SCARP Submission to Employment and Social Development Canada on HABITAT III

Transcription

1 SCARP Submission to Employment and Social Development Canada on HABITAT III

2 SCARP Delegation to HABITAT III: Dr Penny Gurstein, Dr Michael Leaf; Allison Lasocha, Andrew Martin, Anna Zhou, Aylin Tavakoli, Cristyn Edwards, Elizabeth Ballantyne, Emily Morales, George P.R. Benson, Hollie McKeil, Jessica Hayes, Kathleen Heggie, Lucas Ozols-Mongeau, Peyvand Forouzandeh, Robert Catherall, Stuart Harme, Photo credits: (in order of appearance) Marcio Ramalho; Diego Delso, Diego Delso,Peyvand Forouzandeh. Report Prepared by: George P.R. Benson, December 9th, 2016

3 Executive Summary UBC School of Community & Regional Planning (SCARP) students were honoured and excited to participate in the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, HABITAT III Quito, Ecuador. As part of our efforts to not only learn and explore that process, but to generate value for the Government and people of Canada, we have detailed our experiences here and offer several observations and five key recommendations as Canada moves forward with the New Urban Agenda (NUA). Our observations: A clear recognition from our international friends and partners that Canada is back ; to live up to this recognition will mean greater coordination within Canada, and more effort expressed internationally. The extensive presence of Canadian youth and students was unique, worthwhile, and needs replicating at events both at home and abroad. Governance challenges remain one of the largest sticking points for implementation of the Agenda; Canada s experience as a federation provides opportunities to pilot and innovate in how multi-scalar governance is expressed in human settlements policy. The exclusion of LGBT2S+ rights in the final document was deeply disappointing and Canada s support will be essential to their realization at home and abroad. Similarly, rural peoples and the private sector, while mentioned in the document, were inadequately represented in both the final agreement and at the summit itself. More will have to be done to include them in the future. Finally, further emphasis is needed on the actual implementation of the New Urban Agenda; in Canada, this should progress as part of a four cornered table, where the rights and needs of the most vulnerable are put front and centre. Our recommendations: Upon significant reflection on these themes and the research we conducted, we have five overarching recommendations for the Government of Canada, in coordination with other actors, to follow through on: 1. Formalize creative and meaningful participation of youth in future international events. 2. Deepen the efforts to create government-to-government, including First Nations, collaboration on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. 3. Deepen efforts to create linkages and partnerships between all levels of government and citizens, businesses, nonprofits, and academics in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. 4. Finalize, formalize, and fund efforts to implement the New Urban Agenda. 5. Convene a national working group that includes students and young professionals to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

4 1. Introduction

5 The School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) has a unique history with the United Nations HABITAT process. In 1976, our school s founder, Peter Oberlander, OC, was involved in the arrangement of the first HABITAT conference that was hosted in Vancouver. From this moment, both SCARP and many members of the Vancouver urbanist community have played an active role in the tumultuous but nevertheless important journey of the UN discourse and policy on human settlements. Attendance at the HABITAT III conference in Quito, Ecuador was in many ways a return to our school s roots. It exhibited our continued commitment to participate and help shape conversations around the ideal direction and operation of the world s human settlements. It is with this background in mind that we, the students of SCARP, submit our report on our findings of the conference and how we think the Government of Canada can effect meaningful change in Canada s human settlements after the signing of the New Urban Agenda. SCARP students started organising their attendance at the conference in late There was interest from Master s students at the school for a variety of reasons, but one unifying theme was certainly the desire to carry forward SCARP and Vancouver s experiences from 1976 and the 2006 World Urban Forum (WUF) as a way of representing some of the most progressive work done in Canadian urbanism to date. As preparations continued throughout 2015 and into 2016, a self-organized student committee was formed to prepare their attendance at the conference and engage with faculty who had attended the previous UN-HABITAT events in 1976 and Further student preparations included conversations with planning students and urbanist professionals throughout Canada and the United States. In addition, events were held at conferences and workshops to develop and prioritize themes of interest to us in Quito, as well as reflect on the legacy of the 1976 conference. During the summer of 2016, as students were concluding their participation in a UN-HABITAT-sponsored design competition with Kenyan municipalities, SCARP students and Director Dr Penny Gurstein decided that the best way to mobilize support and interest in the conference would be to host a semester-length course on the conference in the fall. This course not only helped prepare the students and provide some context for what was to come, but also intended to produce materials that would be of use at the conference, including the posters showing the evolution of the HABITAT process from 1976 to present. In light of the preparations of students and faculty at SCARP, the Master s students who attended the conference were not only able to learn about a significant part of Canada s global policy leadership, but also to create material that helped represent Canada abroad. SCARP students were proud to do this to represent their country, but also to show the valuable role that youth can play in preparation for international events.

6 2. What Can Canada Learn from HABITAT III?

7 Given their diversity of interests, SCARP students made a point of attending a broad variety of sessions that covered an ambitious range of the conference s topics, from sustainability and resilience to housing and social inclusion. To recount their full discoveries here would take too much time, but there are two ways in which we wish to showcase their observations. Firstly, in terms of the organizations that they connected with or made note of, and secondly in the key takeaways that they felt crossed over multiple sessions and are relevant to the Government of Canada s work implementing the New Urban Agenda (NUA). An interesting and unexpected occurrence for SCARP students was the fact that so many of the interesting and powerful connections that they made were with other Canadians. These connections with different actors have continued to spur ideas and activity upon return to Canada and we believe that they will yet realise meaningful contributions to some of the global connections we made, as well. In terms of key connections made that we wish to highlight and that the Government of Canada should look forge further partnerships with, we want to include: Global Planners Network Huairou Commission C40 Cities Slum Dwellers International 100 Resilient Cities Cities Climate Finance Initiative Beyond the immediate connections made with different organizations at HABITAT III, SCARP students and faculty made significant efforts to cover a broad range of topics at the conference, as already noted. In the immediate aftermath of the conference, we collected the top thoughts of the class and offer them here as a condensed sense of what we felt were key takeaways: Canada is back as echoed in the closing statements during our delegation meeting, the sense that Canadian leadership has returned to the global stage was omnipresent. This was relayed to us in both a sense of relief especially pertinent after the results of the American Presidential election but also of responsibility; it was expected that Canadians would carry the flag for important causes, whether that was the inclusion of LGBT2S+ people in all human settlements, or for climate-friendly cities, wherever they went. This will necessitate significantly more official Canadian presence at these international fora, as well as greater engagement with Canadian civil society, academia, and private sector (players/partners?) to leverage action at home and globally. Unique role of youth the inclusion of Canadian youth as part of the official delegation was remarked upon numerous times by other national and civil society delegates as special and valuable. For our part as students, we also felt we were able to contribute meaningfully to the work of the delegation because of this opportunity. The value of this role intersected innumerable times during the conference with comments and recommendations made by panelists, other national officials, and from community leaders. Whether it meant designing cities to the Triple A standard of All Ages and Abilities (AAA), or in centring an intergenerational justice perspective on climate action in

8 policy discussions, the involvement of youth in events like HABITAT and all human settlements policy processes was seen as essential. Governance challenges time and time again during the sessions of HABITAT III, the fundamental challenge of human settlement governance was raised. On global challenges like climate change, where immediate and often dramatic action is needed, this is especially apparent. It is also relevant to more intimate national or regional challenges like Indigenous reconciliation in Canada or the creation of inclusive neighbourhoods. The idea of the four cornered table was discussed by the Canadian delegation at numerous points. It rang true for SCARP students and seemed not only a morally just cause to advance, but a measure that is imperative to realising meaningful implementation of the NUA. Both federal and unitary states all struggle with effective multi-scalar coordination of policy and so there was a clear indication at HABITAT III that further innovation in this area is necessary. This is something it was apparent that Canada, with its ongoing evolution of multi-scalar and multi-national governance vis-avis Indigenous peoples, can play a clear leadership role in. Exclusion of LGBT2S+ rights and voices Much was said during the conference and afterwards about the specific exclusion of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgendered, Queer, Two-spirited peoples, and others (LGBT2S+) and this is something that we want to again highlight. We want to commend the Government of Canada s willingness to stand up for this egregious omission from the NUA and believe that there is a specific opportunity to include LGBT2S+ voices and people in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda at home. Doing so would show the positive aspects of the agreed upon document, but also how some of its flaws can be overcome. Absence and exclusion of rural people By its very nature, the NUA excludes rural peoples from the future of human settlements. While there is significant language within the document to attempt to recognise the rights and existence of rural communities, we feel that Canada must play a role in showcasing the critical nexus that exists between cities and rural communities, especially with Canada s longstanding marginalization of Indigenous communities. There are few countries with more uninhabited and sparsely populated areas than Canada; whether with regards to our proud and longstanding heritage as farmers and primary resource gatherers, or as we attempt to chart a new course in the sustainable use of Canada s natural and human resources, Canada can again show how the implementation of the NUA necessitates a recognition of all scales and forms of human settlements. Absence of private sector While the NUA is unique in its celebration and highlighting of the private sector for its role in the creation of sustainable and just human settlements, there was a noted lack of actual private businesses at the conference. To SCARP students, this was reflective of a poor understanding of how the private sector relates to human settlements. In numerous sessions at the conference, the necessity of private business inclusion particularly in the financial and building sectors was noted as an issue of paramount importance. In Canada, NUA implementation strategies must be prepared to include the private sector in discussions of new financial models for

9 investment in human settlements as well as the final physical realization of those settlements. Further emphasis on implementation needed every session attended by SCARP students underlined the necessity of further discussing what implementation of the New Urban Agenda will look like. In the conversations and declarations made at Canadian delegation meetings, there was marked agreement that Canada could pioneer implementation in several key ways: (1) renewing partnerships with local communities through the fulsome implementation of spending priorities announced in the 2016 budget, (2) building inclusive four-sided institutions and consultation processes, which transparently lay out the roles and responsibilities of all participating actors (national, provincial, and local governments, and First Nations), and (3) integrating elements of the NUA in key federal policy programmes, such as healthcare spending and the National Housing Strategy. The weaving of the NUA into federal policy priorities, alongside other international agreements and prerogatives, such as the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy and National Climate Change Action Plan, will increase Canada s policy coherence and provide clear political and market signals for all individuals and institutions to act upon.

10 3. How Can All Actors and Levels of Government Work Together in the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda?

11 3.1 The Canadian Opportunity It was clear to the entire SCARP delegation that Canada represents a unique opportunity in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. As a nation, our structures are not only at a point where the coordination and weaving together of rights envisioned in the document can be achieved, but our unique character and make-up, as an inclusive, multicultural, multinational society, adds credibility and resonance to our achievements in creating just, sustainable communities. Across a wide variety of topics addressed within the NUA, from housing and sustainability to Indigenous Rights, to those which need to be addressed, like the inclusion of LGBT2S+ persons, actions Canada takes can not only benefit our own nation, but show others what they can do realise the principles espoused by UN- HABITAT. 3.2 Recommendations for the Government of Canada Based on what we observed in Quito, upon the reading and research we did both before and after the conference, and in the conversations we had with planners and students and other human settlements specialists, we wish to offer the following recommendations to the Government of Canada: 1. Formalize creative and meaningful participation of youth in future international events As students and as Canadians, we felt our participation in the HABITAT III summit was meaningful and productive. We felt that we added value to what the Canadian delegation achieved in its networking, its advocacy of Canadian values, and in the plans that have been laid for future action. This kind of inclusion of students and youth, particularly of people such as ourselves that are young future professionals and implementers of the NUA, should be a key priority of the Government of Canada as a whole, and for Employment and Social Development Canada and Global Affairs Canada, in future human settlements events, and similar international meetings. 2. Deepen the efforts to create government-to-government, including First Nations, collaboration on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda It was clear to all Canadians that implementing the NUA will be a task carried forward by our federation; by local, provincial, and national governments as well as First Nations. To best achieve this, we recommend the coordination of these leaders in meetings of Ministers, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Big City Mayors, and the Assembly of First Nations. A structure similar to the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) could be utilized, but the key point is to get all four corners of the table talking to one another. 3. Deepen efforts to create linkages and partnerships between citizens, businesses, nonprofits, and academics and all levels of government in the implementation of

12 the New Urban Agenda The preparation for the HABITAT III summit showed that there was a strong appetite amongst the Canadian public to play a role in human settlements policy, but a further deepening of these relationships that is still needed. As an example: the importance of private businesses at the summit was routinely referenced, but there were almost no Canadian (or other) businesses present. In implementing the NUA in Canada, specific efforts should be made to engage businesses. In any engagement of citizens, businesses, or others, the intention of this engagement (e.g., to create a policy, to explore implementation pathways, or to identify challenges) should always be clear and transparent with the prioritization of protecting vulnerable populations always named as a guiding principle. 4. Finalize, formalize, and fund efforts to implement the New Urban Agenda Creating just, sustainable, resilient communities across Canada, as envisioned in the NUA, is going to take new dispersion of resources and better coordination amongst existing efforts. This will mean greater coordination, through Ministerial, Mayoral, and community meetings, but in some cases may mean additional transfers, including advancing of the Government of Canada s expressed possibility an increase to the municipal share of the Gas Transfer Tax (GTF). Ministerial and Mayoral meetings, again, possibly performed in likeness to initiatives like the CCME, should stress the coordination of resources, both around specific sub-programmes, such as the National Housing Strategy, but also broader initiatives, including policy and public engagement reviews. 5. Convene a national working group, including students and young professionals, to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the New Urban Agenda In the immediate days moving forward, the Government should create a national Committee to assist with the implementation of the NUA. This committee would be made up attendees of the Canadian delegation to HABITAT III, and be diverse both demographically and sectorally i.e., students, professionals, academics, business people, First Nations, and others. The Committee would have the authority to organize sub-working groups, to bring in more Canadians to discuss implementation, monitoring, and other facets of the NUA. The goals of this committee would be threefold: (1) create a framework of low hanging fruit for short-term implementation of the NUA in Canada, (2) create a series of metrics and indicators for how to monitor implementation of the Agenda over time, and (3) create annual reports showing implementation progress and other relevant facets of human settlements in Canada.

13 5. Conclusion Canada has a clear leadership opportunity in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and in illustrating where its shortcomings, like exclusion of LGBTQ2S+ people, can be overcome. Our history of exceptional cities is one to celebrate, and yet the present challenges we face, whether in affordability, sustainability, social inclusion, or otherwise, show that concerted, coordinated action is necessary to move forward. The SCARP delegation looks forward to continuing to engage in the HABITAT III process and in making the case, whether as students, academics, or professionals, for its realization within Canada.

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