EG’s 2024-2027 IIDEA (Indigeneity, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) Action Plan

IIDEA Action Plan cover page

Approved by EG Council in October 2024, the IIDEA Action Plan identifies 73 internal and external-facing initiatives that will guide the Town’s work and contribute to a community where diversity is celebrated, programs, spaces, and services are accessible and equitable, and everyone feels a sense of belonging. The Action Plan identifiesspecific priorities, keeps us accountable, and ensures effectiveness of our work. It also serves as a story-telling and educational resource, sharing information about the Town’s IIDEA initiatives that are already underway and offering graphics and a glossary to support further learning. 

Building upon foundational work of the statements made in the 2019 York Region Inclusion Charter, EG’s 2021 Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Framework, and the EG - You Belong Employee Experience Strategy, the Town is shifting from using the acronym EDI to IIDEA. The term IIDEA (Indigeneity, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) better captures an increased focus on Indigeneity and accessibility. 

EDI to IIDEA arrow

The IIDEA Action Plan aligns with the Town’s commitments as stated in the York Region Inclusion Charter, which EG signed on April 10, 2019, with human-rights, accessibility, and equity legislation and it furthers the Town’s Truth and Reconciliation journey. Taking a beyond-compliance approach, this multi-year plan strives act upon our deeper commitment to this work and the communities we serve. As we grow, the commitments made to social sustainability in the 2022-2026 EG’s Strategic Plan will only become more vital to all employees and residents being able to thrive. 

To ensure accountability, bi-annual reports will be shared on EG’s IIDEA webpage to capture progress and the work remaining. Annual updates will also be provided to EG Council. 

Please see below for further information about the key concepts used within the IIDEA Action Plan. 

Key Concepts and Further Learning

Communities of Focus

The Plan’s initiatives are organized around communities of focus, the forms of oppression they face, and related anti-oppressive approaches that can help to challenge and dismantle existing barriers and inequities at interpersonal and structural levels: 

Indigenous Peoples
Forms of Oppression: Colonialism and Anti-Indigeneity
Anti-Oppressive Approaches: Truth and Reconciliation, Anti-Colonialism, Resisting Anti-Indigenous Racism

Black People/People of African Descent
Forms of Oppression: Anti-Black Racism, Anti-Blackness
Anti-Oppressive Approach: Dismantling Anti-Black Racism

Racialized People and Minoritized Faith Groups
Forms of Oppression: Racism, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Anti-Sikhism, Repression of Indigenous Spirituality, etc.
Anti-Oppressive Approaches: Anti-Racism, Resisting Xenophobia, and Inclusion of Minoritized Religions/Faith Groups

People who Identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ and/or Women
Forms of Oppression: Homophobia, Transphobia, Anti-2SLGBTQIA+ Violence, Cis-Heteronormativity, Gender-Based Violence
Anti-Oppressive Approaches: 2SLGBTQIA+ Inclusion, Gender Justice

Disabled People/ Persons with a Disability
Forms of Oppression: Ableism
Anti-Oppressive Approaches: Accessibility and Disability Justice (including the Universal Design Principles and the Social Model of Disability)
Diversity and Inclusion

 Model using coloured dots to explain Equity, Diversity and InclusionInclusion is the creation of an environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging, is treated with respect and can fully participate with a focus on groups that are marginalized and historically excluded. 

Diversity is the demographic mix of a group, community, or organization, with a focus on the representation of communities that are marginalized and historically excluded. 
Equity
EEquity, Equality and Justice quity is an approach that recognizes that barriers exist in our society as a result of systems of oppression. Whereas equality is an approach to justice and fairness that provides everyone with the same resources, equity seeks to reduce and remove the barriers that marginalized communities face by providing the necessary resources and supports. 
Indigeneity
Indigeneity graphic

Indigeneity is a term that has emerged to describe the state of being Indigenous or related to Indigenous-ness.  

In the context of the IIDEA Action Plan, the term Indigeneity also indicates that the scope of this work will include strengthening relationships with Indigenous communities, engaging in a Truth and Reconciliation journey, and taking anti-colonial action, to counteract the historical and current violence of settler colonialism.  

While Indigenous Peoples face inequities, Indigenous thought leaders have stated that Indigenous communities should not be referred to as equity-seeking/deserving groups, as this work is better framed as being concerned with their self-determination, sovereignty and protection of the land and water.  

Indigenous Peoples are the original inhabitants of this land and have unique status and rights that are recognized under Section 25 and 35 of the Constitution.  
Accessibility

Accessibility refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people who have disabilities.

Relevant to accessibility is the social model of disability, which understands that physical environments and mental attitudes create barriers as the source of what is ‘disabling’, rather than the conditions of a disabled person. 

Also relevant to accessibility is the concept of universal design, which is the approach of designing products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without need for adaptation or specialized design.  

Although this Action Plan’s initiatives reference the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) requirements and the Town’s Multi-Year Accessibility Plan, it strives to go beyond compliance. This Action Plan therefore includes accessibility-related initiatives that exceed legislative requirements and incorporates approaches influenced by the social model of disability, universal design and disability justice.

 

Model of disabilities
Accessibility model graphic
Anti-Oppression

An anti-oppression approach involves IIDEA work at all levels that oppression manifests: personal, interpersonal, institutional, structural and epistemological/ideological levels. 

First coined by critical race theorist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, intersectionality is a theory that helps to guide anti-oppressive analysis and action. Intersectionality makes evident that we do not live single issue lives, rather, marginalized social identities and systems of oppression interlock and intersect to form unique experiences of discrimination and disadvantage. For example, Moya Bailey coined the term “misogynoir” to name that Black women often face discrimination and negative stereotypes that are shaped by both anti-Black racism and misogyny. Anti-oppressive approaches therefore must also be intersectional. 


Anti-Oppression graphic 
Intersectionality
Inequities in Canada

It is helpful to understand IIDEA work as a vital response to existing inequities that persist across Canada at municipal, provincial, and national levels. Inequities refer to unjust disparities that directly harm marginalized communities in all facets of life, including access to wealth, resources, and opportunities. These inequities manifest in various sectors like education, healthcare, housing, and the criminal justice system in unique ways for various groups. Inequities are not a result of any kind of imagined shortcomings of marginalized communities, but rather are created and sustained by intersecting forms of oppression, such as racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, sexism, and colonialism. The following is a list of only a few examples from the vast inequities within Canada: 

Unfair Treatment and Discrimination:  

  • According to the Canadian Race Relations Canadas’s 2024 Race Relations in Canada Final Report, large majorities of Canadians who are Black (76%) or Indigenous (71%) say that people in their group are treated unfairly at least sometimes, if not often, because of their race and culture (2024). The same report found that discrimination happening regularly or from time to time is most widely reported by Canadians who are Black (48%) or First Nations (57%), followed by those who are South Asian (40%), Chinese (39%), East or Southeast Asian (32%), or other racialized groups (35%) (2024). 

Workplace Discrimination: 

  •  According to a 2022 report by The Future Skills Centre and the Diversity Institute titled Experiences of Discrimination at Work: 

    • Two in five racialized employees experience race-based discrimination in the workplace. This increases to one in two for Black employees. 

    • Three in ten women experience gender-based discrimination in the workplace, and this experience is more common for women who are younger, highly educated, and employed in professional or executive occupations. 

    • Two in five Indigenous employees experience discrimination in the workplace because of their Indigenous identity. This rises to one in two for First Nations employees. 

    • One in four employees with disabilities experiences discrimination in the workplace because they have a disability. (2022)

Economic Disparities: 

  • According to Statistics Canada’s 2021 census data: 

    • Indigenous and Black women in Ontario earn 58 cents for every dollar a white man makes.Women with disabilities? 57 cents.South Asian women? 55 cents. 

    • The poverty rate for First Nations people living off reserve was 14.1 per cent, twice as high as that of non-Indigenous people (7.4 per cent). Metis and Inuit people had slightly lower rates at 9.2 per cent and 10.2 per cent, respectively. 

    • The poverty rate for trans women and men was 12.0 per cent and 12.9 per cent, respectively. Cisgender women and men, by comparison, experience poverty at a much lower rate at 7.9 per cent for women and 8.2 per cent for men. Non-binary people are most severely affected with a poverty rate of 20.6 per cent. 

    • Racialized communities in Canada are 20% to 40% more likely to live in poverty than the Canadian average, with significant differences between communities.  

    • Recent immigrants experience an increased risk of poverty. In 2020, the poverty rate among those who had arrived in Canada since 2016 was 16.1%, nearly two-and-a-half times the rate of those born in Canada. 

    • 12.4% of Black people live in poverty, compared to 8.1% of the overall population

Health Inequities: 

    • Life expectancy and health-adjusted life expectancy were consistently lower and infant mortality and unintentional injury mortality were consistently higher among those living in lower-income areas, with lower educational attainment, and with greater material and social deprivation. These health outcomes were also worse in areas with a high concentration of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people. 
    • Low self-rated mental health was more common among those with the lowest income, lower levels of educational attainment, and unskilled and semi-skilled occupations, and decreased as socioeconomic gradients increased. Low self-rated mental health was also more common among those identifying as bisexual or gay/lesbian compared with those identifying as heterosexual.