Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-racism Plan

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Click here for quick access to our EDIA Survey

Introduction

All voices have value in our community, especially yours!

The Municipality of Clare is creating a plan to address Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-racism (EDIA). To create a plan that truly reflects the needs of our community, we encourage all community members to complete our survey available here. The results of this survey will influence actionable items and help determine the priorities of our EDIA plan.

Our EDIA Plan needs to be submitted to the provincial government by April 1, 2025. Throughout the following year, we will also work on updating our Accessibility Plan – which needs to be revised and resubmitted by February 2026. At that time, we will incorporate our EDIA Plan into our Accessibility Plan so that we are equipped with one wholesome and comprehensive planning document to guide our work and priorities.

More about our EDIA Plan

The Municipality of Clare recognizes that we have a lot of work to do to make our community a welcoming, accessible, and inclusive space for all. Our EDIA Plan aims to address this and will continue to do so as our plan and progress will be assessed and updated every three years.

Planned priorities

For our first EDIA plan to be actionable, it will include 3 to 5 priorities on which we will initially focus. Here are two priorities that will be included in our Plan:

  • Establish, build and strengthen relationships with equity-deserving groups and individuals:
    • We recognize that we need to build and strengthen relationships with equity-deserving groups and individuals before we can ask them to contribute to our planning efforts. Our goal is to foster these relationships so that we can eventually establish a working group that will contribute to the development of future, more comprehensive EDIA plans.
  • Training and education initiatives:
    • Identifying training and education initiatives will be one of our first steps when we adopt our EDIA plan. We plan to start doing this internally, so that we can ensure our council and staff are better equipped and knowledgeable in the areas of equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism. In the longer term, our goal would be to consider training and education initiatives for the broader community.
  • Priorities identified through our EDIA survey:
    • 1-3 additional priorities for our EDIA Plan will be identified through the results of our EDIA survey. By analyzing the results of our survey, we will identify any emerging themes or priorities that will be incorporated into our EDIA Plan as actionable items.
Additional Plan Content
  • Community Analysis
    • We plan to include a community analysis through an EDIA lens based on census data, as well as survey results to depict the make-up of our community.
  • Police Reporting
    • We want to include a section that examines information relating to police services. More specifically, we want to understand whether there are incidents of discrimination reported to the police, and if so, whether the police are well equipped to respond to these types of calls.
  • Resources
    • Finally, we want our EDIA Plan to include a resources section so that people can consult the resources that are available to them with respect to EDIA legislation, reporting acts of discrimination or hate, and any other tools, resources and contacts we think may be useful.

Timeline

Here is a timeline of events with respect to our EDIA planning process:

  • Summer 2024: Municipalities were advised by the provincial government of the requirement to submit a plan by April 1, 2025.
  • November 2024: Municipal staff attended an Equity and Anti-Racism Symposium in Wolfville, NS. The goal of this Symposium was to support Municipalities in the creation of their first ever plans to help dismantle hate and racism in our communities.
  • December 2024: Municipal staff offered a presentation to Council to give an overview of the planning process, our priorities, and how we will be moving forward with the development of our EDIA Plan. pptxClick here to view the presentation.
  • February 2025: EDIA Survey open. Municipal staff to work on drafting plan, with the exception of the priorities that will be identified through the survey results.
  • March 2025: Finalize EDIA Plan and present to Council for approval.
  • April 1, 2025: Submit EDIA Plan to provincial government.
  • April 2025 – February 2026: Start working on the priorities identified in our EDIA Plan. Begin reviewing and updating Accessibility Plan and incorporating EDIA Plan to create a comprehensive planning document. Update EDIA if opportunity presents itself.

Goals

First and foremost, our goal with our initial plan will be to have a clear, concise plan that we can act on. One of our first priorities will be to strengthen our relationships with the EDIA communities so that we can eventually develop a more comprehensive plan, built in a more collaborative way.

Our overarching goal, for our initial plan as well as for all plans that will follow, will be to foster an inclusive and equitable community, so that all the people who love to call Clare home, are loved in return.

Contact

Are you interested in learning more about the work we’re doing? Maybe you want to get involved in the planning process? Reach out to us!

Jessica Martin, EDIA Plan Co-lead
Recreation Manager & Accessibility Coordinator, Municipality of Clare
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 902-769-2031 (ext. 233), 902-778-2390 (cell)

Anique Dugas, EDIA Plan Co-Lead
Communications Officer, Municipality of Clare
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 902-769-2031 (ext. 223), 902-778-2079