Interim Report

*Promises that were made are highlighted in green.

*Suggested actions not explicitly mentioned in speech are highlighted in Red.

1) Health and Wellbeing - Puts people's health and wellbeing first. No exceptions.

a) Protects the Environment

Actions	Pass √ Fail X	Notes
	X - G20 energy communiqué sign-on.	N1
Takes action to protect biodiversity and create nature-based carbon sinks.	√ - Signed Leaders Pledge for Nature. X - Haven’t met current pledges yet. X - Haven’t shown effective national leadership or coordination.	N2
Shifts away from harmful, destructive, extractive/industrial practises.	X - Need to move economy, global trade, and subsidies away from destructive practises.
Acknowledges and respects Indigenous land stewardship, sovereignty, self-determination, customs, laws, and values.	X - Indigenous land rights violations. X - Need to centre Indigenous Land Stewardship as true Conservation.	N3 N4
Uses nature-based solutions to address the climate crisis (i.e. plant two billion trees).	X - Tree-planting delayed.	N5
Bans “harmful” single-use plastics and increase recycling.	√ - Investments made through the Zero Plastic Waste Initiative. √ - A proposed integrated management approach to plastic products:discussion paper. X - Needs to go further to ensure merchant responsibility and alternatives to plastic.
Modernizes Canada’s Environmental Protection Act.	√ - Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development (SCESD) responsible for Canadian Environmental Protection Act statuary review. X - Long overdue for an update.	N6
Creates a new Canada Water Agency. Protecting water.	√ - Consultation process for Canada Water Agency. √ - Investment in 46 projects to protect fresh water. X - Canadian Navigable Waters Act weak.	N7 N8

b) Takes Care of Everyone

Increases access to safe, affordable housing.	√ - Investments in Housing Supply Challenge, Affordable Housing Innovation Fund, Rapid Housing Initiative, Major Cities Stream, and Projects Stream.
Creates partnerships (incl. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nation) to address food insecurity.	√ - Additional 100 million invested in Emergency Food Security Fund. X - Not addressing underlying systemic changes needed. X - First Nations food security and sovereignty threatened by climate change.
Targets measures for personal support workers and supports other frontline workers.	√ - Consultations launched to improve living conditions for temporary foreign workers.
Furthers Safe Restart Agreements (i.e. help health care systems secure PPE).	X - Not enough protection provided for long-term care and other health care workers.	N9

Notes:

N1 - Initiated by Saudi Arabia, the G20 energy communiqué includes fossil fuel bailouts, doesn’t mention Fossil Fuel subsidies, and endorses a “circular economy” strategy that depends a lot on unproven carbon capture methods, distracting from what is actually needed: a reduction of emissions.

N2 - Next UN General Assembly High Level Week in September 2021, will review progress and reaffirm.

N3 - “To address and alleviate human rights questions, social justice issues, and conservation challenges, the Global Safety Net calls for better protection for Indigenous communities….” (1) Yet, from coast to coast, we see Indigenous communities trying to protect land and water subjected to rights violations.

N4 - “Environmentalism and Indigenous rights must go hand in hand. Those who have stewarded these lands for thousands of years hold the knowledge and relationships key to carrying forward the legacy of thriving ecosystems.” “....sovereignty claims are inextricably linked to the health and sustainability of the lands and waters they care for.” (2)

Countries Miss All 20 Targets Under UN Biodiversity Convention
Indigenous Stewardship is true Conservation: We Need to Move Beyond Eco-Colonialism - Maia Wikler, October 30, 2020, raventrust.com

N5 - No trees planted and no money allotted to the tree-planting program in 2019.

N6 - 87 recommendations came out in SCESD 2017 review.

N7 - Projects funded include things like an effort to restore fish habitat and address algae issues in Hamilton Harbour.

N8 - The 2018 Canadian Navigable Waters Act does not restore lost legal protections for waterways.

N9 - Infection rate of Canadian health care workers 2 times higher than the global average. (N8)“‘Our political leaders have been quick to thank health care workers for their service but have failed to guarantee the minimum protections they need to stay safe at work. With no end to the pandemic in sight, we must listen to experts by acting urgently to guarantee the safety of frontline health workers and their patients,’ concluded Silas.” (1)

Leading experts call on Canada to protect health workers from COVID-19, October 28, 2020, nursesunion.ca

2) Strengthens the Social Safety Net - and provides relief directly to people.

a) Strengthens Communities

Employment Insurance system changed.	√ X - Some credit for adapting quickly to pandemic needs, but changes to EI do not solve underlying and long-term systemic problems.
Disability Inclusion Plan with a new Canadian Disability Benefit.	X - One-time 600$ COVID-19 disability benefit not nearly enough. Need to fulfill other promises related to Disability Inclusion Plan.

b) Enables Positive Change

Makes “it easier for” migrants “to formally become Canadian.”	√ - Plans announced to make the path to permanent residency easier for temporary students, workers, and asylum seekers. X - Not status for all.	N10
National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence.	√ - Accelerated investment in shelters, transition housing, and organizations providing services related to gender-based violence. √ - Virtually in discussions with Indigenous women, survivors, two-spirit and LGBTQQIA and other groups during COVID-19. X - Promised to develop the plan by June 2020, yet no plan or updated timelines have been released. Action needed now.
Accessible, affordable, high quality childcare.	X - Addressing the need for accessible, affordable childcare has been a promise made and deferred for 50 years. Still lacking a plan and timelines. X - Canada’s childcare spending ranks among the lowest in international studies as it does not have a publicly managed, operated and funded system. √ - Investments made in childcare in Nunavut and Quebec.
Accelerated Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy.	√ - Increased investment in Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy.

c) Promotes Racial Justice

Enacts a societal transformation that values & protects all people. Defunds the police and prison abolition.

X - Long-promised justice system reforms fall short of the deep, systemic changes needed.

N11

Increases economic empowerment (i.e. Black Entrepreneurship Program). Takes action on online hate.

√ - Funded 85 anti-racism community projects.

√ - Investment in Black Entrepreneurship Program.

X - Does not address systemic issues.

X - Promises to build a diverse public service still unfulfilled.

N12

N13

Notes:

N10 - Stipulations about who qualifies based on economy/essential services.

N11 - Moving ahead with promises at all would be a step forward. For example, promises to change the over-representation of Black and Indigenous people in the criminal justice system were made in 2015 and over the past five years, maximum penalties for several offences have gotten stiffer. There is also an ongoing call for the elimination of mandatory minimums. The review of Canada’s Criminal Justice System conducted last year needs firm commitments.

N12 - Projects like the Nova Scotia-based Black Business Initiative, an initiative by Legal Aid Ontario “to improve race-based collection of data on the bail system” and Justice for Girls, a program “to help Indigenous women and girls access justice, education and employment.”4

Feds fund 85 anti-racism projects that target economic barriers, online hate, Jolson Lim, October 15, 2020, ipolitics.ca

N13 - i.e. A focus on loans can be problematic as there have been systemic barriers that prevented BIPOC from accessing good credit.

3) Workers and Communities - Prioritize the needs of workers and communities.

a) Values Everyone’s Contributions

Extends the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy.

√ - Plan to extend through June 2021.

b) Helps others Work Together for the Good of All

Incentives and infrastructure for zero-emission products, building retrofits, zero-emission vehicles, renewable and clean energy.

√ - Electric Car investment in Oakville.

√ - Money for construction, retrofits, clean power, and transit vehicles.

One million jobs based at least partly on strategic investments in the social sector and climate action.

√ - Worker transition through Canada Coal Transition Initiative.

√ - Investment in green jobs for youth continued from June 2020.

N14

End fossil fuel subsidies. Hold industry accountability for emissions. Curtail federal involvement in new and expanded oil and gas pipelines.

X - Money to subsidize and maintain oil industry.

X - For questionable “grey” technologies.

X - For industry decarbonization that prolongs Fossil Fuels.

X - Systemic changes to the economy needed.

N15

N16

Notes:

N14 - i.e. Heat recovery systems for University of BC, transition centre for coal workers and some aspects of the Infrastructure Bank.

N15 - i.e. Money for the oil industry in St. Johns and to help the oil industry, Strategic Innovation Fund. The new report, G20 Scorecard of Fossil Fuel Funding, finds Canada still gives large amounts for oil and gas production. In fact, Canada ranks the worst of the G20 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Countries when public finance is considered on a per GDP basis.

N16 - i.e. Wealth taxes, stronger public funding for the public good, redistributive wealth, circular approaches, non-market mechanisms, doughnut economics.

4) Builds Resiliency

a) Makes Plans that serve the Long Term

Plans to “exceed” Canada’s current emissions reduction target for 2030.

X - Current ambitions need to increase now.

N17

b) Follows up with Appropriate, Effective Action

See the marks above, under “Helps Everyone Work Together for the Good of All!”

Notes:

N17 - Clean Arctic Alliance, given the drastic and alarming changes in the arctic, call for “beginning with a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.” Current Nationally Determined Contributions to Paris Agreement are inadequate and must be increased before the end of 2020.

5) Builds Solidarity

a) Shares Resources Fairly and Cooperates

	√? - Now considering Border carbon adjustments.
	X - More International Climate Finance needed now.	N18
*Powering Past Coal Alliance.*	X - Coal mines being considered.	N19

b) Shows Responsibility for Others

1 million jobs and the future generation.

See Workers and Communities section.

Notes:

N18 - Fair amounts need to be allotted for mitigation, adaptation, and gender equity. It is urgent that grants make up a greater portion of Canada’s contribution and that more is paid to least developed and small island countries.

N19 - Despite being a founding member of the Powering Past Coal Alliance, Canada is still considering coal mine expansions. They are also planning the phase out a decade too late.

6) Indigenous Rights

a) Respects the Rights of Others

Introduce legislation for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) before the end of year.

X - Ongoing land rights violations across the country in contradiction to UNDRIP.

X - Free, Prior, and Informed Consent not practised.

X - Inadequacies in government draft of UNDRIP legislation.

X - DFA seizure of Mi’kmaw lobster traps. Not supporting the right to livelihood fishing.

N20

N21

b) Takes Appropriate Responsibility

End boil water advisories.

X - Walked back promises to end boil water advisories again.

Further action around "Truth and Reconciliation”and “National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls”.

X - Delayed development of National Action Plan to prevent and address violence.

X - No official response to National Inquiry’s Final Report.

√ - National Day for Truth and Reconciliation declared.

Co-develop “distinctions-based Indigenous health legislation” and continue to address the infrastructure gap in Indigenous communities on a “distinctions-basis.”

√ - Pandemic support given for Indigenous communities.

X - Sustained investment and working ongoing in partnership with Indigenous communities needed and not reflected in rights violations and inaction.

N22

Notes:

N20 - Industrial projects taking precedence over land rights. Police violence taking place. Racist acts taking place.

N21 - i.e. Still do not have to consult Indigenous people, 20 year commitment to implement, lacks concrete steps for free, prior, and informed consent, self-determination or redistribution of wealth and resources.

N22 - One example of these failures is articulated by AFN National Chief Perry Bellegrade, who points out that the throne speech does not mention "mechanisms for treaty implementation"(1) and that the conflict in the Maritimes shows that there is an urgent need for these mechanisms.

"Canada 'ragging the puck' on First Nations fishing rights, MP says'" Brett Forester, September 25, 2020, aptnews.ca

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