The federal government says the 2022 budget it tabled April 7 builds on the things it already announced for Black Canadians, including:
- $100 million in 2021-22 for the Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative for Black-led and Black-focused community organizations;
- $200 million for the creation of a Black Endowment Fund to provide steady and reliable funding for Black charities;
- Over $19 million for culturally specific approaches to mental health for Black communities in Canada; and
- Up to $265 million over four years for the Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund, in partnership Black-led business organizations and financial institutions.
New funding in Budget 2022 includes:
- $50 million over two years, starting in 2022-23 for the Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative to continue empowering Black-led and Black-serving community organizations and the work they do to promote inclusiveness;
- $1.5 million in 2022-23 for a federal contribution towards an endowment which would support the ongoing activities of the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora. The Jean Augustine Chair housed at York University, is focused on addressing the systemic barriers and racial inequalities in the Canadian education system to improve educational outcomes for Black students;
- $3.7 million over four years, starting in 2022-23 for Black-led engagement, design, and implementation of a Mental Health Fund for Black federal public servants; and
- $40.9 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, and $9.7 million ongoing to the federal granting councils to support targeted scholarships and fellowships for promising Black student researchers.
Some of this sounds great and are certainly steps in the right direction. Others, like just $50 million over two years for the Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative, sound woefully inadequate. However, really knowing what’s enough will take detailed analysis, including talking to lots of Black folks to find out if the programs are having the intended impact (which would be great projects for some of those student researchers to work on with professionals).
What’s easier to see is what wasn’t included at all.
One of the biggest omissions is no money to specifically collect data on the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black Canadians. The government’s Budget 2021 had $172 million over five years to “enhance our ability to collect disaggregated data, especially on diverse populations, to bring more equity, fairness, and inclusion into federal government decision making”. But without specifically allotting some of this money to study the pandemic impact on Black Canadians it’s likely none will be.
Another big omission in Budget 2022 is connected to the merging of Canada’s anti-racism and anti-hate initiatives. Budget 2022 has $85 million over four years, starting in 2022-23, to support the work underway to launch a new Anti-Racism Strategy and National Action Plan on Combatting Hate. The Budget says the funds, “will support community projects that ensure that Black and racialized Canadians, and religious minorities have access to resources that support their full participation in the Canadian economy, while also raising awareness of issues related to racism and hate in Canada.” The problem is this groups systemic discrimination, including systemic anti-Black racism, with “hate”, when the two are fundamentally different. Systemic discrimination, like that faced by Black and Indigenous people in Canada, refers to discrimination by state bodies – like the police, schools and the health care system – and private institutions – like banks and employers – resulting in disproportionate numbers of Black and Indigenous people being jailed, unemployed or underemployed. It also leads to disproportionate numbers of Black and Indigenous students being suspended, expelled and streamed into non-academic courses and worse health outcomes for Black and Indigenous people. So, although a recently released Statistics Canada hate crimes report shows Black Canadians faced the most hate crimes of any group in Canada in 2020, systemic anti-Black racism is the far worse and fundamental problem. Budget 2022, includes $1.2 million to support the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism and $1.2 million to support the new Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia. The government should create a similar Special Envoy on Systemic Anti-Black Racism.
Other notable omissions from Budget 2022 are no mention of specific funding for Black Canadians in either Chapter 1 – Making Housing More Affordable or Chapter 4 – Creating Good Middle Class jobs. Regarding housing, on Feb.18, 2022, the federal government announced $10 million for a pilot project to help 200 Black families in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) purchase a first home. However, the project is a partnership with the Black North Initiative and Canada’s Big 5 banks – both of which have been recently critiqued regarding doing things for Black folks. A July 2021 Globe and Mail article revealed most companies had made little progress on diversity a year after signing the BNI pledge to take action. This followed articles by El Jones and Desmond Cole in May 2021 reporting how BNI was benefitting from anti-Blackness partly by accepting a $1 million donation from one of its board members, Prem Watsa, who is the largest investor in the racist U.S. for-profit bail system.
The big Canadian banks’ involvement in the program is also suspect given an April 6 Globe and Mail article reported how “Canada’s big six banks almost came together to help Black entrepreneurs – but then they went their separate ways.” The article explains how the banks were originally supposed to take part in the Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund program but pulled out at the last minute after the government refused to guarantee the loans. It would be easier to give the banks the benefit of the doubt for why they walked away – if every one of the Big Five hadn’t refused to tell the Globe and Mail reporter why. Budget 2022 has measures to get the banks to pay back some of the billions they made during the pandemic, in part due to the federal pandemic support for people and businesses that helped de-risk their balance sheets. The government should use its powers to give the banks the incentive to support the Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund without loan guarantees – or with less favourable ones than the banks are used to – and treat Black folks equitably by giving more Black people personal and business loans.
But giving Black businesses loans only helps if they have business and the Budget was silent on something that Black communities have been requesting for years that would address this: setting aside a percentage of federal government contracts for Black businesses as the government has been doing for years for Indigenous businesses. There was yet again no mention of this.
Although Budget 2022 included $60 million in 2023-24 to increase the federal contribution to criminal legal aid services it was silent on two key justice-related issues: expunging the convictions of the many Black folks found guilty of minor cannabis offences before cannabis was made legal and removing mandatory minimum sentences on drug offences, as called for by Jonathan Rudin, program director at the Toronto-based Aboriginal Legal Services. Rudin says the funding fails to address the root problems inherent in the justice system.
Given one of the impacts of systemic anti-Black racism is high unemployment, and that the legal cannabis industry is now dominated by white male owners, the government should also provide funding and support to help Black Canadians get into the cannabis industry.
Understandably (and happily), some Black groups aren’t waiting for government funding to start the work to comprehensively analyse if the Budget 2022 funding is adequate. For example, the leaders of the Black Class Action suit against the Government of Canada released a statement on the proposed $3.7 million Mental Health Fund for Black federal public servants saying that, “while this represents a step in the right direction, the measure is lacking in resources and details…$925,000 per year is wholly insufficient to design and implement a national mental health program. Secondly, a four-year period to design and implement the program is too long. Workers need help right now and cannot put their mental health issues on hold. We are calling on the government to provide more financial resources for this plan and to implement it quickly. The pandemic & global conflict have shown us the government can move quickly when they see a crisis. This budget is carefully worded to delay any serious & urgent implementation of a response to the mental health crisis facing Black workers in the public service.” They call on Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland to request more funding for the program and to implement it within the next 12 months.
The Budget also includes some things that will benefit middle and lower income Canadians – including the many Black Canadians who are disproportionately lower income. This includes $5.3 billion over five years, starting in 2022-23, and $1.7 billion ongoing to provide dental care for Canadians. The program would be fully implemented by 2025 and restricted to families with an income of less than $90,000 annually. The Budget also commits to continue the ongoing work towards a universal national pharmacare program including tabling a Canada Pharmacare bill and working to have it passed by the end of 2023. The NDP demanded both these measures as part of its supply and confidence deal with the government, proving once again that minority governments are best for Black folks.
Finally, the government is taking concrete action to make corporations – including Big Tech – pay their fair share of taxes by increasing the corporate tax rate (although only on banking and life insurance companies) and closing several corporate tax loop holes.
Black groups across the country need to do more analysis like the Black Class Action folks did – and share it – and the 3rd National Black Canadians Summit, July 29-31 in Halifax would be a great place to do so.