Metrics Needed to Confirm Canada's Commitment to Diversity
Canada takes pride in its diversity. Corporations promote it. Governments encourage it. Taxpayers subsidize it. And yet no one in Canada can quantify the economic benefits of diversity, because we do not collect the information that would enable us to do it.
Unlike the United States, which compiles hard data to measure the success or failure of its diversity initiatives, Canada collects this information in a haphazard way.
To find out today how many Asian-owned businesses operate in the state of Indiana, for example, you could do it easily. The U.S. Census Bureau counts them. From the same survey, you could find the average age of these businesses, their sources of financing, and the number of people they employ. You could identify the economic sector in which these businesses operate, how much they generate in annual revenues and whether their revenues have gone up or down. You could find similar information for businesses operated by blacks, Hispanics, aboriginals, minorities and women, in any state in the U.S. The numbers are updated every five years, and they've been recorded for the last forty years.
To find similar information in Canada, you would have to refer to at least five different reports, some from the government, others from the private sector, and much of the information would be outdated.
According to some academic studies, Canadians feel reluctant to define themselves in black and white categories, because we come from a variety of countries and cultures and because we have never classified our population according to skin colour. Critics also argue that statistics about the race, colour or creed of individuals reinforce stereotypes.
Yet Canada is not a homogenous country, and many government policies, from immigration to human rights, have been initiated to ensure that our diversity does not work against us. Even our human rights legislation supports the collection of racially based data. Ontario's code, for example, proposes that, "data collection is necessary for effectively monitoring discrimination, identifying and removing systemic barriers, ameliorating historical disadvantage and promoting substantive equality."
Canada's Department of Immigration, for example, actively recruits entrepreneurial immigrants as a way of maintaining and enhancing this country's economic performance. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada administers programs to encourage the growth of aboriginal businesses. In 2008, for example, Canada's federal government awarded 5,384 contracts, valued at $337 million, to aboriginal businesses and spent another $37 million to support the creation and expansion of viable businesses owned and controlled by aboriginal people.
How have all these businesses performed? How many people do they employ? Have they expanded, contracted, merged or gone out of business altogether? Doesn't it make sense to find out more about them?
This information is vitally important, not just to the diversity of our culture, but to our economic success, as well. In today's competitive economy, benchmarking is a critical element in measuring performance and setting goals. Aboriginal and minority businesses themselves need this information to set goals and measure their progress against established benchmarks.
Collected systematically over a consistent period, such information could identify clearly the extent of the economic obstacles that aboriginal and minority businesses must overcome in Canada.
Without detailed information about the economic performance of aboriginal and minority businesses, it's impossible to assess them against each other or against similar businesses in countries such as the U.S., France, Australia or South Africa.
Most of these countries compete against Canada in recruiting business immigrants. They monitor the performance of their entrepreneurial immigrants to substantiate the attractions of their business environments and modify that environment to attract even more immigrant businesspeople.
With its stated commitment to diversity, our government aims to optimize economic opportunity for all Canadians. To further this objective, consistent metrics are necessary for setting policies and measuring their impact.
Some argue that the distinctions between aboriginals, minorities and other groups in Canada become irrelevant over time, as individuals identify themselves by more than one race. This has become a concern in the U.S., which counts population by race to enforce public policies such as the redistricting provisions of the Voting Rights Act, equal opportunity laws, and affirmative action.
Yet data on diversity are still useful and important. Studies have shown, for example, a positive relationship between the racial diversity of firms and their business functioning. How else can these findings be substantiated without the data to confirm them?
Canada now has the most culturally diverse population among the world's industrialized nations. By 2017, aboriginals and minorities are expected to make up one-quarter of Canada's population. On average, people of colour are starting businesses in Canada at more than 1.5 times the rate per year of other entrepreneurs. Meanwhile the number of self-employed aboriginal Canadians has risen by more than 30% since 1996. These businesses compete within Canada as partners, suppliers and employers, and yet we know almost nothing about them. How can we be serious about encouraging aboriginal and minority businesses in this country if we don't have the metrics to measure their performance?
"Without comprehensive and accessible data, gathered methodically and organized consistently over a specified period, no one can analyze in detail the contribution that minority and aboriginal businesses have made to Canada's economy or to the country's success in the global marketplace," says researcher Karen Fong.
In our major cities, underemployment of skilled and professional immigrants poses a significant problem. In Toronto, where more than half of Canada's 250,000 immigrants choose to locate, the under-use of their skills threatens to create a growing population of economically marginalized and disadvantaged immigrants. Many of them come from racial minorities.
In fact, all Canadians need this information. With accurate data, we can measure our success in a global context and identify the areas where we need improvement. This data gives businesses a scale which they can set more realistic goals and make better decisions to achieve them.
In the global marketplace of the twenty-first century, Canada's diversity gives the country an enormous advantage. Metrics confirm Canada's commitment to this concept. Without them, we have no hard evidence that Canada really embraces diversity at all; pointing to anecdotal successes is not enough.
Commentary by: Orrin Benn
Date: Feb 1st 2010
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