcollective poverty by measuring self-determinationand self-governance of Indigenous communities,
while Hooft states that “[identifying quantitative]
indicators is only half the battle.” Instead, indicators
must be based on having conversations with thoseexperiencing poverty.

Discussions are ongoing in Newfoundlandand Labrador around commitments to end
homelessness, which would further the successesof its provincial Poverty Reduction Strategy.
Since its launch in 2006, poverty in the province
has dramatically fallen from among the highest
rates in Canada to the lowest. In 2015, 38,000
fewer people lived in poverty than had a decadepreviously (2003).
But, no level of government can act alone toend poverty and its impacts, one of which ishomelessness. Dej sees a federal government
listening more to its public and Civil Society
Organizations, but cautions against tokenistic
consultations that merely slow down action. Yet,with new tools accessible to advocates, there
is reason to hope for increasing openness andtransparency. As Hooft states, the increasing
tools and spaces for stakeholder participation
enable CSOs to perform their vital role of holding
governments accountable for a poverty rate thatremains unacceptably high.

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C ro ss- C u tti ng The me s
LGBTQ+ youth make up approximately 25-40% of the total homeless youth
population1.

On average, Indigenous-identifying individuals made an income of $20,060
after-tax in 2010, compared to $27,622 for non-Indigenous-identifying people,
representing $7.562 annual income disparity2.

Re co m m end a tion s•

Frame poverty and, one of its impacts, homelessness, as issues of human right, incorporating
this framing within the upcoming national Poverty Reduction Strategy. Moreover, any definitionof poverty should recognize of the unique histories of populations across Canada that alter the
expressions and severity of local poverty.

•

Make a national commitment to ending homelessness.

•

Create definitions of poverty with associated resourced, consistent, and reliable indicators.
Indicators must include both quantitative targets and qualitative metrics predicated on sharing
the experiences of those living in all forms and stages of poverty.

•

Introduce an integrative system that focuses on homelessness prevention by breaking down
departmental silos in order to support continuity of care and reduce redundancy throughcooperation.

•

Ensure the self-determination of Indigenous Peoples as nations, recognizing the unique histories
within Canada and implementing full legal rights based on localized systems. This approachshould move governance towards a model of accountable authority at the community level,
ensuring that those impacted by decision-making have a voice in how decisions are made.

•Implement fully the articles of the UNDRIP, which Canada officially adopted in 2016. Specifically,
Canada must ensure the implementation of Article 4, which states that “Indigenous peoples, in
exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government inmatters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing theirautonomous functions.”

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C a se Stu dy

Organization/Community:
Canadian Observatory on
Homelessness
Sector: Academic Research/Poverty
Reduction/Indigenous Rights
Region/country of impact: Nation
Wide (Canada)

Historian Jesse Thistle Defines Indigenous Homelessness in Canada
Canadian Challenge that is being tackled

Current policy and funding initiatives thatprevent and respond to homelessness define
the issue within a universal, cross-Canadian lens.
While these initiatives are beneficial for certain
communities, they have not addressed the needsof many Indigenous groups, despite Indigenous
people being eight times more likely toexperience homelessness than non-Indigenous
Canadians.
Community Response

Jesse Thistle, a Metis scholar at York University,
was previously homeless on and off for ten years,
finding housing then losing. Thistle underwent
a journey from homelessness to academia thathas encouraged him to analyze how he became

22cyclically homeless and to understand what it means
to be homeless and Indigenous.
While researching at York University in 2016, Thistle
began working with the Canadian Observatory on
Homelessness (COH) as the Indigenous Partnerships
Lead to define Indigenous homelessness and tocreate more meaningful policy and practices. He had
worked with the COH since 2013 on other projects. In
drafting the definition, Thistle recognised that strong
Indigenous communities were already providing
the support and prevention services needed tocounteract homelessness, including drum circles
and programs for relearning traditional languages.
Thistle’s goal became to share Indigenous knowledge,
which led him to creating an extensive consultation

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process for his definition in collaboration withand support of COH. In 2013, he worked with
10 housing/homelessness experts to build theframework of the paper and, in 2016, consulted
with over 50 regional Indigenous and housing
scholars. In the past year, Thistle has lectured in
Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Toronto, andOttawa to deepen trust and understanding of
his definition. Currently, Thistle is now seeking
consultation and approval with Indigenous
Elders across the country.
While the traditional definition of homelessness
in Canada is composed of four typographies:
Unsheltered, Emergency Sheltered, Provisionally
Accommodated, and At Risk of Homelessness,
Thistle’s research defines 12 varying types ofhomelessness for Indigenous people, 8 ofthese categories involve displacement. Several
underlying themes of his research convey the
impact of colonialism and the consequencesof a disconnection from land, culture, andcommunity. As Thistle continues to share
his personal experiences and Indigenous
knowledge, policy makers, local organizations,and potentially other nations will have the tools

to recognize the unique defining characteristics ofhomelessness experienced by Indigenous people.
The Benefits
•
•

•
•

•
•

Thistle has been able to share Indigenous
knowledge of homelessness with the consent ofIndigenous communities.
Defining Indigenous homelessness and thecauses for homelessness, from an Indigenous
perspective,
will
empower
Indigenous
communities and the civil society sector torecognize the causes of homelessness and how
to counter it.
Academic circles in Canada can conduct further
research based on the provided definition.
Thistle’s work highlights Indigenous women’s
homelessness that is associated with higher
rates of violence than for their non-Indigenous
counterparts.
This research counters the one-solution-fits-all
attitude in tackling poverty and homelessness in
Canada.
Federal and provincial policy and practices
should have a clearer understanding of thespecific strategies needed to combat Indigenous
homelessness.

Re fe rences

1. CBC News. (2013, June 19). 30,000 Canadians are homeless every night - Canada - CBC News. Retrieved fromhttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/30-000-canadians-are-homeless-every-night-1.1413016
2. Statistics Canada (2015). Income, Statistics Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89645-x/2015001/income-revenu-eng.html
BC Non-Profit Housing Association, & M. Thomson Consulting. (2017, March 31). 2017 Homeless Count inMetro Vancouver. Retrieved from:http://www.metrovancouver.org/services/regional-planning/homelessness/
HomelessnessPublications/2017MetroVancouverHomelessCountPreliminaryData.pdf
Broadbent Institute. (2016, January 26). The government of Canada is failing First Nations children. Retrieved
from: http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/fn_chrt
Canada Without Poverty. (2017, July 5). Human Rights and Poverty Reduction Strategies A Guide to International
Human Rights Law and its Domestic Application in Poverty Reduction Strategies. Retrieved from: http://www.
cwp-csp.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/FINAL-Human-Rights-Guide-August-2015.pdf
Canada Without Poverty. (2017, July 5). Just the Facts. Retrieved from:http://www.cwp-csp.ca/poverty/just-thefacts/
Canadian Centre for Policy Initiatives. (2017). Behind the Numbers. The Federal Role in Poverty Reduction.
Retrieved from: http://behindthenumbers.ca/2017/02/15/federal-role-poverty-reduction/
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Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (2012). Canadian Definition of Homelessness. Retrieved from: http://homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/COHhomelessdefinition.pdf
Chan, J. (2017, March 30). Federal budget 2017 - homelessness partnering strategy funding. Retrieved from:http://calgaryhomeless.com/blog/federal-budget-2017-homeless-partnering-strategy-funding/Drummond, D., & Kachuck Rosenbluth, E. (2013). The debate on First Nations education funding: Mind the gap.
Retrieved from: https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/bitstream/handle/1974/14846/Drummond_et_al_2013_
Debate_on_First_Nations.pdf;jsessionid=3E588380F435A25C2A9758C28A27CDAB?sequence=1
Gaetz, S., Dej, E., Richter, T., & Redman, M. (2016). The state of homelessness in Canada 2016. Canadian
Observatory on Homelessness Press. Retrieved from: http://homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/SOHC16_
final_20Oct2016.pdf
Government of Canada. (2016, November 28). Homelessness strategy. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/
en/employment-social-development/programs/communities/homelessness.html
Government of Canada. (2016, August 23). Understanding homelessness and the homelessness strategy.
Retrieved from: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/communities/
homelessness/understanding.html
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. (2005, June 10). ￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼
Reducing poverty in
Newfoundland and Labrador. Retrieved from: https://www.gov.nl.ca/publicat/povertydiscussion-final.pdf
Government of Ontario. (2015, August 24). Ending homelessness in Ontario. Retrieved from: https://www.
ontario.ca/page/ending-homelessness-ontario
Hope for the Sold. (2014). Ensuring the Success Canada’s New Prostitution Law Part 1: Addressing Poverty.
Retrived from: http://hopeforthesold.com/ensuring-the-success-canadas-new-prostitution-law-part-1addressing-poverty/
ILO. (2013). World Social Protection Report 2014-15: Building Economic Recovery, Inclusive Development andSocial Justice. Retrieved from: http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/multimedia/maps-and-charts/lang--en/index.htm
International Labor Organization. (2016). How Much Will it Cost to Eliminate Poverty?. Retrieved from: http://
www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/multimedia/maps-and-charts/enhanced/WCMS_481048/lang--en/index.htm
Klein, S., Ivanova, I., & Leyland, A. (2017, January). Long Overdue: Why BC Needs a Poverty Reduction Plan.
Retrieved from:https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/BC%20Office/2017/01/
ccpa-bc_long-overdue-poverty-plan_web.pdf
Macdonald, D., & Wilson, D. (2016, May). Shameful Neglect. Retrieved from: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/
sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2016/05/Indigenous_Child%20_Poverty.pdf
Medicine Hat Community Housing. (2015). The plan to end homelessness. Retrieved from: http://www.mhchs.ca/
housing-development/the-plan-end-homelessness/
Newfoundland Labrador Canada. (2015, October 16). Newfoundland and Labrador has lowest level of poverty in
Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2015/exec/1016n01.aspx
Nunavut Housing Corporation . (2016, March 23). Nunavut Housing Corporation’s Appearance before theStanding Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples - March 23, 2016. Retrieved from: http://assembly.nu.ca/

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sites/default/files/TD%20158-4(3)%20EN%20Nunavut%20is%20Facing%20a%20Severe%20Housing%20Crisis.
pdf
Parliament of Canada. (2014, September 11). Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: The
development of the Supreme Court of Canada’s approach to equality rights under the Charter. Retrieved from:https://lop.parl.ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublications/2013-83-e.htm?cat=law#a4
Patrick, Caryl (2014). Aboriginal Homelessness in Canada: A Literature Review. The Homeless Hub Report Series(6). 1-80. Retrieved from: http://www.homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/AboriginalLiteratureReview.pdf
Rabble. (2012). Access to Water on Canada’s Reserves. Retrieved from: http://rabble.ca/news/2012/03/
reservations-about-water-canadas-reserves; The Council of Canadians. (2017). 1 in 4 People in First Nations
Reserves May Lack Clean Water, Says Council of Canadians. Retreived from: https://canadians.org/media/1-4people-first-nations-reserves-may-lack-clean-water-says-council-canadians
Resolute Legal. (2015). Cpp Disability Approval Rates Explained. Retrieved from: https://resolutelegal.ca/cppdisability-approval-rates-2015/
Rights and Resources Initiative. (2015). Who Owns The World’s Land? A Global Baseline of Formally RecognizedIndigenous and Community Land Rights. Retrieved from: http://www.rightsandresources.org/wp-content/
uploads/GlobalBaseline_web.pdf
Statistics Canada. (2011). Persons in low income after tax (In percent, - 2007 to 2011). Retrieved from: http://www.
statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/famil19a-eng.htm?sdi=low%20income
Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. (2016). Retrieved from: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/
sdg1
The Alberta Secretariat For Action On Homelessness. (2008, October). Ending homelessness in 10 years.
Retrieved from: http://www.humanservices.alberta.ca/documents/PlanForAB_Secretariat_final.pdf
The Conference Board of Canada. (2016). Canadians Living in Remote Communities Lack Access to Affordable
and Reliable Electricity. Retrieved from: http://www.conferenceboard.ca/press/newsrelease/16-09-27/canadians_
living_in_remote_communities_lack_access_to_affordable_and_reliable_electricity.aspx
United Nations. (2007). United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Retrieved from: http://
www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf

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Z ER O HU N GER
End hunger, achieve food security andimproved nutrition and promote sustainableagriculture

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Ta r g ets
By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in

2 .1 vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round2.2

By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationallyagreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address thenutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons

2.3

By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers,
in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including
through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge,
financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment

2.4

By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural
practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, thatstrengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding
and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality

2.5

By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed anddomesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed
and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, andpromote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization ofgenetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed

2.A

Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural
infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development andplant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity indeveloping countries, in particular least developed countries

2.B

Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including
through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export
measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development
Round

Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and2 . C their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on foodreserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility

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Over vi ew
SDG 2 “aims to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030. It also commits to universal
access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food at all times of the year. This will require sustainable foodproduction systems and resilient agricultural practices, equal access to land, technology and markets
and international cooperation on investments in infrastructure and technology to boost agricultural
productivity.”
In Canada, goal two pertains to two main dimensions: food insecurity and sustainable agriculture. A
product of poverty in Canada, more than 4 million people experienced household food insecurity in2012. With regard to agriculture, Canada’s strong agricultural sector has a role to play in sustainably
feeding the world’s growing populations.

Fa c tsheet
•

•

28

The most recent national estimate reveals
that, in 2012, 8.6% of Canadian households
were moderately or severely foodinsecure. However, a more comprehensive
estimate
indicates
that
12.6%
of
households experience food insecurity.
Undernourishment is considerably higher inNorthern Canada, especially in Indigenous
communities. 70% of Inuit preschoolers livein food insecure households and 60% havegone a day without eating.
In Canada, several indicators are used toassess the sustainability of agriculture.
The latest report shows two recent trends
in Canadian agricultural production:
consolidation of farmland into fewer farms,
and increasing intensity of production on
those farms. In addition, soil quality has
improved over the last 30 years, primarily
due to improvements in land management
practices. However, the Wildlife Habitat on
Farmland Indicator has deteriorated since1986, primarily due to the loss of naturaland semi-natural land dedicated to crop
production.

Household food insecurity
by province & territory

24.1%

46.8%

11.4%

10.6%

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11.9%

11.6%

15.1%

15.2%
15.4%

Data Source: PROOF

••Since 2006, beef herd size has been declining,
thereby increasing the sustainability offarming, linked closely to the steady decline
in the number of dairy cows between 1981
and 2011. Over the three decades, there
was a 46% drop attributed to the dramaticincrease in milk production per cow.
Total official flows (Official Development
Assistance plus other official flows) tothe agriculture sector reached US $273.1
million (Total ODA) in 2015. In terms of GDP
percentage, Canada contributed 0.018% ofGDP, compared to the US, which contributed
0.0082% of its GDP.

Household Food Insecurity in Canada
5.5%

2.7%

3.7%
88.0%

•

•

In 2015, Canada directed $81.2 million USD
towards the subsidy of agricultural exports. In thesame year, WTO members agreed that developed
countries should eliminate agricultural export
subsidies, as they allow export countries togain market share in developing countries anddiminish the competitiveness of local producers.
The national indicator for evaluating the cost of amarket basket of consumer goods is the Consumer
Price Index (CPI). In March 2017, the CPI indicateda decline of -1.9% in food prices compared toMarch 2016. The average CPI change for the last
five years has been +2.2% per year, indicating
an overall increase in food prices. According to
Oxfam, “on average, Canadians spend less than
10% percent of their income on food. However,people living in poverty spend 50% and thepoorest as much as 75% of their income on food.”

Severe Food Insecurity
Moderate Food Insecurity
Marginal Food Insecurity
Food Secure

Data Source: PROOF

How are we doin g ?
Introduction

Discussing the goal of “zero hunger,” all threeexperts interviewed emphasize the vitality ofpolicy-making as a tool for increasing foodsecurity and resiliency. Dr. Valerie Tarasuk – aProfessor at the University of Toronto and theLead investigator at PROOF, an interdisciplinary
research team that investigates food insecurity
in Canada - states that to “end hunger, achieve
food security and improved nutrition” requires
understanding food insecurity as a structuralproblem, addressed only through increasing incomes
and centering food security in all policy-making.
Addressing the goal’s call to “promote sustainableagriculture,” both Drew Black – the Director ofEnvironment and Science Policy at the CanadianFederation of Agriculture (CFA) – and Scott Ross the Director of Business Risk Management at CFA state that agricultural policy must incentivize carbon
sequestration and emissions reduction to prevent
further climate change.

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Food Insecurity as a Structural Problem
PROOF defines food insecurity as “inadequate
or insecure access to food due to financial
constraints.” In 2012, the Canadian Community
Health Survey found that 12.6% of households
in Canada were food insecure. This percentage
represents more than 4 million people, a numberthat increased by 600,000 from 2007. However
striking these numbers, they are underestimatesas the survey did not include homeless individuals
or those living on First Nations reserves or Armed
Forces bases.
Analysing these statistics, Dr. Valerie Tarasuk,
PROOF’s lead investigator, states that there is
a common misconception that food banks andcommunity initiatives can solve hunger. Rather,
she notes that food insecurity is a structuralissue that must be addressed through policy
interventions targeting inadequate incomes.
Stressing that the primary predictor of foodinsecurity is household income, Tarasuk statesthat social assistance programs can help people
living on a low income become more food secure.
However, she stresses that these programs areusually based on inadequate income rates.
As a result, two-thirds of households on social
assistance remain food insecure.
Despite the large scale and increasing severity offood insecurity, Canada has no policy to directly
target the issue at the provincial or federal
level. Dr. Tarasuk would like to see government
policies include explicit targets to address foodinsecurity. Notably, the Canada Child Benefit
is a policy that should have included a foodinsecurity dimension to ensure that families
receive enough and adequate food. A policy
designed to consider food insecurity would
ensure that people receive sufficient money topurchase food and would need to be monitored
regularly to track and ensure its effectiveness.
Due to the industrial scale of most Canadian30

agricultural production, the agriculture componentof Goal 2 relates less directly to national hunger
than it may in other countries. However, the FAO
has identified that there will be more than 9.2 billion
people on Earth to feed by 2050, with fewer resources
owing to the increasing impacts of climate change.
A study anticipates that climate change will reduce
global harvest productivity and predictability in the
future especially in areas near the equator. Conversely,
as global temperatures warm, more cultivable land
will be freed up in Canada. Thus, as Drew Black notes,
Canada is well placed to supply more food to theworld during future times of uncertainty.

Canada’s Role in Climate Change
Mitigation Through Agriculture
As Canada’s agricultural sector grows, so will its
greenhouse gas emissions. Drew Black, considers
necessary to incentivize agricultural practices andinvest in innovative technologies -- such as CO2
sequestration -- that will reduce GHG emissions.
Moreover, he emphasizes the importance of ensuringthat Canada’s carbon pricing will not disincentivize
the growth of the agricultural industry as the cost of
production rises. The world will need more food andso we should be looking at the carbon intensity whenit comes to agricultural products, not total emissions
as with other industries. As such, Black advocatesfor support for farm producers to adjust to carbon
pricing. For example, in BC, greenhouse growers
get a yearly 80% rebate on the carbon tax elementof natural gas use. Black would like to see similar
programs rolled out in other provinces to maintainthe competitiveness of the Canadian agriculturalindustry. If the Canadian agricultural sector does notremain competitive, agricultural production could
move to other countries, where its carbon lifecycle
could be more damaging to the world on average.

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Regional and Demographic Variation
The most severe rates of food insecurity arefound among individuals on social assistance.
The majority of people on social assistanceexperience some level food insecurity, whichindicates that social assistance programs are notproviding sufficient income for their recipientsto access adequate food. Indigenous peoples,
especially members of First Nations, are also at
higher risk than the average Canadian of foodinsecurity.
In Nunavut, 46.8% of households experienced
food insecurity in 2014 - the highest rate in
Canada. In 2014, 60% of children in Nunavut
were living in food insecure households. The
rest of the territories and the Maritimes also haverelatively high rates of food insecurity.

drop in food insecurity after the introduction of theirprovincial Poverty Reduction Strategy, although levels
have started to increase again.
Canada is currently in consultation for a National Food
Policy (NFP), which aims to “set a long-term vision forthe health, environmental, social, and economic goals
related to food.” The NFP provides the opportunity
to strategize on addressing food insecurity at thenational level.
On the food production side, Drew Black emphasizes
the need to align across government departments inorder for the NFP to meet targets for growth in the
agricultural sector.
Canada has also adopted the Federal Sustainable“The National Food Policy will provide a broader
mandate surrounding agrifood to coordinate
across government departments with a common
vision to avoid obstacles to agricultural trade
With regard to agriculture, Scott Ross believes and growth.”– Drew Black
there is potential to see more young people andwomen entering the industry. The agricultural
workforce is aging, with an average age of 55
for farmers. This average parallels that of theself-employed workforce, indicating that an
aging workforce is a general population trend
in Canada. Scott also notes that there is $100
billion in farm debt to be transferred between
generations, which presents a barrier to entry
that could place particular pressure on younger
generations if interest rates were to rise.

Incremental Progress
Dr. Tarasuk cites an increase in food insecurity
as proof that Canada has not progressed on
addressing Goal 2. However, she underscoresthat a few specific programs have madeincremental improvements. For example, theCanada Pension Plan has partially mitigated therisk of food insecurity among seniors, though it
was not designed with food insecurity in mind.
Further, Newfoundland and Labrador saw a

Development Strategy comprising a number ofsustainable food and agricultural initiatives suchas funding for agricultural genomics research andthe expansion and reshaping of the Nutrition North
program which subsidizes food purchases in remote
Northern communities.
The government is implementing several othersustainableagricultural
programs,
includingroundtables for sustainability analysis of commodities
and information for agricultural producers on theenvironmental impacts of their operations. Black
describes ‘no-till’ technology as having high potential
for carbon sequestration, erosion reduction, andwater quality improvement.
The Barton Report, as Drew Black points out, identifies
promising economic sectors in Canada, as goodnews for the agricultural sector. The report highlights
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as a key area forstrategic investment.

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Comments on the Indicators
Dr. Tarasuk outlines the need for greater
conceptualization around how the SDGs pertain
to affluent countries. In efforts to compare foodinsecurity issues on a global scale, we cannot
become dismissive of our significant foodinsecurity problem.
Dr. Tarasuk does not see the UN indicators fortargets 2.1-2.2 as relevant to measuring hunger
in Canada. Undernourishment, stunting, andwasting are not prevalent health problems in
Canada. Moreover, she believes the Household
Food Insecurity Module is a more robust measurethan the Food Insecurity Experience Scale. She
notes that we must also pay attention to marginal
rather than only moderate and severe foodinsecurity, because individuals experiencing
even marginal food insecurity have different
socioeconomic and health outcomes than foodsecure individuals.
Scott Ross, the Director of Business Risk
Management at CFA, is concerned with how
Producer Support Estimates (PSEs) are calculated
for target 2.B in the OECD data. He notes that
70% of Canada’s PSEs are tied up with supply
management, largely in the dairy industry. Thus,
the PSE would suggest that a disproportionately
high subsidy is taking place, whereas in reality aninaccurate factoring in of supply management
leads to a skewed figure relative to other support
programs that exist. Ross also notes that he would
like to see more data on labour productivity,
especially at the sub-industry level.

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C ro s s- Cu tti ng The me s
Approximately 850,000 Canadians turn to a food bank at some point each month– more than a third are children & youth1.

“Aboriginal households in Canada are more likely than non-Aboriginal
households to experience the sociodemographic risk factors associated withhousehold food insecurity (e.g. extreme poverty, single-motherhood, living in arental accommodation, and reliance on social assistance)2.”

Re co m m end a tion s
•
•
•
•

•
•
•

Make household food insecurity reduction an explicit policy priority.
Integrate food insecurity reduction targets into all new federal and provincial social policies,
including the upcoming Poverty Reduction Strategy and National Food Policy.
Prioritize funding for equitable social assistance over funding expansions of food banks.
Ensure that the National Food Policy’s consultations are meaningful, incorporating the viewsof all stakeholders, including industry leaders, CSOs, provincial governments, Indigenous
groups, and researchers. Consultations must not be confined to Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada.
Encourage a strong Agri-Food growth agenda by considering findings of the Barton Report.
Mitigate climate change by using sustainable agricultural practices,such as reducing
emissions, sequestering carbon, managing carbon pricing, and ensuring continued accessto global markets.
Increase funding to climate adaptation interventions domestically and abroad.

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C a se Stu dy

Organization/Community:
Brantford Sheep Farmers
Sector: Food Donations
Region/country of impact:
Ontario, Canada

Brantford lamb farmer, Rob Scott, provides the first fresh protein option for his local food bank,encouraging other farmers to follow suit
The Challenge:
11.6% of households in Ontario, Canada’s mostpopulous province, experienced food insecurity
in 2014. In 2016, 360,000 people in Ontario
used food banks to obtain food monthly; 33% of
these were children. Food banks rarely receive
fresh produce and protein, leaving Canadians
malnourished. Food banks will not solve theissue of food insecurity. However, since Canadiansocial assistance programs have increased
minimally in the last 20 years, food banks havebecome, and will continue to be, a necessary
resource for impoverished Canadians.

34

Community Response
Rob Scott, a lamb farmer of Brantford, Ontario,
is the chairman of the Ontario Sheep Marketing
Association. During a board meeting in 2014, Scott
was approached by the Ontario Association of Food
Banks to donate lamb At this meeting, food bankorganizers highlighted the financial feasibility for
Scott and other farmers to donate, which lay in a newly
introduced provincial bill that provides a significant
tax credit to all farmers who donate to food banks
and other charitable organizations.
Scott now donates 500 pounds of lamb annually to
his local food bank. He also donates the heads of
his lambs since the skulls are a traditional ingredientfor practicing Muslims and other minorities. Scott’s

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discovery of the dietary needs within his
multicultural community provides him with aunique perspective on the Canadian provincial
and federal food regulation laws. Currently, thefederal laws continue to force his processor tothrow away lamb heads while the provincial laws
do not. Scott now lobbies politicians to addressthese food wastage concerns that are based on
arbitrarily written policy.
Scott’s food bank donations have inspired
others in his community to donate. The Ontario
Sheep Marketing Association donated an entire
lamb and created a permanent partnership with
the Ontario Association of Food Banks to help
local farmers donate their lambs via delivery andawareness services. Additionally, another farmerin Scott’s community has started a lamb fund for
Syrian refugees who have relocated to Ontario.

The Benefits••••

Foodbank users consume more nutritious foodthat caters to a variety of dietary restrictions.
Family sheep farmers across Ontario haveexperienced an increase in exposure and market
access for their product.
Ontario lamb farmers experience economic
opportunity by receiving tax breaks for donating
to the food bank.
The demand for locally sourced lamb has
increased as Syrian refugees and othercommunities become loyal customers to Ontario
farmers.

Re fe rences
1. Food Banks Canada - About Hunger in Canada. (2013). Retrieved from https://www.foodbankscanada.ca/
Hunger-in-Canada/About-Hunger-in-Canada.aspx
2. PROOF. (2017). Aboriginal peoples and food insecurity. Retrieved from http://proof.utoronto.ca/resources/
research-publications/aboriginal-peoples-and-food-insecurity/
About – PROOF. (2017). Retrieved from: http://proof.utoronto.ca/about-proof/
Advisory Council on Economic Growth. (2017, February 6). Unleashing the growth potential of key sectors.
Retrieved from: http://www.budget.gc.ca/aceg-ccce/pdf/key-sectors-secteurs-cles-eng.pdf
Alexandratos, N., & Bruinsma, J. (2012). World Agriculture Towards 2030/2050: the 2012 revision. Agricultural
Development Economics Division Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from:http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/ap106e/ap106e.pdf
Aylesworth, L. (2016, February 26). New tax credit gives farmers incentive to donate more to food banks.
Retrieved from: http://globalnews.ca/news/2541796/new-tax-credit-gives-farmers-incentive-to-donate-more-tofood-banks/
Brookings. (2016). The WTO’s Decision To End Agricultural Export Subsidies is Good News for Farmers andConsumers. Retrived from: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2016/02/08/the-wtosdecision-to-end-agricultural-export-subsidies-is-good-news-for-farmers-and-consumers/

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Cline, W. (2008). Global Warming and Agriculture. Retrieved from: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/
fandd/2008/03/pdf/cline.pdf
Feeding Nunavut. (2016). Beyond Hunger: Malnutrition, and Inuit Children. Retrieved from: http://www.
feedingnunavut.com/beyond-hunger-malnutrition-and-inuit-children/
Food Secure Canada. (n.d.). UN to Examine Canada’s Record on Right to Food. Retrieved from: https://
foodsecurecanada.org/resources-news/news-media/un-examine-canadas-record-right-food
Government of Canada. (2017, June 6). A Food Policy for Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.canada.ca/en/
campaign/food-policy.html
Government Of Canada, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada. (2016). Environmental Sustainability of Canadian
Agriculture. Retrieved from: http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/science-and-innovation/agricultural-practices/
environmental-sustainability-of-canadian-agriculture-agri-environmental-indicator-report-series-report4/?id=1467307820931#a2
Government of Canada. (2017). Federal Sustainable Development Strategy. Retrieved from: http://fsds-sfdd.ca/
index.html#/en/goals/
Meilke, K. D. (2016). Agricultural Export Subsidies: Rip. Table 1: Export Subsidy Notification by Canada for2014/15. Retrieved from: https://www.uoguelph.ca/fare/institute/Docs/Export-Subsidies-Full-Article-FARE%20
SHARE.pdf
Ontario Association of Food Banks. (2016). Feeding change. Retrieved from: https://oafb.ca/wp-content/
uploads/2016/09/Impact-Report-2016.pdf
Ontario Ministry of Finance. (2017, January 11). Community food program donation tax credit. Retrieved from:http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/credit/cfpdtc/index.html
Ontario Sheep Marketing Association. (2017). Donating Lamb to Ontario Food Banks. Retrieved from: http://
www.ontariosheep.org/DONATINGLAMBtoFOODBANKS.aspx
Ontario Sheep Marketing Association. (2017). Provincial Directors. Retrieved from: http://www.ontariosheep.org/
ABOUTUS/ProvincialDirectors.aspx
OECD. (2015). Aid (ODA) by sector and donor [DAC5]. Retrieved from: https://stats.oecd.org/Index.
aspx?DataSetCode=REF_TOTALOFFICIAL
Oxfam Canada. (2016). Why are Food Prices Rising?. Retrieved from: https://www.oxfam.ca/grow/learn/why_food_prices_are_rising
Proof. (n.d.). Children in Food Insecure Households. Retrieved from: http://proof.utoronto.ca/wp-content/
uploads/2016/07/children-food-insecurity-factsheet.pdf
PROOF - Food Insecurity and Policy Research. (2016, April 25). Household food insecurity in Canada, 2014.
Retrieved from: http://proof.utoronto.ca/resources/proof-annual-reports/annual-report-2014/
PROOF. (2015, April 5). Household Food Insecurity in Canada, 2014. Retrieved from http://proof.utoronto.ca/
resources/proof-annual-reports/annual-report-2014/
Proof. (n.d.). Monitoring Food Insecurity in Canada. Retrieved from: http://proof.utoronto.ca/wp-content/
uploads/2016/06/monitoring-factsheet.pdf

36

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Statistics Canada. (2017). Consumer Price Index, food, by province (Canada). Retrieved from: http://www.statcan.
gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/perecon156a-eng.htm
Statistics Canada. (2017). Table 4-1 The Consumer Price Index, major components and selected sub-groups,
Canada, not seasonally adjusted — Food. Retrieved from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/62-001-x/2017003/tbl/
tbl-4-1-eng.htm
Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. (2016). Retrieved from: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/
sdg1
Tarasuk, V, Mitchell, A, Dachner, N. (2016). Household food insecurity in Canada, 2014.Toronto: Research toidentify policy options to reduce food insecurity (PROOF). Retrieved from: http://proof.utoronto.ca/
University of Toronto. (2016). PROOF Food Insecurity Policy Research. Monitoring Food Insecurity around theWorld and in Canada (Data from the FAO, 2014). Retrieved from: http://proof.utoronto.ca/monitoring-foodinsecurity-around-the-world-and-in-canada/

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GOAL HE ALT H AN D
W E LL- BE I N G
Ensure healthy lives and promote
well-being for all at all ages

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Ta r g e ts
3.1

By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births

3. 2

By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with allcountries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births
and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births

3. 3

By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases
and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases

3. 4

By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases throughprevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being

3. 5

Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuseand harmful use of alcohol

3. 6

By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents

3. 7

By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including
for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive healthinto national strategies and programmes

3. 8

Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality
essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential
medicines and vaccines for all

3. 9

By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals
and air, water and soil pollution and contamination

3. A

Strengthen the implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control in all countries, as appropriate

3. B

Support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicableand non-communicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access toaffordable essential medicines and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the
TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to useto the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to
medicines for all

3. C

Substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training andretention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed
countries and small island developing States

3. D

Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning,risk reduction and management of national and global health risks
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O ve r vi ew
Sustainable Development Goal 3 “seeks to ensure health and wellbeing for all, at every stage of life.
The Goal addresses all major health priorities, including reproductive, maternal and child health;communicable, non-communicable and environmental diseases; universal health coverage; and accessfor all to safe, effective, quality and affordable medicines and vaccines. It also calls for more researchand development, increased health financing, and strengthened capacity of all countries in health risk
reduction and management.”
Exemplifying progress made on achieving health and wellbeing in Canada, the maternal mortality rate
in Canada was only 7 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015. But, the experts interviewed emphasis that
health cannot be siloed neatly into a standalone goal, discrete from poverty eradication, gender equality,or food security, to name only three. Rather, health must be measured both in terms of primary healthcare provision and preventative social change.

Fa c tsheet
•

•

•

40

The estimated maternal mortality rate in
Canada for 2015 was 7 deaths per 100,000
live births, a low rate even when measured
against the majority of other OECD member
states. For comparison, the United Kingdom
had a maternal mortality rate of 9 deaths per
100,000 live births.
In terms of infant mortality rate, 3.2 newborns
and 4.9 children under the age of 1 die forevery 1,000 live births per year. Considering
that, the global under-five mortality rate is
43 per 1,000 live births and the neonatal
mortality rate is 19 deaths per 1,000 live
births in 2015, Canada is well ahead inprotecting and improving infant health.
Canada has a low HIV rate, with only 0.07
cases of HIV per 1,000 people. However, HIVprevalence remains disproportionately highfor vulnerable communities. For example,
the HIV rate among IV drug users in the
Downtown Eastside of the city of Vancouver
is 27%, and in Ahtahkakoop 104, a Cree First
Nations reserve in Shell Lake, Saskatchewan,
the rate is 3.5%.

•

For non-communicable diseases, cancer remains
the number one cause of death with 150.8 deaths
per 100,000 inhabitants. B.C. and Alberta have thelowest rates of cancer deaths in the country while
Nunavut, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories
represent the highest, ranking below the worstperforming country, Denmark.

$5$95

For every
spent on drug
rehabilitation by the
Canadian governmentis spent on incarcerationof drug users

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Data Source: Teen Challenge•

11% of Canadians struggle with alcohol orsubstance abuse. But, substance abuse ismore prevalent in the western provinceswith rates ranging between 14-12.8%.
Demographically, males have higher rates
of substance use disorders than women and,in terms of age, youth aged 15 to 24 havethe highest rate of substance use disorder(11.9%). Despite these high rates, between
2013 and 2014, only 5% of people who met
the criteria for a substance abuse accessed
publicly funded treatment. This is related
the fact that “for every $5 spent on drug
rehabilitation by the Canadian government,$95 is spent on incarceration of drug users.”••

Primary health care services in Canada cover all“medically necessary” services, but this accounts
for only 70% of health care costs. Prescription
drug, vision and dental services are covered only
by private insurance or out-of-pocket spending,resulting in 13% of low-income Canadians having“unmet healthcare needs,” while 10% of the
population had no prescription drug coverage in2014.
Canada is among the countries with the highest
density of physicians. There are 2.2 physiciansper 1,000 people, of which 8.2% are located inrural areas and 91.8% in urban areas. Nova Scotia
has the highest proportion of physicians with 2.6
per 1,000 people whereas Prince Edward has thelowest, 1.8 per 1,000.

How are we doin g ?
Introduction
Amanda Meawasige – Senior Health Policy
Analyst with the Assembly of First Nationsand Health Policy Analyst/Researcher with
the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs – states that
health has a fundamentally interconnectednature within Indigenous worldviews, a
perspective increasingly shared by public healthprofessionals.
Dr. John Millar – Clinical Professor Emeritus
at the University of British Columbia Schoolof Population and Public Health and former
Executive Director of the PHSA in B.C. – lists thesocioeconomic determinants of health as thelargest contributors to sustainable wellbeing.
The socioeconomic determinants are the factors
outside the healthcare system that influence
population health. They include prevalence ofpoverty, economic inequality, food insecurity,
housing adequacy, environmental wellbeing,
early childhood development, education,
employment, social connection and access toeffective healthcare.

While it may be easy to silo the attainment of “goodhealth and well-being” into the conventionally narrowbox of health service provision, experts Meawasige
and Millar both tackle health from an integrated
perspective that is complex, but uniquely able tounderstand the deeply varied health outcomes
across Canada.

Universal Health Outcomes
Underscoring the disproportionately worse healthoutcomes faced by First Nations, Meawasige notesthat Indigenous children are overrepresented ingovernment care. As she states, there are more
Indigenous children in care today than there wereat the height of residential schools. The 2011 census
showed that 48% of children in foster care are
Indigenous, while Indigenous people constitute only
4.3% of the population of Canada. Among Indigenous
adults, the prevalence of cancer and chronic diseases
are high, with Indigenous people “twice as likely to
get cardiovascular disease than other Canadians.”
Likewise, the prevalence of tuberculosis in Indigenous
populations was 32 times than that for the Canadianborn non-Indigenous populations, a disproportion

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reaching staggering rates for Inuit. With “incident
rates of active TB disease for Inuit [...] almost
400 times higher” than for their non-Indigenous
counterparts. First Nations face rising HIV
rates, which drove doctors in the province of
Saskatchewan to call for a state of emergency
in 2015. Overall, the picture is decisive: “healthoutcomes are worse for First Nations,” which “allgoes back to the socioeconomic determinantsof health,” states Meawasige.
Echoing Meawasige’s words, Millar emphasizes
that the socioeconomic determinants of healthshape 80% of health outcomes and, rather
dismally, the prospects for these determinantsremain gloomy. In the province of British
Columbia – the only province remaining without
a poverty reduction strategy – 19.8% of children
live in poverty, while income inequality remains
stark at a national scale. In Canada, the top 1%
earned a average total income of $466,700 in
2014, holding 10.3% of total income nationally.
With the resulting disparity and decreased
intergenerational social mobility associatedwith rising inequality, Millar highlights that thepoor are faced with constant stress, causing
measurable chemical and even genetic changes
to the body that can lead to worsening overall
health outcomes.
“There is no question in my mind that thebiggest challenge is reducing the growing
socioeconomic inequity”– Dr. John Millar
As people lose hope in the ability for life
to improve, the prevalence of “diseases ofdespair” – tobacco-use, alcohol-use, druguse, suicide and others – grow, states Millar. If
continued, these trends foreshadow a futureof declining life expectancy, as has alreadybeen seen amongst the non-hispanic, white
population in the United States. Evidencing thistrend in Canada, the overdose crisis was nameda provincial public health emergency in British

42

Columbia. Moreover, Meawasige identifies a “mental
health crisis” among First Nations and particularly
those living on remote reserves, one that has been
linked to a lack of “cultural continuity.” Rather, culturalcontinuity – marked by land claims, self-government,
education services, police and fire services, healthservices and cultural facilities, all impacting young
people’s construction of identity – is a “protective
factor against suicide” for Indigenous people in
Canada.
Emphasizing the need for protection, Meawasige
sees poor health outcomes as stemming from a“lack of upstream prevention,” exemplified by healthprograms administered by the Federal governmentthat require that individuals be sick before accessing
services and supports. As Meawasige states, thissystem is set up to be “reactive, not proactive,” placingemphasis on primary care and leaving little space fora more comprehensive public health approach thathas the capacity to incorporate education for longer
term prevention.
However, even within primary healthcare, healthcoverage is incomplete. For First Nations communities,
ongoing jurisdictional ambiguity and a lack ofresources, intensify inadequate service provision,argues Meawasige. Notably, the Strengthening
Families Maternal Child Health program is only
available to 14 of 48 First Nations in Manitoba, while theCanadian Prenatal Nutrition program and Aboriginal
Head Start on Reserve Program for babies andtoddlers are not available in every community. Even
where resources are adequate, healthcare providers
and recipients criticize the operation of programs suchas the Non-Insured Health Benefits program (NIHB).
Critiques of the NIHB program include problems with“inadequate communication of policy changes, lackof standardized scope of practice and compensation
models, lack of clarity regarding patient coverage
benefits, inadequate travel arrangements and manyothers.” In response, the Assembly of First Nations(AFN) and the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch(FNIHB) launched a joint review in 2015 following therelease of the Auditor General of Canada’s report on
healthcare service provision to remote First Nations
communities.

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Even within the federal Medicare program for
non-Indigenous Canadians, only 70% of services
are included, according to Millar. Dental care,vision services, and prescription coverage areall excluded from provincial coverage.
Intensifying this coverage deficit, Millar statesthat governments have taken little action to holdcorporations accountable for the health impactsof their products and advertisements. Notably,
unlike tobacco companies, for whom taxation
seeks to internalize the products’ negative healthimpacts, food and beverage companies face nosuch taxation, despite being linked to increased
rates of obesity and diabetes. In response,
Millar believes that governments should take arole in holding food and beverage corporations
accountable for the long-term health outcomesof production.
“Have corporations that look beyond strictly
profit motives and think not only aboutshareholder value, but about stakeholder
value… so it’s a dramatic shift from only
shareholder value to stakeholder value”– Dr. John Millar
There is a deficit in the data necessary to better
understand health trends, which makes it
difficult to increase corporate or government
accountability for health outcomes. This ispartially a product of the Canada HealthTransfer program initiated in 2014, which
focuses on provincial service provision insteadof community-based primary healthcare.
The program failed to build in appropriate
accountability and monitoring mechanisms,
which leaves uncertainty around the impacts ofthe billions of CAD transferred into the program,according to Millar. As a result, little temporal
evidence exists to map trends in health andwell-being in Canada.

Positive Impacts of Localizing Care
This is not to say that progress has not been
made for First Nations and non-Indigenous careprovision and health outcomes alike.The newly-electedfederal government made a renewed commitment to
mitigating the socioeconomic determinants of health.
The National Poverty Reduction, National Housing
and Early Childhood Development strategies holdpotential for a preventative public health framingof wellbeing that addresses the socio-economic
indicators that dramatically shape disproportionate
health outcomes.
Moreover, in a move to ensure equal access toservices, Jordan’s Principle (JP) prevents the refusal ofservices for children based on jurisdictional disputes
over financing. The Principle requires that “where agovernment service is available to all other children... the government department of first contact pays
for the service and can seek reimbursement” later.
However, Canada has not lived up to its commitment
to JP in several instances.
This move to ensure comparable service provision
for First Nations peoples is furthered by the
Brighter Future initiative and National Native Drug
and Alcohol program, which re-locate healthcare
provision to local communities. Respectively, the two
programs fund First Nations- and Inuit-run initiatives
that increase awareness, enhance skills, and provide
treatment programs that blend culturally specific andmainstream approaches. Together, these programs
allow for both localized, proactive, and reactive
programming that is culturally responsive.
This combined approach to improve health outcomesis increasingly prevalent across Canada. Millar draws
attention to lifestyle improvements as simple asincreasing daily exercise with the creation of bikelanes and the maintenance of hiking trails. Moreover,tobacco and smoking rates have decreased strikinglywith education, programs for quitting smoking,legislation against smoking in indoor spaces, and theimplementation of high taxes on tobacco products.
These preventive measures are coupled withdramatic advances in medical science, which cannot
be understated. Medical procedures that were
only being thought of a few decades ago are now

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common practice and widely performed acrossthe country. Further, corporate motives are
beginning to shift with the introduction of thetriple bottom line business practices.
So, while there is an undeniably long way to
go to achieve health and wellbeing for all in
Canada, there remains space for optimism. Thereis increasing recognition of the need to adopt
a holistic approach to healthcare, steps havebeen made to localize health provision for First
Nations populations with unique histories andcultures, and there is a growing wave of pressure
to hold corporations accountable for negative
health outcomes.

Comments on the Indicators
The indicators for good health andwellbeing must start from the vantage ofhealth as an outcome of its socioeconomic
determinants, states Millar. Data collectionand evaluation must consider poverty
rates, economic inequality, food insecurity,
housing inadequacy, early childhood
development, education, employment,social connection, access to effective
healthcare and environmental protection.
Meawasige further states that special
attention must be paid to generating
measures to track health outcomes foryouth in care. This, and all, data should becollected at the community level, producing
data specific for Indigenous communities
and non-Indigenous populations toenable a comparative analysis. Meawasige
continues that indicators must move beyond
a pan-Indigenous approach, addressing theunique histories and styles of governancewhile evaluating the co-management ofprograms.

C ro s s- Cu tti ng The me s
According to Ontario’s Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, “Youth who[age out of government care] report worse health and less access to healthcare
than their same age peers1.”

British Columbia’s healthcare model features a tripartite council between thefederal government, provincial government, and First Nations leaders. This gives
First Nations communities a “seat at the table” in determining how they receivecare.
A changing climate can increase the frequency, intensity or duration of extreme
weather conditions which increases risks for vulnerable populations andcommunities in areas exposed to natural hazards…. Extra pressure is placed onhealthcare services by increased demands resulting from weather-related natural
hazards2.

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Re co m m end a tion s
•
•
•

•
•
•
•

Support the creation of an integrated, interprofessional health care team at the community
level that acts across departmental silos to ensure a preventative and proactive approach tohealth care provision.
Comprehensively provide health care programs and services for all populations, incorporating
coverage for dental care, vision services and prescription drugs into the medicare system.
Increase investment in health care for the First Nations peoples under federal jurisdiction
on- and off-reserve in order to ensure that services provided come to the standards of theprovinces. This will require a long-term investment in primary and public health programs
whose resources are provided based on need.
Make health programs available early in life, so that all children have a good start to life. This
includes ensuring a universal adoption and implementation of Jordan’s Principle: A ChildFirst Initiative.
Increase resourcing to mental health service programming, linking this to both the suicide
and opioid crises.
Return the responsibility for health care to local communities for community-based decisionmaking and service provision.
Systematize and prioritize tracking, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of health outcome

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S p o tl i g ht

Organization/Community:
Canadian Partnership for
Women and Children’s Health
Sector:Sexual and Reproductive HealthRegion/country of impact:
Developing countries
worldwide

Canada’s Global Leadership on Maternal,
Newborn, and Child HealthReaching beyond our borders, Canada has
a history of demonstrating leadership on
Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH)
starting with the Muskoka Initiative in 2010,
in which the Canadian government launched
the G8 countries into an ambitious financial
commitment to MNCH under Millennium
Development Goals 4 and 5. Most recently,
in 2017 the government announced a new‘Feminist International Assistance Policy,’ which
includes a funding commitment of $650 million
CAD for reproductive health and rights. This
movement has been driven largely by Civil
Society Organizations, working in partnershipwith the government.
CanWaCH: A Network for MNCH Leadership
Helen Scott, Executive Director of the CanadianPartnership for Women and Children’s Health(CanWaCH), works within this local-global nexus.
Established in 2010 after the Muskoka Initiative,

46

CanWaCH unites over 100 Canadian organizations
that support women and children’s health indeveloping countries to work together and share
their knowledge. It also aims to increase the capacityof monitoring and evaluation in MNCH development
programs.
CanWaCH has seen many successes, including data
tracking through its ‘Metrics Portal,’ its involvementin the UN General Assembly, and its ability to unify
multiple organizations within Canada. In order
to continue on this path, Helen believes that the
government and organizations need to be culturally
sensitive when assisting countries. She sees a needto engage men in the conversation on women’s andchildren’s health, too.
Helen commends Canada’s strong leadership in
MNC health, but notes that without sufficient funding
for Overseas Development Assistance, it will notreach its full potential for impact on the SDGs. Helenstates that if the government were to contribute asmuch funding toward aid as it did towards militaryspending, “millions of lives could be saved.”

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Re fe rences
1. Kovarikova, J. (2017). Exploring Youth Outcomes After Aging-Out of Care. Retrieved from: https://
provincialadvocate.on.ca/documents/en/ExploringYouthOutcomesReport042417.pdf
2. Government of Canada. (2009). Understanding the health effects of climate change. Retrieved from:https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/environmental-workplace-health/climate-change-health/understanding-health-impacts-climate-change.html
Aboriginal Children in Care Working Group. (2015, July). Aboriginal children in care. Retrieved from: http://
canadaspremiers.ca/phocadownload/publications/aboriginal_children_in_care_report_july2015.pdf
Badenhorst, C. (2016, October 18). Health Officers Council. Retrieved from: https://healthofficerscouncil.net
BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. (2017). Information about HIV/AIDS. Retrieved from: http://www.cfenet.ubc.
ca/healthcare-resources/about-hiv-aids
Boothe, K., Morgan, S. (2016). Universal prescription drug coverage in Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5094297/
Canada Without Poverty, Citizens for Public Justice. (2015). Dignity for All, a National Anti-Poverty Plan. Retrieved
from: http://www.cwp-csp.ca/resources/resources/dignity-all-national-anti-poverty-plan
Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. (2016). National Treatment Indicators Report 2013–2014 Data. Retrieved
from: http://www.ccsa.ca/Resource%20Library/CCSA-National-Treatment-Indicators-Report-2016-en.pdf
Canadian Institute for Health Information. (2015). Physicians in Canada, 2015. Retrieved from: https://secure.cihi.
ca/free_products/Summary_Report_2015_EN.pdf
Canadian Institute for Health Information. (2015). Supply, Distribution and Migration of Physicians in Canada, 2015
: Data Tables. Retrieved from: https://secure.cihi.ca/estore/productFamily.htm?locale=en&pf=PFC3269
Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health. (n.d.). Background. Retrieved from http://www.canwach.
ca/about-us/
Canadian Pharmacists Association. (n.d.). The Future of NIHB & the Role of CPhA. Retrieved from: https://www.
pharmacists.ca/news-events/cpha-blog/the-future-of-nihb-the-role-of-cpha/Cancer Research UK. (2014). Worldwide Cancer Mortality Statistics. Retrieved from: http://www.cancerresearchuk.
org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/worldwide-cancer/mortality#heading-ZeroCampbell, Ronda. (2015). Maternal Child Health. First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba. Retrieved
from: http://www.fnhssm.com/index.php/policy-areas/maternal-child-healthCase, A., & Deaton, A. (2017). Mortality and morbidity in the 21st century. ￼￼￼
Brookings Papers on Economic
Activity. Retrieved from: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/6_casedeaton.pdf
CBC News. (2017). Retrieved from: http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/map-canada-substance-abuse/
Chandler, Michael and Christopher Lalonde (1998). Cultural Continuity as a Hedge Against Suicide in Canada’sFirst Nations. Transcultural Psychiatry 35(2), 1-20. Retrieved from: http://firstnationcitizenship.afn.ca/uploads/A12_
Cultural_Continuity_as_a_Hedge_against_Suicide.pdf
First Call. (2016, November 24). 2016 BC Child Poverty Report Card. Retrieved from: http://firstcallbc.org/
publications/2016-bc-child-poverty-report-card/
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Government of Canada. (2016). A Backgrounder on Poverty in Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.canada.ca/
en/employment-social-development/programs/poverty-reduction/backgrounder.html
Government of Canada. (2017). About Jordan’s Principle. Retrieved from: https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1
334329827982/1334329861879
Government of Canada. (2006, September). Brighter Futures and Building Healthy Communities initiatives:
evaluation summary. Retrieved from: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/first-nations-inuit-health/reports-publications/health-promotion/brighter-futures-building-healthy-communities-initiatives-evaluationsummary.html
Government of Canada. (2017). Canada’s feminist international assistance policy. Retrieved from: http://international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/priorities-priorites/policypolitique.aspx?lang=eng#5.1
Government of Canada. (2014) . Summary: Estimates of HIV incidence, prevalence and proportion undiagnosed
in Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/diseases-conditions/summary-estimates-hiv-incidence-prevalence-proportion-undiagnosed-canada-2014.html#t1
Hamilton, C. (2016, September 19). Sask doctors declare a state of emergency over HIV crisis. Retrieved from:http://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/sask-doctors-declare-a-state-of-emergency-over-hiv-crisis2
Helen Scott. (2017) CanWaCH Interview - 9:56min
Humphreys, Adrian (2014, Dec.). ‘A Lost Tribe’: Child Welfare System Accused of Repeating Residential School
History, National Post. Retrieved from: http://nationalpost.com/g00/news/canada/a-lost-tribe-child-welfaresystem-accused-of-repeating-residential-school-history-sapping-aboriginal-kids-from-their-homes/wcm/
c8a96e50-037d-45a1-922d-c9c5b4497512?i10c.referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca%2F
Joint task force on overdose prevention and response. (2017). B.C.’s opioid overdose response: progress update.
BC Government. Retrieved from: http://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/health/about-bc-s-health-care-system/officeof-the-provincial-health-officer/overdose-response-progress-update-jan2017.pdf
Millar, John. (2013). The Corporate Determinants of Health: How Big Business Affects Our Health, and the Need
for Government Action!. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 104(4), 327-329.
Morrison, J. (2015). The time has come to fix the Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program. Canadian
Pharmacists Journal / Revue des Pharmaciens du Canada, 148(4), 217-217. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4530362/
Office of the Auditor General of Canada. (2015). Access to health services for remote First Nations communities.
Retrieved from: http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_oag_201504_04_e_40350.html
Public Health Agency of Canada (2014). Turberculosis Prevention and Control in Canada: A Federal Framework for
Action. Retrieved from: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/tbpc-latb/pubs/tpc-pct/index-eng.php
Statistics Canada. (2014). High-income trends among Canadian taxfilers, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.
statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/161121/dq161121d-eng.htm
Statistics Canada. (2017, March 9). Infant mortality rates, by province and territory (Both sexes). Retrieved from:48

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http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/health21a-eng.htm
Statistics Canada. (2012). Mental and substance use disorders in Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.statcan.
gc.ca/pub/82-624-x/2013001/article/11855-eng.htm
Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. (2016). Retrieved from: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/
sdg1
Teen Challenge Canada. (2015). Canadian drug crisis. Retrieved from: http://www.teenchallenge.ca/get-help/
canadian-drug-crisis
The Conference Board of Canada. (2015). Mortality Due to Cancer. Retrieved from: http://www.conferenceboard.
ca/hcp/provincial/health/cancer.aspx
The Heart Research Institute. (n.d.). First Nations people and heart disease. Retrieved from: http://www.hricanada.
org/about-heart-disease/first-nations-people-and-heart-disease
The World Bank. (2017). Physicians (per 1,000 people). Retrieved from: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/
SH.MED.PHYS.ZS
The World Bank. (2015). Maternal Mortality Ration. Retrieved from: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.
MMRTUNICEF. (2017). Maternal Mortality, Current Status + Progress. Retrieved from: https://data.unicef.org/topic/
maternal-health/maternal-mortality/#
United Nations. (2017, January 4). SDG Indicators. Retrieved from: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/
database/?area=CAN#footnotes

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GEN DE R E QUALI T Y
Achieve gender equality and empower all
women and girls

50

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Ta r g e ts
5.1

End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere

5.2

Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres,
including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation

5.3

Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital
mutilation

5.4

Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services,
infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility
within the household and the family as nationally appropriate

5.5

Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at alllevels of decision-making in political, economic and public life

5.6

Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed
in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population
and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of theirreview conferences

5.A

Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access toownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritanceand natural resources, in accordance with national laws

5.B

Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications
technology, to promote the empowerment of women

5.C

Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of genderequality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

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O ver vi ew
Goal 5 aims to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.” Its outcomes focus on
eliminating discrimination, ending violence, recognizing unpaid care work, ensuring economic
participation, promoting representation in leadership, providing economic empowerment, and ensuring
access to reproductive rights.
With its Feminist International Assistance Policy, a gender balanced federal cabinet, increasing labour
force participation for women, and high educational outcomes for girls, Canada is seen as a global
leader in achieving gender equality. However, there remain persistent challenges with women’s
economic compensation, representation in leadership, and violence against women. These challenges
are especially amplified for indigenous women, who are also more likely than the average Canadian
woman to live in poverty.

Fa c tsheet
•

•

•

•

52

In 2015, 478.3 women per 100,000 werevictims of intimate partner violence. Rates of
spousal violence and homicide were highest
for women aged 15 to 24.
Statistically, 10% of Indigenous women
have a “high chance” of being victimizedby their partner, compared with 3% of nonIndigenous women. Recently, the rate forspousal violence has remained unchanged
for Indigenous People, whereas the rate
for non-Indigenous Canadians has fallen.
A factor often associated with spousal
violence is child abuse, of which 40% of the
Indigenous population have been victims.
Women self-reported 553,000 sexualassaults in 2014. However, it is estimatedthat 91% of cases of sexual assault are notreported to the police.
Despite the gap reducing, on average,
men spend 2hr 29min per day on unpaid
domestic and care work, while women
spend an average of 3hr 53min. In terms
of provincial statistics, the gap is smallerin British Columbia, where women do 36
percent more unpaid work than men. In
comparison, women do 52 percent more
unpaid work than men in the provinces of
Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

••

Men earn on average 18.97% more than women,
which is above the OECD average of 15.46%.
26.04% of seats in the federal parliament are held
by women and, at the provincial level, 26% ofMembers of the Legislative Assembly are female.
These values are 3% above the global average,
but represent a stark inequality. At the municipal
government level, the number is slightly higher,
with 28% per cent of municipal councillors being
women. However, just 18% of Canadian mayors
are female, according to 2015 statistics from theFederation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). The
FCM has set a goal for municipal councils to be
30% female by 2026

91%

of sexual assualt
cases

are not reported
to the police

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Data Source:
Statistics Canada (2013)

Women are protected from discrimination on
the grounds of gender, age, marital status andmore by the Canadian Human Rights Act and theCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

•

Canadahaslaunchedanew
Feminist
International Assistance Policy
which demonstrates Canada’s efforts to position
as a leader in gender equality and to achieve theSustainable Development Goals. The new policy
will include:••“investments in programs that will specificallytarget gender equality and the empowermentof women,” representing “15% of Canada’s $2.6
billion bilateral development assistance, up from
2% in 2015-16”.
An integration of “gender equality and women’s
empowerment” for “all projects, in all sectors” 6.
A $150 million allocation to “the new Women’s
Voice and Leadership Program” that will to“support women’s organizations in developing
countries that are working to advance the rights
of women and girls”.

How are we doin g ?
Introduction
Focusing her research on women and theeconomy - including the wage gap, the labour
gap, jobs, violence, and unpaid work - Kate
McInturff is a Senior Researcher at the CanadianCentre for Policy Alternatives. Anuradha Dugal
is the Director of Community Initiatives andWomen’s Equality Project at the Canadian
Women’s Foundation, which works to end
poverty, prevent violence against women,
and empower women & girls. Together, theseexperts emphasize continued gender inequality
in Canada, despite the progress of introducing a
Gender-Based Analysis+ (GBA+) lens to public
policy making and the ongoing National Inquiry
into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Womenand Girls. Specifically, they draw attention toa deficit of investment in female-dominatedsectors of the economy and a lack of government
policies to enable women’s participation in theworkforce.

Challenges
According to Kate McInturff, Canada has notmade progress on reducing rates of sexual

violence recently. Sexual and domestic violence
impede women’s access to employment andleadership roles. In terms of economic participation,
women still lag behind men on earnings, even in thesame job and with the same qualifications. In 2011,
women made up 47% of the workforce, yet their shareof income earned was only 38%. Dugal states that theattempts by the federal government to work toward
pay equity have been limited to federally regulatedindustries, which reach part of the workforce, but do
not go far enough.
To improve outcomes, McInturff notes that targeted
economic stimulus packages can affect progressin sectors where women work. However, stimulus
packages introduced by previous governments
have had a poor track record for increasing women’s
economic participation because they tend to focus
on infrastructure investments, which predominantly
affect male-dominated labour sectors such as thetrades. The provinces can affect women’s economic
participation through their funding of programs in
the health and social services sectors, in which there
is a higher concentration of women. For example, theParkland Institute attributes Alberta’s wage gap, thelargest of any province, to its lack of investment in thehealth and social services sectors.

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Canada also lacks a federal child care program,which disproportionately impacts women as theytake on the majority of unpaid childcare work,
relating to the overrepresentation of women in
part-time work due to their time spent caring forchildren.
“Without a more equal sharing of unpaid workand adequate access to affordable childcare,
there is an absolute limit on the extent towhich women can participate in paid work or
leadership at any level”– Kate McInturff

history of colonialism, which put in place systems
that continue to marginalize them. Dugal notes thatIndigenous women face discrimination in the justicesystem as well as in child and family services. The RCMP
reported that about 1,200 Indigenous women weremurdered or went missing between 1980 and 2012.
However, due to underreporting and challenges withdata collection, the number could be closer to 4,000.
Further noting the need for qualitative data collection,
Dugal emphasizes that no decisions should be madeon behalf of Indigenous women; rather, Indigenous
peoples should be brought to the table to work in
partnership with non-Indigenous decision-makers.

In the political sphere, there is no federal
policy that would support or deter women’s
participation in formal politics. However,
McInturff notes that women wishing to enter
politics face the same challenges as womenin other demanding jobs: a lack of access tochildcare coupled with non-traditional hours ofwork and a 'boy's club' atmosphere in which
they experience harassment and slower rates ofpromoting to high ranking positions within theirown political parties. The Canadian parliament
itself also lacks labour codes to address
harassment faced by female MPs.

Further highlighting the unevenness of challenges
to escaping violence, Dugal notes that women living
in rural areas do not always have the same accessto services as those living in cities. Rural individuals
may lack confidentiality when they need to escapeviolence, while recent changes in immigration law
took away protections for refugee and immigrant
women from their sponsors. In the past, when asponsored woman faced difficulties, she could file toseparate from the sponsor. Now, however, if a woman
leaves her sponsor, she loses her immigrant or
refugee status unless she provides proof of violence.

Demographic and Regional Variation
Racialized, immigrant, disabled, and Indigenous
women do worse than non-racialized womenacross all socioeconomic indicators. These
indicators include the wage gap, the employment
gap, poverty, and levels of violence. McInturff
notes that this discrepancy cannot be explained
solely by factors other than demographic
status. Single senior women and single mothers
also have higher levels of poverty than single
men. Women with disabilities face high rates
of violence, but not always from men - female
caregivers can also be perpetrators of abuse.
Moreover, lagging outcomes for Indigenous
women are largely a product of Canada’s

54“When a woman flees violence on a farm in rural
Saskatchewan, there’s only one road and there’s
only one car on that road, and that’s her going, andeveryone around can see that she’s leaving thefarm.”– Anuradha Dugal

Progress
McInturff and Dugal are hopeful that policies
brought in by the new government will deliver on
reducing rates of violence, increasing economic
participation, and enhancing representation of
women in leadership. A number of promising
new policies could lead to progress in improving
women’s outcomes.

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The federal government now boasts its first
gender-balanced cabinet and has introduced
the Gender Based Analysis Plus (GBA+), a lensthrough which they can understand “the ways
in which public policies affect women and men
differently,” taking into account the various
demographic factors that intersect with gender.
GBA+ is integrated across every government
department. For example, in its 2017 budget,
the government included a Gender Statement
for the first time, which outlines many of theissues facing Canadian women today and how
different budgetary decisions will affect them.
Despite this progressive framework, Dugal and
McInturff question how effectively GBA+ has
been implemented in practice due to a lack of
accountability measures.
The government has recently released a Strategy
to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence,
which will dedicate $100.5 million CAD over
five years to preventing gender-based violence,
supporting survivors and their families, andpromoting responsive justice systems. This
includes the establishment of a Gender-Based
Violence Knowledge Centre and the re-launchingof a national survey on violence against womenthat encompasses all violence types. The recent
passage of Bill C-16 gives transgender people
legal protection against discrimination and hatecrimes. The government has also committed totabling proactive pay equity legislation by 2018.
Moreover, the government is conducting a
National Inquiry into the thousands of casesof missing and murdered Indigenous womenacross Canada. This progress was promptedby the advocacy of Indigenous People, as wellas international mechanisms such as reports
from the Inter-American Committee and a UN
ombudsman. Some participants in the inquiry
are critical of its seemingly prescribed structure
and a lack of communication from the inquiry to
the families affected.

Civil Society Working for Justice
McInturff notes that, “against the odds, and despite
extremely meager funding, women’s organizations
have made a huge impact in the last decade.” Inparticular, she highlights their work to keep women’sissues in the public eye. That childcare was a major
issue in the 2015 federal election campaign, forexample, was in no small part due to the work of civilsociety. Both McInturff and Dugal provided input
into A Blueprint for Canada’s National Action Plan onViolence Against Women and Girls, a collaboration
between CSOs to present unified recommendations
to the government.
Dugal is interested in building the strength of
big-picture movements to bring conversations
about women’s issues from the small scale into themainstream. She stresses the need to create space fordetailed conversations, and sees potential in campus
activism and media campaigns.

Comments on the Indicators
In the Canada-specific SDG indicators, Dugal and
McInturff would like to see indicators that capture
the demographic and regional discrepancies among
subpopulations of women in Canada, particularly
to measure outcomes for transgender and other
LGBTQ2 populations.
McInturff stresses that data on violence against womenmust be self-reported to be credible, and at present
the government does not collect this data widely
enough to understand rates of violence at the subnational level. She would like to see data collection
annually and at the provincial and municipal levels.

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C ro s s- Cu tti ng The me s“[Indigenous] women (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) are six times more likely to
be killed than non-[Indigenous] women. [Indigenous] women are 2.5 times more
likely to be victims of violence than non-[Indigenous] women1.”“New research shows that domestic violence rates increase following natural
disasters like floods, wildfires and hurricanes.… Women are particularly
vulnerable during times of crisis, when women’s shelters may have to close, andsocial services are stretched by increased demand2.”

Re co m m end a tion s
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

56

Implement a universal national childcare policy to provide affordable and adequate childcare
to families.
Increase funding to Status of Women to 1% of total federal program spending and ensure
more money is going directly to women’s organizations.
Follow through on the federal government’s commitment to putting forth proactive pay
equity legislation by 2018.
Improve data collection of self-reported violence against women at the federal, provincial,
and municipal levels.
CSOs should continue to collaborate on making progress on the SDGs.
Provide CSOs which a chance to provide feedback on policy related to women’s issues,
including the voices of marginalized women.
Work toward meaningful reconciliation between the federal government and Indigenous
Peoples, taking into account the need to protect Indigenous women from violence.

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C a se Stu dy

Organization/Community:
Hollaback! Ottawa
Sector:
Women’s and LGBTQ+ Rights
Region/country of impact:
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Hollaback! Ottawa, lobbies local transport authorities to increase the safety of individuals on
public transit and in public spaces.
The Challenge
Women and LGBTQ+ individuals in Ontario, andthroughout Canada, are targets of harassment
and discrimination in public spaces. Whether it
be in the local community or on social media,
women and those belonging to the LGBTQ+
community are physically and emotionallyharassed based on gender, sexuality, andappearances. A recent survey of women foundthat 97% had experienced street harassment;
yet, only 10% of respondents actually reported
it. The stigma associated with harassment andthe ineffectiveness of local authorities has leftmany victims feeling hopeless.
Community Response
Julie Lalonde, a proponent of women’s andLGBTQ+ safety, is the director of the Ottawa
chapter of Hollaback!, an organization andinternational movement aiming to eliminate
harassment and discrimination in public
spaces, such as streets and transit. The mostactive chapter in Canada, Hollaback! is allowing
those who experience public harassment to have an
online platform to report their experiences and also
receive support from individuals online. Throughthe online platform, HeartMob, which was launchedin 2016, users can support those who experienced
harassment online by sending them caring andsupportive messages.
Julie has consistently lobbied OC Transpo, theOttawa transit authority, to increase the training oftransit officials and drivers on issues of gender-based
violence. Hollaback!’s report on street harassment in
Ottawa has also allowed Julie to engage the city ina conversation about public transit violence. She has
successfully used the public exposure associated with
report to pressure the transit authority to implement
an anonymous reporting mechanism to collect dataon incidence of violence. Additionally Hollaback! now
meets monthly with OC Transpo to address concerns
voiced in the reporting mechanism.
In 2016, Julie presented to the Federal Standing
Committee on the Status of Women on behalf ofWhere Canada Stands: A Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report
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Hollaback!, which then released a report statingthat violence against young women and girls
in public spaces would be a priority of theCommittee. This was a milestone for Hollaback!,
which was referenced numerous times in thereport.
With Julie’s hard work, Hollaback! Ottawa has
been gaining prominence. That the organization
is not publicly funded allows them to be
provocative, speak their minds, and critique
public actors who are downplaying the problemsof street harassment.
The Benefits•

Women and LGBTQ+ individuals have an
online platform to report and discuss theircases of harassment; they are able to receive
support from an online community of caring

•

•
•
•

individuals when they need it the most.
With an anonymous reporting mechanism,
individuals can see exactly where harassment has
occurred, and if it was in their immediate vicinity.
Based on an interactive map on the Hollaback!
app, individuals can anonymously submit theirstories of harassment.
HeartMob provides immediate support, thereby
reducing the trauma of online harassment.
Increases the safety of women and LGBTQ+
individuals in public spaces by avoiding
harassment hotspots.
Established a Women’s Safety Group comprised ofwomen’s organizations who are able to liaise withOC Transpo and increase women’s participationindecision making with regards to harassment on
public transit.

Re fe rences
1. Violence Against Women in Canada Fact Sheet, Status of Women Canada (2013), p. 2. Retreived from: http://
www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/rc-cr/pub/violence-canada-eng.pdf
2. Canadian Women’s Foundation. (2016). The Facts About Violence Against Women. Retrieved from http://www.
canadianwomen.org/facts-about-violence
Belcourt, C. (15 May 2017). Open Letter to Chief Commissioner Marion Bueller. Retrieved from: http://
christibelcourt.com/open-letter-to-chief-commissioner-marion-buller-national-inquiry-on-missing-and-murderedindigenous-women-and-girls/
Canada’s Centre for Policy Alternatives. (19 March 2015). Alternative Federal Budget 2015: Delivering the Good.
Retrieved from: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/alternative-federal-budget-2015
Canada’s Network of Women’s Shelters & Transition Housing. A Blueprint for Canada’s National Action Plan onViolence Against Women and Girls. Retrieved from: http://endvaw.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Blueprint-forCanadas-NAP-on-VAW.pdf
Canadian Council for Refugees. (2016). Violence against Non-status, Refugee and Immigrant Women. Retrieved
from: http://ccrweb.ca/en/violence-against-womenCanadian Women’s Foundation. (2016). Fact Sheet - Sexual Assault and Harassment. Retrieved
from: http://www.canadianwomen.org/sites/canadianwomen.org/files/Fact%20sheet_
SexualAssaultHarassmentFormatted_18_08_2016.pdf

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Canadian Women’s Foundation. (n.d.). The Facts About Violence Against Women. Retrieved from: http://www.
canadianwomen.org/facts-about-violence
Employment and Social Development Canada. (18 October 2016). Employment equity in federally regulated
workplaces. Retrieved from: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/
employment-equity.html
Fletcher, R. (2017, June 1). Women spend 50% more time doing unpaid work than men. Retrieved from: http://
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/men-women-housework-unpaid-statistics-canada-1.4141367
Goal 5 .:. Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. (2016). Retrieved from: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg5
Government of Canada. (2017, June 9). Canada launches new Feminist International Assistance
Policy. Retrieved from: https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2017/06/canada_launches_
newfeministinternationalassistancepolicy.html
Government of Canada. (2017) Equal Opportunity: Budget 2017’s Gender Statement. Retrieved from: http://
www.budget.gc.ca/2017/docs/plan/chap-05-en.html#Toc477707505
Government of Canada. (2016). Rights of women. Retrieved from: http://www.canada.pch.gc.ca/
eng/1448633334004
Government Of Canada Statistics.(23 Nov 2015). Self-reported Victimization, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.
statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/151123/dq151123a-eng.htm?cmp=mstatcan
Grant, T. (2017, March 6). Gender Equality - Who is minding the gap? Retrieved from: https://www.
theglobeandmail.com/news/national/gender-pay-gap-a-persistent-issue-in-canada/article34210790/
Hollaback!. About. Retrieved from: https://www.ihollaback.org/about/
Hollaback! (2013). Our city, our space, our voice: A report on street harassment in Ottawa. Retrieved from:https://ottawhttps://ottawa.ihollaback.org/files/2013/07/Our-city-our-space-our-voice.pdfa.ihollaback.org/
files/2013/07/Our-city-our-space-our-voice.pdf
Lahey, Kathleen. (7 March 2016). Equal Worth: Designing Effective Pay Equity Laws For Alberta. Retrieved from:http://www.parklandinstitute.ca/equal_worth
McInturff, Kate. (1 January 2016). Women’s work: what’s it worth to you? Retrieved from: https://www.
policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/women%E2%80%99s-work-what%E2%80%99s-it-worth-you
Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women. (2016). Intimate Partner Violence. Retrieved from: https://
women.gov.ns.ca/sites/default/files/documents/factsheets/2016/IPV%20FS%202016%20WEB_FINAL.pdf
Odette, F. and Rajan, D. (November 2013). Violence Against Women with DisAbilities and Deaf Women: An
Overview. Learning Network Brief (12). London, Ontario: Learning Network, Centre for Research and Education
on Violence Against Women and Children. Retrieved from: http://www.vawlearningnetwork.ca/violence-againstwomen-disabilities-and-deaf-women-overview
Statistics Canada. (2015). Table 1.1 - Average time spent per day on various activities, for the populationand participants aged 15 and over, by sex, Canada, 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89647-x/2011001/tbl/tbl11-eng.htm

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Statistics Canada. (2013, February 12). Canadian centre for justice statistics profile series: Findings: Trends insexual offences. Retrieved from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85f0033m/2008019/findings-resultats/trendstendances-eng.htm
Statistics Canada. (2016, January 21). Family violence in Canada: A statistical profile, 2014. Retrieved from: http://
www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/160121/dq160121b-eng.htm?HPA
Statistics Canada (2008). Income, Statistics Canada. Retrieved: Canada’s Women’s Foundation. The Facts About
Women and Poverty. Retrieved from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-503-x/2010001/article/11388-eng.
htm#a4
Status of Women Canada. (19 June 2017). It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based
Violence. Retrieved from: https://www.canada.ca/en/status-women/news/2017/06/it_s_time_canadasstrategytop
reventandaddressgender-basedviolence.html
Tasker, J.P. (2016, Feb 16). Confusion reigns over number of missing, murdered indigenous women. CBC News.
Retrieved from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mmiw-4000-hajdu-1.3450237
The Globe and Mail. (2015, June 2). Women are under-represented in all levels of government. Retrieved from:https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/women-are-under-represented-in-all-levels-of-government/
article30255608/
The World Bank. (2016). Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%). Retrieved from: http://
data.worldbank.org/indicator/SG.GEN.PARL.ZS

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I N DU S TRY, I N N OVAT I ON,
A N D I N F R A S T RUC T URE
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive
and sustainable industrialization andfoster innovation
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Ta r g ets
9. 1

Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional andtransborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with afocus on affordable and equitable access for all

9.2

Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry’s
share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, anddouble its share in least developed countries

9.3

Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing
countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value
chains and markets

9.4

By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, withincreased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally soundtechnologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with
their respective capabilities

9.5

Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors inall countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovationand substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million
people and public and private research and development spending

9.A

Facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries
through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least
developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States

9.B

Support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries,
including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversificationand value addition to commodities

9.C

Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive toprovide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020

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O ve r vi ew
SDG 9 “encompasses three important aspects of sustainable development: infrastructure,industrialization and innovation. Infrastructure provides the basic physical systems and structures
essential to the operation of a society or enterprise. Industrialization drives economic growth, creates
job opportunities and thereby reduces income poverty. Innovation advances the technologicalcapabilities of industrial sectors and prompts the development of new skills”.
Canada is a highly industrialized country with strong infrastructure relative to the rest of theworld. However, much of its infrastructure is reaching the end of its service life, affording Canada
the opportunity to use new infrastructure developments to build a more efficient, connected, andsustainable society. Special attention should be paid to improving infrastructure in remote and rural
areas, including in First nations communities.

Fa c tsheet
•

•

•

•

64

70% of Canada’s landmass is inaccessible
by year-round roads, mainly affecting the194,281 Canadians living in remote northern
communities. Due to the lack of all-season
access, moving resources in and out of theseareas is nearly impossible, especially during
summer when ice roads melt. Consequently,
communities are “essentially cut off of the[…]North American economy,” raising the pricesof goods.
“35% of all municipal infrastructure is in :fair,poor or very poor” condition, increasing therisk of service disruption. Roads, municipal
buildings, sport and recreation facilities, andpublic transit are most in need of attention.”
Manufacturing is a principal driver of
economic development, employment andsocial stability in Canada. Manufacturing
employment accounts for 9.37% of total
employment and the value added to
the national economy by manufacturing
represents 9.7% of GDP.
On average, 97.9% of Canadian enterprises
are considered small businesses. Small
businesses contribute 30% to the total
GDP of Canada, and 41.9% to the businesssector’s GDP.

•

0.39 kg of CO2 is emitted per each dollar of GDP.
The oil and gas sector is the largest GHG emitterin Canada, accounting for 26% of total emissions.
Emissions of GHG from this sector have increasedby 76% from 1990 to 2015.

Emissions of GHG from theoil and gas sector haveincreased76%
between1990 to 2005

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Data Source: Environment andClimate Change Canada

•Innovation is essential to Canada’s
economic growth and quality of life. 1.61%of the country’s GDP is spent on Research& Development and there are 4518.5
researchers per million inhabitants. Canada
ranks among the top ten countries in termsof the number of researchers. However,
the government’s expenditure on R&D is
between 1 and 3% lower than that in mostdeveloped countries, such as Denmark(2.9%), Finland (2.7%), Japan (3.4%) andKorea (4.2%).

••

99% of Canadians are covered by a mobile
network (2G and 3G).
Globally, Canada ranks 16th in terms of Internet
access with 88.47% of individuals using theInternet. Yet, while 95% of Canadians in thehighest income quartile are connected, just 62%
in the lowest income quartile have internet access.
Nunavut has the lowest levels of connection,
where only 27% of the population has internet
access.

How are we doin g ?
Introduction

Opportunity to Green Infrastructure

A significant portion of Canadian infrastructure
was built in the 60’s and 70’s and consequently
has reached the end of its service life; it is also
now facing new performance requirements due
to a changing climate, increased populationand population density. This is, therefore, atime of opportunity, notes Shannon A. Joseph,the Director of the the Federation of Canadian
Municipalities’ Municipalities for Climate
Innovation Program.

Joseph notes that Canada faces an infrastructure
deficit, in which the infrastructure we have does
not meet the needs of Canadians and levels
of investment in infrastructure renewal are notalways adequate. Municipalities own and operate
60% of infrastructure in Canada, this gives thema significant role influencing opportunities formobility, patterns of energy use and the resilienceof the places where Canadians live. How they go
about doing this presents an opportunity to reduce
the greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts of Canada’s
aging infrastructure, but also to better protect water
quality and achieve other environmental, social andeconomic objectives.

According to Joseph, the renewal of these assets
can be approached in innovative ways including
through developing infrastructure acrossCanadian cities that supports goals related toresilience and environmental sustainability. As
Canada looks to address these challenges, itwill be important for decision makers to think
about the diversity of needs, including those ofrural, remote and Indigenous communities.

An FCM study found that municipalities have direct
or indirect influence over 44% of Canada’s GHG
emissions by way of their control over infrastructure
and their role in services such as waste management,
land-use planning, mobility planning, road design,transportation, and public transit. This influence canhelp Canada achieve its GHG emission reduction
objectives.

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Infrastructure Deficits Unevenly
Distributed
Infrastructure in rural and remote communities,
including on First Nations reserves, tends tobe more vulnerable to performance failures
than that in other Canadian communities.
There are 133 drinking water advisories in First
Nations communities in Canada, and this does
not include communities in British Columbia,
Saskatoon Tribal Council, or the territories. With
regard to housing on reserve, many communities
face a shortage of affordable and safe housing.
Housing is often overcrowded, lacks heating,and is contaminated with mold. The Assemblyof First Nations estimates that between 2010
and 2031, “there will be a backlog of 130,000[housing] units, 44% of the existing units will
require major repairs, and 18% will require
replacement.”
Some First Nations communities have been
directly displaced due to infrastructural issues.
In 2011, for example, the province of Manitoba
diverted flood waters headed toward Winnipeg
to the Lake St. Martin First Nation, leading to theevacuation of 1,000 people. As they wait for theircommunity to be rebuilt, community members
have been living in hotels and apartments in
Winnipeg for the past 6 years.

66

which allocates funding for public transit infrastructure,green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade andtransportation infrastructure, and rural and northern
communities infrastructure. They have also allocatedfunding to research in standards development, aSmart Cities Challenge to use technology and data forlivability, and a National Housing Strategy which aims
to make housing more affordable and accessible.
To address infrastructure challenges in First Nations
communities, the federal government has committed$4 billion CAD to improve infrastructure such as water
and wastewater, solid waste management, education
on reserve, housing on reserve, a First Nations
Infrastructure Fund, and cultural and recreational
facilities. The government has committed to ending
all drinking water advisories on First Nations by 2021.
Parallel to these federal initiatives are ones that focus
on partnerships that support better service delivery
and more resource efficiency. For example, theFederation of Canadian Municipalities has a programthat focuses on partnership development for sharedservices, such as water infrastructure, and local
economic development between municipalities andneighbouring First Nations. These partnerships can
support better long-term service outcomes for both
municipalities and local First Nations.

“When a community lacks adequate
infrastructure, they can face issuesof inadequate services and relatedaffordability and accessibility challenges,
which ultimately reduce their quality of life.”– Shannon A Joseph

Civil society can play a role in bringing partitioners’
expertise to bear on supporting better infrastructure,especially in the most marginalized communities.
Joseph outlines a number of NGOs and networks
of infrastructure professionals, such as the
Canadian Network of Asset Managers, who workwith municipalities and their partners to share bestpractices and provide policy recommendation
insights across different levels of government.

Highlighted Progress on Goals

Regional Variation

The federal government has committed $186.7
billion CAD to infrastructure improvements overthe next 12 years in its Investing in Canada Plan,

The regions lagging behind Canadian averages on
SDG 9 tend to be rural and remote. Many Northern
communities, for example, need improvements inport infrastructure and winter roads. They also face

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changing weather patterns due to global
warming. Accessibility challenges have
driven up the cost to food in many Northern
communities and pose an ongoing risk to foodsecurity. Rural and remote communities withdeclining populations also lag behind larger
Canadian cities on infrastructure outcomes.
Joseph notes that it can be rural infrastructure
operations and lack of adequate operator
training that lead to service problems, rather
than an issue with the infrastructure itself.
Enhancing the availability of training forinfrastructure operators in remote or ruralcommunities, including through communities
of practice, can help to address this issue.

Joseph emphasizes the need to measure the impact
of Canada’s infrastructure, industry, and innovation
programs, rather than simply noting how much
Canada is investing since levels of spending are nota proxy for the results being sought through thatspending. It is important for Canada to define what
success on Goal 9 looks like. As a starting place,
Canada could focus on outcomes like new patents,
innovative green businesses, and access to services
for rural and remote communities.

“Communities with few job
opportunities tend to have morepoverty, which poses a challenge to local
governments in predicting revenues
and being able to plan for infrastructure
over the long term. National programs
that focus on capacity building provide
important help for communities thatstruggle with this; helping themnavigate these challenges in a betterway.”– Shannon A Joseph
Comments on the Indicators
With regard to the UN indicators, Joseph
believes Canada has unique challenges that
require more issue-specific measurement.
For example, some Northern communities
are so isolated that it is not feasible forthem to be within 2 kilometers of an allseason road, so other types of infrastructure
becomes more important including airportand port infrastructure. Moreover, Canada’sFirst Nations reserve system has specificjurisdictional issues that are not addressed in
the UN indicators.

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C ro s s- Cu tti ng The me s
Though 99% of Canadians are covered by a mobile network (2G and 3G),
the CRTC recently declared broadband-Internet access a “basic service”
mandating telecommunications companies to provide service throughout thecountry. Indigenous groups welcomed the decision as it will allow many of theircommunities expanded access and connectivity to the world1.
Municipalities have direct influence of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada –waste management, land planning, mobility planning, road design, public transit,
and other components of infrastructure are all areas in which municipalities candirect their influence.

Re co m m end a tion s
•
•
•
•
•

68

Continue to make long-term funding resources available for municipalities to plan over a longer-termhorizon.
Upgrade standards for infrastructure, while maintaining flexibility such that Canadian cities can control
decision-making, and disseminate information about these standards.
Ensure greater accountability of aid provision for infrastructure aid, ensuring links with local, on-theground practitioners to inform decision-making in development.
Collect more data on the state of First Nations housing on-reserve.
Continue to increase funding to services on First Nations reserves until infrastructure conditions match
those of non-First Nations communities.

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C a se Stu dy

Organization/Community:
CESO
Sector:Economic Development
Region/country of impact:
Ontario, Canada

Supporting the creation of small- to medium-sized enterprises, CESO, partners with Matawa
First Nations Management to create resilient and diversified economic infrastructure.
The Challenge
In 2011, the employment rate among Indigenous
people was 9.1 percentage points below thenon- Indigenous rate in Canada. The effects
of unemployment are especially burdensome
for Indigenous communities because theiremployment opportunities frequently dependon government funding. Statistics Canada’s
research concludes that “among Aboriginal
people, the top employer of core-age workers(aged 25 to 54) in 2009 was the health andsocial assistance industry, followed by trade,
construction and manufacturing. ” High levels of
unemployment and lack of opportunity for First
Nations entrepreneurship are significant barriers
Canada faces while facilitating sustainableindustrialization.
Community Response
For over 50 years, CESO has focused on “economic
development by engaging
private sector
advancement and strengthening governing

structures nationally and internationally”. Their national
programs encourage private sector development
and growth within Indigenous communities acrossCanada by supporting Indigenous-led initiatives.
Whether supporting individual entrepreneurs or local
institutions, such as band or tribal councils, CESO’s
model is always community-driven, and focuses ona holistic approach to supporting the key economic
goals within a given community. Once priorities are
determined, CESO works in partnership to build
local capacity to support private sector growth, andto strengthen institutional governance. CESO thensends a “Volunteer Advisor” to support innovation
within and across small businesses through a shortterm mentorship assignment. CESO Volunteer
Advisors typically possess decades of experiencein their respective industries. Once the assignment
is complete, the expert volunteer typically stays incontact with the business owner for months to years
via digital communication and periodically visits
in-person for follow-up assignments, despite thelimited accessibility of some of the more remotecommunities.

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An example of CESO’s work is their current
partnership with the Matawa First Nations
Management (MFNM), a tribal council withnine Ojibway and Cree First Nations members.
MFNM are currently negotiating the terms ofoperation with a mine in their region. While
it is an opportunity for economic growth,
MFNM recognizes that the mine is temporary.
Consequently, they have been awarded funding
from the Ontario Government’s poverty reduction
strategy to diversify and stabilize the local private
sector through entrepreneurship and stabilizing
community-owned businesses. MFNM partneredwith CESO to train local entrepreneurs. This
process has included facilitating workshops on
innovative business practices for 300 people inlocal languages and broadcasting sessions overthe local radio. CESO hopes that those trained

will then pass on these practices to others in thecommunity, allowing the community to prosper
long after the mine stops operating.
CESO’s work with MFNM also includes contributing
to business models for 60 small businesses. Since
the entrepreneurs they work with generally do nothave financial collateral, CESO also helps businessowners in obtaining micro-loans, offered through theprogram’s third partner, RISE Asset Development.
Throughout this process, each business can relyon their expert volunteer to answer questions andhelp solve problems, as well as to support the RISE
Asset’s loan qualification process.. CESO’s work
ultimately diversifies local economies and provides
the foundation for future infrastructure.

Re fe rences
1. The Canadian Press. (2016, December 26). Indigenous groups welcome CRTC’s ‘basic service’ Internet
decision. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/indigenous-groups-welcomecrtcs-basic-service-internet-decision/article33432342/
Assembly of First Nations. (n.d.). National First Nations housing strategy. Retrieved from: http://www.afn.ca/
uploads/files/housing/afn_national_housing_strategy.pdf
Canadian Infrastructure. (2016). ￼￼￼
Canadian Infrastructure report card. Retrieved from: http://
canadianinfrastructure.ca/downloads/Canadian_Infrastructure_Report_2016.pdf
Canadian Manufacturing. (2015). Prevailing winds: Canada’s infrastructure problem and the return of the
Zeppelin. Retrieved from: http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/supply-chain/prevailing-winds-canadasinfrastructure-problem-and-the-return-of-the-zeppelin-2-154807/
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. (2015). Communications Monitoring Report.
Retrieved from: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/reports/policymonitoring/2016/cmr.htm
CESO SACO (2017). About Us. CESO SACO. Retrieved from: https://www.ceso-saco.com/about-us/
Coubrough, J. (2016, May 16). 5 years on: Lake St. Martin evacuees ‘devastated’ and displaced. Retrieved
from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/5-years-on-lake-st-martin-evacuees-devastated-anddisplaced-1.3585093

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EnviroEconomics. (2009). The municipal role in fighting climate change. Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
Retrieved from: https://fcm.ca/Documents/reports/Act_Locally_The_Municipal_Role_in_Fighting_Climate_
Change_EN.pdf
Fiscal Realities Economists (2016). Reconciliation: Growing Canada’s Economy by $27.7 Billion: Background andMethods Paper. The National Aboriginal Economic Development Board. Retrieved from: http://naedb-cndea.
com/reports/naedb_report_reconciliation_27_7_billion.pdf
Government of Canada. (2017). Drinking water advisories: First Nations south of 60. Retrieved from: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/topics/health-environment/water-quality-health/drinking-water/advisoriesfirst-nations-south-60.html
Government of Canada. (2017). First Nation community infrastructure. Retrieved from: https://www.aadnc-aandc.
gc.ca/eng/1100100010567/1100100010571
Government of Canada. (n.d.). Greenhouse gas emissions by Canadian economic sector. Retrieved from: https://www.ec.gc.ca/indicateurs-indicators/default.asp?lang=en&n=F60DB708-1
Government of Canada. (2017, March 22). Infrastructure. Retrieved from: http://www.budget.gc.ca/2017/docs/
themes/infrastructure-en.html
Government of Canada. (2017). Investing in Canada Plan. Retrieved from: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/about-invest-apropos-eng.html
Government of Canada. (2016, June). Key small business statistics. Retrieved from: http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/061.nsf/eng/h_03018.html#point1-1
Government of Canada. (2011). Status of Remote/Off-Grid Communities. Retreived from: https://www.nrcan.
gc.ca/sites/www.nrcan.gc.ca/files/canmetenergy/files/pubs/2013-118_en.pdf
Huffington Post. (2014, March 20). Canada’s Digital Divide Persists, CIRA Report Shows. Retrieved from: http://
www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/03/20/digital-divide-canada-broadband-access_n_4995560.html
ITU. (2015). Percentage of individuals using the Internet. Retrieved from: http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/
Pages/stat/default.aspx
Mackenzie, H. (2013). Canada’s Infrastructure gap. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Retrieved from:https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2013/01/
Canada%27s%20Infrastructure%20Gap_0.pdf
Matawa First Nations Management (2017). About, Matawa First Nations Management. Retrieved from: http://
www.matawa.on.ca/aboutus/
OECD. (2013). CO2 emissions (kg per PPP $ of GDP). Retrieved from: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/
EN.ATM.CO2E.PP.GD
OECD. (2014). Gross domestic spending on R&D. Retrieved from: https://data.oecd.org/rd/gross-domesticspending-on-r-d.htm
Statistics Canada (2010). Aboriginal Peoples. Retrieved from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-402-x/2011000/
chap/ap-pa/ap-pa-eng.htm

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Statistics Canada. (2016). Distribution of employed people, by industry, by province (Newfoundland andLabrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick). Retrieved from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tablestableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/labor21a-eng.htm
Statistics Canada. (2015, December 27). Gross domestic expenditures on research and development. Retrieved
from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/88-221-x/2015001/t054-eng.htm
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from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11f0027m/2011069/t001-eng.htm
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sdg1
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L IF E BE LOW WAT ER
Conserve and sustainably use the oceans,seas and marine resources for sustainable
development

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Ta r g e ts
14 . 1

By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular fromland-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution

14 . 2

By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant
adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for theirrestoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans

14 . 3 scientific cooperation at all levels

Minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced

14 . 4

By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated
fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, inorder to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce
maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics

14 . 5

By 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national
and international law and based on the best available scientific information

14 . 6

By 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity andoverfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishingand refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognizing that appropriate and effective
special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an
integral part of the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies negotiation

14 . 7

By 2030, increase the economic benefits to Small Island developing States and least developed
countries from the sustainable use of marine resources, including through sustainable
management of fisheries, aquaculture and tourism

14 . A

Increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology,
taking into account the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Criteria and Guidelines
on the Transfer of Marine Technology, in order to improve ocean health and to enhance thecontribution of marine biodiversity to the development of developing countries, in particularsmall island developing States and least developed countries

14 . B

Provide access for small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets

14 . C

Enhance the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing
international law as reflected in UNCLOS, which provides the legal framework for theconservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources, as recalled in paragraph 158
of The Future We Want

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O ve r vi ew
Sustainable Development Goal 14 calls for states to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas
and marine resources for sustainable development.” It highlights that the “adverse impacts of climatechange (including ocean acidification), overfishing and marine pollution are jeopardizing recent gains inprotecting portions of the world’s oceans.” In response, the goal’s targets range from minimizing ocean
pollution and acidification to ensuring the sustainable management of marine ecosystems through thecareful regulation of commercial and small-scale fishing.
Bordering on three oceans - the Atlantic, the Arctic and the Pacific - and with the longest coastline ofany state in the world, Canada has a major role to play in ensuring global marine sustainability. Its vital
position increases pressure for Canada to live up to its commitment to protect 10% of its Exclusive
Economic Zone (EEZ) by 2020, as well as implementing effective regulations to manage intensifying
seabed resource exploration and extraction. But, all management techniques must consider Indigenous
values and fish stock management practices, ensuring sustainable access to marine resources for
Indigenous communities without conflict.

Fa c tsheet•

Canada’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
shows evidence of increasing marine
acidity (pH). Over the past 300 million
years, ocean pH has been slightly basic,
averaging about 8.2. But, in the Atlantic,
pH has decreased notably by 0.2 to 0.3 pH
units over the past 70 years. In the Pacific,
the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2
has increased the acidity such that for brief
periods, the pH has reached levels below
7.7. In the Arctic, the uptake of CO2 from theatmosphere is accelerated due to the cold
water temperatures, making it particularly
vulnerable to ocean acidification.

In 2015

7••

Marine plastic pollution is present on all
three Canadian coasts. Evidence shows that
increasing marine debris has affected several
species, particularly seabirds, due to plastic
ingestion. However, Canada lacks a plastic
debris monitoring system. Therefore, the extent
of pollution and how it has impacted different
habitats and species is largely unknown.
Of the 159 major fish stocks assessed in 2015,
152 (96%) were harvested at levels considered
to be sustainable and seven stocks (4%) were
harvested above approved levels. Salmon,
groundfish and swordfish have been heavily
affected by unsustainable fishing which isreflected in the loss of population and damaged
marine ecosystems.

major stocks were
harvested above approved levels

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Data Source: Environment andClimate Change Canada (2015)

••

Canada helped to create and signed thePort State Measures Agreement to Prevent,
Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported
and Unregulated Fishing in 2010. But, toratify the agreement, Canada must firstmake amendments to national fisheries
regulations. To enter into force, theagreement requires three more countries to
ratify it, including Canada.
The government has committed to “ensurethat small-scale fishers, fish workers andtheir communities have secure, equitable
and socially and culturally appropriate
tenure rights to fishery resources” under the
FAO Guidelines for Sustainable Small Scale
Fisheries. Nonetheless, Indigenous Peoples’
fishing rights are constantly undermined byindustrial projects, such as the Site C dam in
British Columbia which is expected to causesignificant adverse effects to local fishing,trapping and hunting.

•

The extent and significance of marine
eutrophication (excessive plant or algae
growth) in Canada is still largely unknown.
However, Environment Canada has conducted
extensive research that shows increasing levelsof eutrophication in 21% of the country’s water
bodies, particularly in the Great Lakes. One of
the reasons is the fact that over 180 non-nativeaquatic species have been either intentionally or
accidentally introduced since 1840. In February
2016, Canada and the US set a target to reduceby 40% the eutrophication in the Great Lakes by2025.

How are we doin g ?
Introduction
Dr. Kim Juniper – Chief Scientist with Ocean
Networks Canada and a Professor in the
School of Earth and Ocean Sciences and in the
Department of Biology at the University of Victoria– underscores the vitality of understanding
changing oceanic conditions in Canada’s
coastal and deep sea waters for implementing
appropriate management practices. This needfor data to develop new monitoring frameworks
and environmental regulation is exacerbated byincreasing human impacts in the deep seas.

Protecting Deep Ocean Seafloors
The deep sea floors of the High Sea Areas
beyond the 200 mile limit of national Exclusive
Economic Zones (EEZ) make up 50% of theplanet’s total surface area and were once consideredpristine natural environments. But, states Juniper, thehuman impacts on deep sea environments must now
be analyzed, as, for example, 30m wide nets of deep
sea trawlers - previously operating at depths down
to 1000m but now regulated to a maximum depth of
800m - scour the deep seafloor.
Moreover, off the coast of the province of British
Columbia, there are ten marine disposal sites,
each complying with international regulations.
Internationally, waste disposal is regulated underthe 1972 London Convention on the Prevention ofMarine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other
Matter. The convention, signed by Canada, takes a“precautionary approach,” requiring that measures
are taken to prevent pollution by all waste disposed,
including waste for which there is no causal link
between inputs and environmental harm.

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But, last year alone, Environment Canada
permitted 204,923m³ of material to be dumped
at the oldests of Canada marine disposal sites,
which lies 6 miles from the coast at a depth of240m.
The sheer volume of waste approved raised
concerns about the sustainability of the dump
and its potential impact on the Pacific seafloor.
Concerns for the protection of deep sea
environments have been further rising, as
terrestrial resources deplete. Depletion,
associated with globally passing peak oil,increases pressure for exploration in the deepsea due to the potential for mineral, oil andnatural gas extraction.
In response, Juniper states that scientificresearch and governments must work together
to manage the environmental impacts ofinevitable extraction. This work must movebeyond the “mining code” of the International
Seabed authority (ISA), which was establishedby the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the
Sea and the 1994 Implementing Agreement
relating to deep seabed mining. Now, the ISA
regulates extraction in the Area, but is limited
in its capacity by its narrow mandate and its
operation beyond the jurisdiction of states.

A Data Gap and Marine Protected Areas
Instead, working within the bounds of states toincrease protection within Exclusive Economic
Zones, Canada committed to setting aside 10%of EEZ by 2020 at the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth
Summit. Despite this commitment, just over
1% of Canada’s EEZ is currently protected. Of
the total EEZ, only 0.01% is considered to be“highly protected,” meaning that regulationbars fishing and oil and natural gas extraction in
the area. These low rates, coupled with the factthat Marine Protected Areas can only be createdby acts of parliament, make it challenging for
Canada to meet its interim target of protecting
5% of EEZ by the end of 2017.

78

Making the task of protecting Canada’s marine
environments yet more challenging, Juniper statesthat the remoteness of sites for potential protection
render data collection costly; historical data records
are also lacking. Consequently, it is hard to attribute
identified changes to either natural variation or longterm anthropogenic climate change. This lack ofdata further challenges the creation of meaningfulindicators, which must be habitat-specific.

Changes and Climate Change
Adding yet another layer of complexity, Juniper
draws attention to the mobile frontal zones of ocean
environments that migrate in accordance withclimatic conditions. With seasonal changes, thelocation of upwelling - the process of deep waterrising to the surface, which bring up large quantitiesof plankton - shifts, creating new foraging areas withhigh biodiversity. Having the capacity to adopt newtechnologies faster, commercial fishers are able
to identify these zones faster than the regulatory
agencies that could work to protect them. These
patterns of geographic flux are only likely to become
more erratic as oceanic changes associated withclimate change increase the duration and intensity of
upwelling.
Climate warming, caused by increasing atmospheric
CO2 concentrations, is also warming the oceans
and increasing stratification of the surface ocean.
Greater stratification can slow mixing of atmospheric
oxygen into the upper layers of open ocean, thereby
impacting species that live at depth down to 1000m.
Increased atmospheric CO2 is also increasing CO2
concentrations in the oceans, producing carbonicacid that dissolves carbonate shells of invertebrates,
especially endangering early life stages of shellfish.

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New Protection Coming
But this is not to say that progress has not been
made in ensuring ocean conservation andprotection. Notably, the federal mandate letterfor Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of the Fisheries,
Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard,
centered Canada’s commitment to “increase
the proportion of Canada’s marine and coastal
areas that are protected - to five percent by
2017, and ten percent by 2020.” In response, theDepartment of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has
proposed the largest Marine Protected Area off
the coast of the province of British Columbia.
The DFO is also committed to employing a“Science Framework” to inform decision-making
and policy, enabling it to make progress towards
establishing meaningful indicators for different
species and habitats across Canada’s EEZ, states
Juniper optimistically. Notably, DFO’s Five-Year
Research Plan (2008-2013) sought to increasescientific knowledge of seven ecosystems acrossCanada’s oceans in order to better advice thedevelopment of ecosystem-based managementof human interactions with marine species. Thisinitiative, coupled with monitoring of ocean
acidification and the Climate Change Science
Initiative that sought to predict the impacts ofanthropogenic climate change on the oceans,
underscores that movement is being madeto ensure that the sustainable conservation of
Canada’s marine environments.

Fishing Access and Managementin the Atlantic
However, the example of the the Mi’Kmaq
and Maliseet nations’ struggles for access toAtlantic and freshwater resources shows thechallenges of implementing policies to manage
sustainable fishery practices, and highlights

Sustainable Development Goal 14’s limited focus
on conservation. Rather, the goal does not addresscontinuing issues around access to marine resourcesthat make conservation a luxury.
Until 1999, people from the Mi’Kmaq and Maliseet
nations were excluded from commercial fisheries.
Rights to accessing marine resources, as defined by
the Treaties of Peace and Friendship signed prior to
1779, were limited to recognized hunting grounds.
After the precedent set by the Sparrow decision of
1990, these bounds were broadened to include
access for all “food, social, or ceremonial” purposes.
But, it was only with the Marshall decision, and its
clarification Marshall 2, that rights to fish stocks
were guaranteed for the purposes of obtaining
a “moderate livelihood,” a decision that sparked
conflict between non-Indigenous and Indigenous
fishers. Today, disputes continue over the definitionof “moderate,” despite the agreement supposedly
only being an interim measure for 5 years.
Moreover, with treaties signed between the DFO
and 16 of 17 First Nations communities that provide
access to marine resources through licensing diminish
Mi’Kmaq and Maliseet authority over fishing practiceand management. Under the licensing agreements,
the regulations for First Nations engaging incommercial fishing are regulated by the federal
government, coming into conflict with Mi’Kmaq andMaliseet values.
Notably, the regulations requiring fishers to put even
edible bycatch from lobster fisheries back into theocean conflicts with the Mi’Kmaq and Maliseet sharedvalue of ‘taking only what you need.’ Consequently,
the bycatch rules for Mi’Kmaq and Maliseet are seen
to force fishers to discard a life taken from the oceanthat could otherwise be used for food by those in thecommunity who are hungry.
This discarding of fish is seen to go against
management practices, a conflict in conservation
furthered by discrepancies in appropriate eel catchsize. Notably, recreational fishers take eel that are 1-5

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years younger than or Mi’Kmaq and Maliseet
practice would allow. As a consequence, few
are left for First Nations, endangering fish stocks
and human livelihoods alike.
The ongoing decline in abundance associatedwith human impact and climate change,
impacting coastal livelihoods, are describedby elders and monitored by the Mi’Kmaq
and Maliseet Nations. This combination ofscientific monitoring and learning from the lived
experiences of elders tracks change and informs
conservation efforts, providing evidence for analternative indicator framework for sustainable
management based in listening and qualitative
assessment.

Comments on Indicators

Indicators to evaluate protection of marine
resources and conserve the oceans must
incorporate both indigenous knowledge andscientific findings to monitor fishing practices.
This will require extensive and reliable datacollection through qualitative and quantitative
methodologies. Juniper emphasizes that thisdata should be used to fill the data gap inremote areas, enabling meaningful indicatorsthat are habitat-specific to be generated. Only
in gathering consistent baseline data can
indicators evaluating the long-term changes
associated with climate change be reported on.

C ro s s- Cu tti ng The me s
Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 protects the rights of Indigenous
peoples to hunting and fishing on their traditional territory. Thus, if Indigenous
people are unable to practice these rights, it is unconstitutiona1 l.

Currently, ~1.3% of Canada’s coastlines are under Marine Protected Areas(MPAs); the goal is to get to 10% by 2020. MPAs help ensure sustainable fishingby allowing ecosystems to flourish and build up resiliency. They are also vital tothe conservation of numerous marine species along Canada’s coasts2.

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Re co m m end a tion s
•
•

•
•

Work with stakeholders to develop and enforce stronger regulatory frameworks to ensurethat deep sea resource exploration and extraction occurs in an environmentally responsible
way
Increase investment in data collection, which allows the federal government to establish
habitat-appropriate indicators for monitoring ocean health. With the transparency of data,
government and non-government actors can be held accountable for ensuring ocean
conservation.
Recognize the value of Indigenous knowledges in understanding oceanic and fish stockchanges, moving to base indicators in a combined listening- and science-informed approachto data generation.
Establish programs that increase public literacy on the sourcing of food comes and its
impacts on oceans.

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C a se Stu dy

Organization/Community: Ecotrust
CanadaSector: Ocean conservation &sustainable fishing
Region/country of impact: Eastern &Western coastal areas of Canada

Ecotrust Canada supports local communities to fulfill their goals of sustainablefishing while increasing economic stability
The Challenge
Small, coastal, and Indigenous communities
historically reliant on fishing now face cultural,environmental, and economic instability due
to many shifts in fisheries management andgovernance. These shifts include changing
regulations, declining/changing fish stocks,
increasing transferability of fishery access rights,
and the resulting dispossession of that accessfor coastal communities and local fishermen.
Few resources exist to support them in assessing
opportunities to invest in solutions and rebuild
local commercial fisheries which can provide
meaningful work and sustainable local income.
In order to increase sustainability and improve
livelihoods, communities face the barrier oflimited access to reliable resources including
data, capital, and support services.

82

Community Response
For over 20 years, Ecotrust Canada (EC) has been
supporting rural and Indigenous communities,
organizations, and industry partners in all stages ofdeveloping their fisheries and aiding them in achieving
their cultural, social, environmental, and financial
objectives. As one of the organization’s four main focus
areas – fisheries, forests, energy, and local knowledge –EC strives to help local communities develop sustainablefisheries initiatives for current and future generations.
This includes supporting fundamental aspects of ahealthy community fishery such as intergenerational
knowledge about fishing practices, ties to local foodsecurity, and fair and equitable access to fish promoting
positive livelihoods for all. In this work, EC keeps cultural
appropriateness, local needs, and environmental
and economic sustainability at the forefront, bringing
community concerns not only into local planning,

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t
a
&
g
&
a

but also where useful to larger national andinternational audiences through reports, maps,
and data visualization.
Most recently, EC has developed an online
fisheries planning and decision support tool, theFisheries Diversification Model, for groups on the
coast of British Columbia. Using up to date data,
EC is able to assess the needs of each community
or region and then determine community-specificcourses of action. EC’s model allows communities
to create ‘fishing scenario’ simulations and receive
feedback on the outcomes and performance fromtheir specific input combinations. This is just one of
the initiatives EC has developed to provide muchneeded resources for fishing communities. Other
initiatives include:• their electronic monitoring program (EM),which provides a more cost effective solution tocollect reliable data through video recordings
and GPS sensors, and engages fishermen as
shared stewards of the resource, and• ThisFish an online consumer facing traceability
tool that traces seafood from boat to plate.
EC supports communities to participate in thedecision-making processes that affect them andtheir livelihoods. By helping fishing plans andoperations succeed while improving economicand environmental sustainability within specificcultural contexts, EC’s programs improve
community wellbeing. Ultimately, EC’s programs

help create “a society where all people are able to enjoy
good lives, are culturally grounded, connected to theirenvironment, and working for the collective benefit ofboth current and future generations.”
The Benefits• Supporting local initiatives to increase awarenessaround sustainable fishery practices for current andfuture generations.
• Regulating
harvesting,increasing
scientificknowledge, and developing knowledge capacityand marine technology through electronicmonitoring systems on fishing vessels.
• Providing community-specific advice based on large
amounts of high-quality data to help local actors
make decisions on economic and environmental
sustainability, all the while increasing employment
and income stability.
• Allowing communities and fishermen to accesshistorical fisheries data and current costs ofbusiness, which can build a more sustainable sourceof income for those who are most at risk of facing
challenges (rural and Indigenous communities).
• Increasing transparency in seafood value chainsbringing benefits to responsible fish harvesters,
helping consumers to make more informed choices,and enabling information flow and connections
between fisherman and those who love seafood.
• Provide access to knowledge and modern fishingpractices to isolated and indigenous communities
that in the past have been marginalized voices indeveloping industry policy.

Re fe rences
1. Constitution Act, 1982. (1982). RIGHTS OF THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLES OF CANADA. Ottawa: Government of
Canada.
2. Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. (2014). Dare to Be Deep: Charting Canada’s Course to 2020. Ottawa.
Annual Review of Marine Science. (2010, January 15). Ocean deoxygenation in a warming world. Retrieved from:http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.marine.010908.163855
Brewer, P., & Barry, J. (2008, September 8). Rising acidity in the ocean: The other CO2 problem. Retrieved from:https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rising-acidity-in-the-ocean/
Canadian Independent Fish Harvesters Federation. (2016). Changes To The Fisheries Act to Provide
Modern Safeguards for the Sustainable Development and Management of Canada’s Coastal Fisheries.
Retrieved from: http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/FOPO/Brief/BR8692141/br-external/
CanadianIndependantFishHarvesters-e.pdf

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Retrieved from: http://cpaws.org/news/canada-proposes-large-marine-protected-area-in-bc
Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat. (2010). Canadian marine ecosystem status and trends report. Retrieved
from: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/CSAS/Csas/publications/sar-as/2010/2010_030_e.pdf
David Suzuki Foundation. (n.d.). Canada’s wild fisheries. Retrieved from: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/
oceans/science/sustainable-fisheries-and-aquaculture/canadas-wild-fisheries/
Devlin, Fernandes. (2017, Jun). Email Communication [Ariel Mishkin].
Ecotrust Canada. (n.d.). Community Fisheries Planning. Retrieved from http://ecotrust.ca/project/communityfisheries-planning/
Ecotrust Canada. (n.d.). Electronic Fisheries Monitoring. Retrieved from http://ecotrust.ca/project/electronicmonitoring/
Ecotrust Canada. (n.d.). Fisheries Diversification Model. Retrieved from http://ecotrust.ca/project/fisheriesdiversification-model/
Ecotrust Canada. (n.d.). Why Ecotrust Canada? Retrieved from http://ecotrust.ca/why-ecotrust/Environment and Climate Change Canada. (2015). Sustainable Fish Harvest. Retrieved from: https://www.ec.gc.
ca/indicateurs-indicators/default.asp?lang=en&n=893AB9F4-1
FAO. (2017). Agreement on Port State Measures Agreement to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported
and Unregulated Fishing. Retrieved from: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/legal/docs/037s-e.pdf
First Nations in BC Knowledge Network. (2017, February 14). Costs and consequences of Site C Dam. Retrieved
from: http://fnbc.info/blogs/judith-sayers/costs-and-consequences-site-c-dam
Fisheries and Oceans Canada. (2016). Ocean Acidification. Retrieved from: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/oceanography-oceanographie/impacts/acidification-eng.html
Fisheries and Oceans Canada. (n.d.). ￼￼
Science at fisheries and Oceans Canada: A framework for the future.
Retrieved from: http://waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/333332.pdf
International Maritime Organization. (2017). Convention on the prevention of marine pollution by dumping ofwastes and other matter. Retrieved from: http://www.imo.org/en/About/conventions/listofconventions/pages/
convention-on-the-prevention-of-marine-pollution-by-dumping-of-wastes-and-other-matter.aspx
International Seabed Authority. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.isa.org.jm/
Government of Canada. (2015, December 30). Phosphorus in Canada’s aquatic ecosystems. Retrieved from:https://www.ec.gc.ca/eaudouce-freshwater/default.asp?lang=En&n=0A77A85E-1&printfullpage=true
Government of Canada. (2017, June 8). Phosphorus and excess algal growth. Retrieved from: https://www.ec.gc.
ca/grandslacs-greatlakes/default.asp?lang=En&n=6201FD24-1
Government of Canada. (2010, September 15). Treaty of Peace and Friendship 1760. Retrieved from: https://www.
aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100028599/1100100028600

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Justin Trudeau. (n.d.). Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard mandate letter. Retrieved
from: http://pm.gc.ca/eng/minister-fisheries-oceans-and-canadian-coast-guard-mandate-letter
Lischka, S., Büdenbender, J., Boxhammer, T., & Riebesell, U. (2010). Impact of ocean acidification and elevatedtemperatures on early juveniles of the polar shelled pteropod Limacina helicina: mortality, shell degradation, andshell growth. Biogeosciences Discussions, 7(6), 8177-8214. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/openview/66a2602de8fdad764514dfe4c85ac5f9/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=105740
Milley, C., & Charles, A. (n.d.). Mi’kmaq fisheries in Atlantic Canada: Traditions, legal decisions and community
management. Saint Mary’s University. Retrieved from: http://smu-facweb.smu.ca/~charles/PDFS_2005/072.pdf
Provencher, J., Bond, A., and Mallory, M. (2014). Marine birds and plastic debris in Canada: a national synthesis
and a way forward. Retrieved from: http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/er-2014-0039
Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. (2016). Retrieved from: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/
sdg1
The Nature Education. (2013). Eutrophication: Causes, Consequences, and Controls in Aquatic Ecosystems.
Retrieved from: https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/eutrophication-causes-consequences-andcontrols-in-aquatic-102364466
The Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area. (n.d.). ￼ Disposal at sea sites. Retrieved from: http://www.
pncima.org/media/documents/atlas/pncima_atlas_map-55_disposal-at-sea-sites.pdf
Vancouver Sun. (2017, April 5). Site off Vancouver’s Point Grey is Canada’s largest marine dump. Retrieved from:http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/mysterious-site-off-vancouvers-point-grey-is-canadas-largest-marinedisposal-site
World Wildlife Fund. (n.d.). Marine protected areas. Retrieved from: http://www.wwf.ca/conservation/oceans/marine_protected_areas/

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PA R T N E R S HI PS
F O R T HE GOALS
Strengthen the means of implementation andrevitalize the global partnershipfor sustainable development

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Ta r g e ts
Finance17 . 1

Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support todeveloping countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection

17 . 2Developed countries to implement fully their official development assistance commitments,
including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per centof ODA/GNI to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed
countries; ODA providers are encouraged to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20
per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries

17 . 3

Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources

17 . 4

Assist developing countries in attaining long-term debt sustainability through coordinatedpolicies aimed at fostering debt financing, debt relief and debt restructuring, as appropriate,
and address the external debt of highly indebted poor countries to reduce debt distress17 . 5Adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries

Technology

17 . 6

Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation
on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing
on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existingmechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology
facilitation mechanism

17 . 7

Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally soundtechnologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional andpreferential terms, as mutually agreed

17 . 8Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacitybuilding mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and enhance the use of enabling
technology, in particular information and communications technology

Capacity - Building

17 . 9Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building indeveloping countries to support national plans to implement all the sustainable development
goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation
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Trade17 . 10

Promote a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral
trading system under the World Trade Organization, including through the conclusion ofnegotiations under its Doha Development Agenda

17 . 11 doubling the least developed countries’ share of global exports by 2020

Significantly increase the exports of developing countries, in particular with a view to

17 . 12

Realize timely implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access on a lasting basis for
all least developed countries, consistent with World Trade Organization decisions, including
by ensuring that preferential rules of origin applicable to imports from least developed
countries are transparent and simple, and contribute to facilitating market access

Systemic Issues

17 . 13 coherence

Enhance global macroeconomic stability, including through policy coordination and policy

17 . 14 Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development
17 . 15 poverty eradication and sustainable development

Respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for

17 . 16

Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multistakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology andfinancial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all
countries, in particular developing countries

17 . 17 building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships

Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships,

17 . 18

By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least
developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly theavailability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age,
race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics
relevant in national contexts

17 . 19

By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable
development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacitybuilding in developing countries

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Over vi ew
Goal 17 aims to “strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnerships forsustainable development.” This “will require coherent policies, an enabling environment for sustainable
development at all levels and by all actors, and a reinvigorated Global Partnership for Sustainable
Development”.
Taking steps to establish partnerships to achieve the SDGs, Canada is increasing stakeholder involvement
domestically in the development of sustainability strategies and has introduced its Feminist International
Assistance Policy. Working abroad and domestically, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), have also built
successful coalitions to progress on the SDGs.The government should continue to consult with CSOs
as they develop new policies, as well as increasing spending on Overseas Development Assistancefrom 0.26% of GNI to the target level of 0.7%.

Fa c tsheet

Canada’s net official development assistance

0.26% of GNI which is far from the targetof 0.7% adopted by the OECD in 1970
isData Source: AidWatch
Canada (2016)••

The mobilization of financial resources todeveloping countries is an important aspectof the Partnership for the Goals. Canada’s
Official Development Assistance (ODA) has
never reached the target of 0.7% of GNI
adopted by the OECD in 1970. Between 2015
and 2016, Canada contributed only 0.26% of
its GNI in the form of Official Development
Assistance(ODA).
In 2016, Canada concluded a five year
project called Strengthening National
Statistical Systems in Developing Countries,
a skills training project. As of 2013, “39 headsof statistical offices and senior statisticiansfrom 21 African and Caribbean countries”
had completed the training program.

•••

Canada has 13 formal bilateral agreements forscience and/or technology cooperation including
the Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) andthe NATO Science and Technology Organisation(NATO STO).
An estimated 36.6% of the total government
expenditures are funded by tax revenues.
The Federal Sustainable Development Strategy(FSDS) is Canada’s primary vehicle for sustainable
development planning and reporting. The FSDS
has established 13 aspirational goals for a moresustainable Canada, including targets and key
priorities as well as taking into account the
Sustainable Development Goals. However, these
indicators are mainly focused on environmental
aspects.

Where Canada Stands: A Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report
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Introduction
There are many opportunities for growing anddeepening partnership states Fraser Reilly-King- a Senior Policy Advisor at the Canadian Council
for International Cooperation. Community
organizations, all three levels of governments
and the private sector are increasingly working
together to achieve sustainable development.
But, as Erin Gilchrist - the Parliamentary Advocacy
Officer for RESULTS Canada, a grassroots
network working to end extreme poverty globally- emphasizes, “we need to work to make surethat Canada’s financial commitments match its
level of ambition when it comes to international
development.”“We need to work to make sure that
Canada’s financial commitments match
its level of ambition when it comes tointernational development.”- Erin Gilchrist
Challenges
In its report World Investment Report 2014, theUN Conference on Trade and Development
highlights a funding gap of $2.5 trillion USD
for developing countries to make substantial
progress on the SDGs. However, due to financial
constraints, wealthy countries have been cuttingback on Official Development Assistance (ODA)
as a percentage of Gross National income (GNI).
Fraser Reilly-King sees fiscal austerity, sustainedlevels of low growth, the uncertainty of US
leadership under President Trump (and theimplications that has for Canada’s own economy),
and a lack of political will as some of the obstacles
G7 countries like Canada are giving for fallingshort on their investments in the SDGs.

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Canada’s ODA as a percentage of GNI (the standard
measure for aid) has been declining since the 1980s,
with a brief period of sustained increases following
the 2002 Monterrey Conference on Financing forDevelopment. Canada’s International Assistance
Envelope, the main component of the ODA, saw
cuts in 2012. Under the current Liberal government,
ODA has flatlined at 0.26% of GNI, far from the 0.7%
target outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development.
As it stands, the current government is set to have thelowest ODA to GNI ratio on average during its firstmandate of any previous governments. According
to Erin Gilchrist, Canada’s largest challenges withregard to Goal 17 lie in collaborating across sectors.
As other experts have mentioned, Canada will needan integrated approach in order to progress on the
SDGs. Gilchrist also cites a lack of public knowledgeof the SDGs as a barrier to making progress onthem. If the public is not aware of the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development, then there will be low
impetus for the government to take action on it.

Progress on Goals
The SDGs are a more realistic reflection of the broadand complex challenges that face the world, thanthe Millennium Development Goals, states ReillyKing. While ambitious, the Sustainable Development
Goals represent a strong framework not only for theactions already underway by many organizations
and governments in Canada, but also for meaningful
collaboration. Community foundations are working
in partnership with municipal governments,
provincial governments, and the private sector, stateboth Gilchrist and Reilly-King, but more and deeper
partnerships need to be built for multi-stakeholder
movement building.

Where Canada Stands: A Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report
BC COUNCIL FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION | 2017

With pressure from civil society, these
relationships are beginning to form. The
Government of Canada is also conducting
ongoing consultation processes for many of the
new large policies, such as the National Housing
Strategy, the National Food Policy, the Canadian
Poverty Reduction Strategy, and the recently
released Feminist International Assistance Policy.
Despite these new opportunities for partnership,
Reilly-King emphasizes the need to understandwhere we are lagging: issues of poverty,
inequality, climate action, and Indigenous rights,
to name but a few. While Canada may appear to
be doing well on the SDGs relative to many othercountries, we still need strong leadership fromthe Federal government to protect the rights
of vulnerable people, while looking to the local
level for high implementation and evaluation.

Comments on the Indicators
Fraser Reilly-King sees all the targets for goal 17 asnecessary and relevant to Canada, but notes thatmany of the indicators will need to be adapted
to the Canadian context. He notes that CSOs
and governments will need to work together tounderstand how much of Canada’s international
development aid can be administered by CSOs andhow much will be contingent on federal and provincial
funding. Moreover, Reilly-King is concerned that thequantitative measures for the SDGs can only tell one
part of the story; they need to be complemented byessential qualitative information. On this front, CSOs
can collect qualitative information that complements
the data collected by the government.

Looking to the international scale, Gilchrist views
consultations as an opportunity for CSOs to use
their expertise to inform decisions. A number of
CSOs have formed working groups to present
a unified voice with regard to their areas ofknowledge and are actively participating in
consultation processes.
The government’s new Development FinanceInstitute (DFI) is noted by Gilchrist as having
the potential to be a valuable means ofstrengthening government and civil society
work via the private sector. However, she notes,
the government must ensure that the DFI will
not replace ODA, but rather exist in additionand complement it. To this end, Helen Scott, theExecutive Director of the Canadian Partnershipfor Women and Children’s Health, highlights
the $650 million CAD Canada pledged forsexual and reproductive rights worldwide was
not an addition to Canada’s ODA; rather, it was
repurposed from other parts of existing ODA.

Where Canada Stands: A Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report
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C ro ss- Cu tti ng The me s
The Truth and Reconciliation Commision called for a Reconciliation Council tooversee the implementation of its 94 final recommendations, which the federal
government established in 2016. As the government moves toward reconciliation
with Indigenous peoples, it must keep in mind the the consultation principle of“nothing done about us, without us 1.”

Re com m enda tion s•

Implement a ten year timetable to expand its ODA to 0.7% of GNI. CSOs and the Government
should inform Canadians about the SDGs in order to create understanding of the goals andpressure for governmental accountability.

•

Create cross-sectoral and -departmental partnerships to build policy surrounding the SDGs.
The Government of Canada should maintain strong partnerships with international multilateral
initiatives, drawing on local expertise to inform decisions.

•

Disaggregate regional and demographic results to develop a robust set of Canada-specific SDG
indicators that will to fully understand who is being left behind on the SDGs.

•

Convene a multistakeholder, national roundtable on the SDGs to understand what organizations
are working on SDG-related initiatives.

•

Focus on strengthening tax administration in developing countries, including cracking down on
illicit capital flows and tax evasion.

•

Expand Canada’s philanthropic community, including encouraging high net worth individuals toinvest more in realizing the SDGs at home and overseas, creating incentives to attract philanthropic
foundations, and encouraging Canadian foundations to invest internationally.

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Re fe rences
1. Tasker, J. P. (2016, December 15). Justin Trudeau announces 3 steps to help enact Truth and Reconciliation calls
to action. Retrieved from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-indigenous-leaders-trc-1.3897902
AidWatch Canada. (2016). Trends in Total Canadian ODA Disbursements. Retrieved from: http://aidwatchcanada.
ca/canadian-aid-trends/canadian-oda-disbursements/
Defense Research and Development Canada. (2017). International partnerships. Retrieved from: http://www.drdcrddc.gc.ca/en/partnerships-partenariats/government.page
Department of Finance Canada. (2016). Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada - Fiscal Year
2015–2016. Retrieved from: https://www.fin.gc.ca/afr-rfa/2016/report-rapport-eng.asp
Economy Watch. (2015). General government total expenditure (% of GDP) Data for All Countries. Retrieved
from: http://www.economywatch.com/economic-statistics/economic-indicators/General_Government_Total_
Expenditure_Percentage_GDP/
Goal 17 .:. Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. (2016). Retrieved from: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg17
Government of Canada. (2016). Achieving a Sustainable Future. Retrieved from: http://fsds-sfdd.ca/index.html#/
en/goals/
Government of Canada. (2017). Project profile — Strengthening National Statistical Systems in Developing
Countries. Retrieved from: http://w05.international.gc.ca/projectbrowser-banqueprojets/project-projet/details/
A034091001?Lang=eng&wbdisable=true
The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service. (2017). Science, Technology and Innovation Agreements a Boon for
Business. Retrieved from:http://tradecommissioner.gc.ca/canadexport/0001271.aspx?lang=eng;
Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. (2016). Retrieved from: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/
sdg1

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Published July 2017