Canada’s first 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan makes big promises, but does it go far enough?
Why It Matters
Most 2SLGBTQI+-serving organizations currently rely on project-based financing and volunteers, which can lead to burnout and instability. Predictable funding has the potential to grow the capacity of 2SLGBTQI+ non-profits and social enterprises.
It’s a move many are calling historic; a five-year federal 2SLGBTQI+ action plan prioritizing community initiatives and organizations.
“This action plan is undoubtedly a deep shift in Canadian public policy,” said Tyler Boyce, executive director of Enchanté Network, which connects 2SLGBTQI+ organizations across the country while advocating for sustainable financing.
“Funding for queer and trans communities cannot only be project funding where you get money, then the project ends and that’s it. That doesn’t work in our sector,” said Boyce, referring to existing funding models. “There needed to be an investment in capacity so that the sector can actually have the chance to grow.”
And now there has been.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement in Ottawa ahead of the city’s Capital Pride Parade on August 28. First promised in the Liberal government’s 2022 budget, the action plan comes with $100 million in funding over five years, 75 per cent of which is earmarked for community organizations serving 2SLGBTQI+ communities.
That includes $40 million in new capacity-building support, delivered through Women and Gender Equality Canada’s Community Capacity Fund, which prioritizes funding for 2SLGBTQI+ communities experiencing additional marginalization, such as Black, racialized and Indigenous 2SLGBTQI+ communities, as well as persons with disabilities, seniors, youth, official language minority communities and those living in rural areas.
“Canada gets a little bit stronger every day that we choose to embrace and to celebrate who we are, in all our uniqueness,” Trudeau said.
Additionally, data-collection and community-led policy research will receive close to $8 million under the action plan, while a further $5.6 million has been allocated to the development and implementation of awareness campaigns focused on ending discrimination. Close to $12 million has been set aside for the 2SLGBTQI+ Secretariat as well.
Women and Gender Equality Canada’s Projects Fund, which supports community-informed initiatives aimed at addressing specific barriers to 2SLGBTQI+ equality, will also distribute $35 million in funding under the action plan.
But while the action plan is the first of its kind in Canada, 2SLGBTQI+ advocates note the bar is set extremely low. Funding has been stymied by deep-seated homophobia and transphobia for decades.
“The nuance here is the Liberal Government has invested more money is 2SLGBTQ communities and paid more attention to our issues than any government in Canadian history and that is a fact, a verifiable statement,” said Fae Johnstone, co-owner of Wisdom2Action, a social enterprise and consulting firm specializing in community engagement, creative facilitation, equity, diversity and inclusion.
“On the flip side, that doesn’t mean unprecedented is actually a significant investment,” Johnstone said, noting under Prime Minister Stephan Harper the federal government “didn’t want to talk to, or about, or with gay people.”
Boyce said one thing the plan gets right is its acknowledgment of the 2SLGBTQI+ movement’s complexities, describing it as “split” from past practices that saw identities and experiences erased rather than recognized.
According to the action plan itself, an “intersectional approach” was used to look at how “systems of oppression also compound barriers to accessing the support needed.”
“Black, queer and trans folks really stood up and laid it all on the line for us to have these rights,” Boyce said.
Johnstone agreed the plan’s focus on Indigeneity, anti-black racism and black queer folks is an important policy shift, but described the plan in its entirety as “a mixed bag” containing some glaring gaps, particularly around trans health, public safety and anti-2SLGBTQI+ hate. She would have liked to have seen mental health, poverty and harassment addressed more substantially.
“It’s a slap in the face that there’s nothing about fighting that hate, because that hate is traumatizing our community and that hate is growing,” Johnstone said. “Funding is the thing that is holding our entire sector back and limiting us from actually fighting descrimation and hate, and promoting health and human rights.”
But her biggest disappointment is the action plan’s budget; $100 million spread over five years. “You can only stretch it so far,” said Johnstone.
Canada has approximately 170 charitable organizations serving 2SLGBTQ+ communities; they will share about $15 million in funding between them each year of the five-year-long action plan.
The action plan also fails to provide a pathway to address the country’s ongoing housing crisis, which disproportionally affects queer and trans people, said Boyce. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, one in three homeless youth identify as 2SLGBTQI+.
Johnston said the action plan is also light on international assistance. Only about $10 million is allocated to projects abroad, something Johnston described as an echo of past commitments.
“Even though we’re still seeing a crisis of LGBTI refugees in Afghanistan and in other countries around the world, Canada isn’t playing its part,” she said.
On Prince Edward Island, Lucky Fusca is waiting for details on how the organization they helm can apply to access action plan funding. Describing the PEI Transgender Network as “a very, very small, very newly incorporated grassroots organization,” Fusca said even a modest amount of funding would make a world of difference to the island’s only organization focused solely on serving the gender diverse community.
“There’s definitely a big question mark around how the (application) process will work,” said Fusca. From their perspective, allotting set funding amounts to each province could help ensure small, local organizations don’t get left behind.
“Unless you’re on Prince Edward Island and know what’s going on here, people can be a little out of touch with what our needs are.”
What the action plan won’t do is solve systemic issues, such as a shortage of family doctors and barriers to accessing gender affirming healthcare in Canada’s smallest province. Fusca said that’s because further buy-in at the provincial level, as well as additional funding, is needed to address larger problems facing the 2SLGBTQI+ community.
But the plan does include a commitment to formally engage the provinces and territories in dialogue, Johnstone adds.
Back in Ottawa, the Enchanté Network is already looking beyond the newly announced action plan; it’s pushing the government to establish a 2SLGBTQI+ endowment fund.
“Queer and trans folks shouldn’t only receive resources or have access to services because we happen to have a government who cares,” Boyce said. “A national endowment would provide a sustainable, permanent source of funding for queer and trans organizations beyond election cycles and that’s what we’re advocating for.”
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