A smart, essential look at the ideas, trends, and innovations blending purpose and profit, from the Future of Good editorial team.
The Prime Minister’s upcoming Throne Speech will set the tone for the federal government’s post-pandemic recovery plan. Updating and prioritizing the Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy in this recovery plan would bolster the social impact sector — at a time when it’s simultaneously struggling to stay afloat and seeing steep increases in demand.
Homelessness rates will rise from already crisis-level after the pandemic. Systemic racism means racialized communities could be left behind in recovery. And underlying all this is that COVID-19 won’t be the last global crisis we face — climate change will make sure of it. These problems need innovative, long-term funding. Just in time for the launch of Canada’s $755-million Social Finance Fund.
COVID-19 is a feminist crisis that requires a uniquely feminist response, say the authors of Canada’s first feminist economic recovery plan. Women and non-binary people, particularly those who are racialized, have been both on the frontlines and the most devastated. Failing to centre their needs in economic recovery planning would mean an incomplete pandemic recovery.
Climate change is headed quickly toward a point of no return. Polls show that Canadians don’t want to go back to normal post-pandemic — they want less commuting and less consumption, good moves for the environment. But can our capitalist culture support that kind of wholesale change?
Local economies are devastated in the wake of COVID-19. Social purpose organizations are struggling. Already marginalized populations have been disproportionately impacted. The $755-million Social Finance Fund was announced years before any of this happened, but now it has the potential to support Canada’s much-needed recovery.
Amid a global conversation on systemic racism and police brutality, Canadians are calling to defund the police and invest instead in social services. According to Statistics Canada, over $15 billion is spent on policing, and operating expenditures have been increasing, even when adjusted for inflation.