Fauzia Baig says the Region of Waterloo, like most municipalities, has reached a critical point in its understanding that the ways it offers services don’t often meet the needs of all communities.
The region's first director of equity, diversity and inclusion hopes to change that.
Baig says her role will be to learn more about the barriers, gaps and issues preventing equitable access to services while coming up with solutions "in a really focused way."
Conversations that have already happened point to an immediate need to improve how the municipality operates its programs to serve a more diverse population and in turn change the “look and feel” of the organization, Baig says.
Equitable hiring and recruitment will be one of the main areas of focus for her team in the coming months, but the larger goal will be to "emphasize the journey toward social justice."
"How do we as an organization and a community work toward Truth and Reconciliation, how do we address systemic barriers…that lead to racism and bring back equity into the workforce?
“In an ideal world we will work ourselves out of a job,” Baig says.
The EDI team's efforts to open doors to a more diverse workforce applies to elected officials as well.
The white elephant in the room, of course, is a lack of minority representation on regional council where every elected member presents as white.
It's something Baig recognizes as problematic, not only in terms of optics, but because regional council hasn't been free of racialized controversy in recent years.
In 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, councillor Les Armstrong posted a video on his Twitter account that appeared to support extremist views under the banner of “white lives matter.”
The Wilmot Township mayor apologized but was further admonished by members of the Indigenous community the same year for voicing his desire to keep a statue of Sir John A. McDonald standing as part of the Prime Ministers Path project next to Castle Kilbride Museum.
Incidents like that highlight the need for change aligned with opportunities for more diverse voices to be part of the solution, Baig says.
She knows the region can do a better job at encouraging people of colour to take on roles in politics.
One of her team’s goals could be finding ways to bridge those gaps.
“We’ve heard loud and clear from the community that there needs to be better representation at the decision making table, but what does that look like, how do we get there?” she said.
“There’s a lot of great community organizations that bring people in, get them connected, and offer these mentorships and opportunities. It’s looking for ways to elevate those opportunities, to grow and to build on them,” she said.
The Toronto native, who came to the region as a student, has worked for the region since 2007, mainly in public health but also with roles in community services, housing and Ontario Works.
She moved into the CAO’s office last year as an equity and anti-racism advisor.
Now as director of the EDI office, Baig will work alongside a yet-to-be-named director of reconciliation to help implement changes designed to improve the lives of the local Indigenous community and "move forward the region’s journey on Truth and Reconciliation.”
The role came from recommendations of the region’s Anti-Racism Advisory Working Group and a two-year, $15 million investment in a new equity fund, part of which will fund the EDI team's work.
The region spent $3.1 million on the portfolio last year and carried the remainder into this year with a budget of $1.7 million allocated for Baig's 12-member team.
While Baig recognizes the region has already done “a lot of good things” to address some of these issues, she said there is always room for improvement.
One example of how the region is coming to terms with how it delivers services is childcare.
Director of children’s services, Barb Cardow recently brought forward a childcare strategy that highlights ways the region can improve its delivery of licensed childcare spaces to meet the needs of marginalized communities.
She points to the enrolment system as one of the “critical gaps” that can make it difficult for some Indigenous, Black and racialized families to access childcare.
Cardow explained to council earlier this month that the system unintentionally benefits families that are "higher educated and English speaking" because they are able to get on program wait lists earlier.
Once a proposed $10-a-day daycare plan comes into play, it could further exacerbate that problem as demand for childcare increases, she said.
If enrolment practices aren’t changed in advance of that expected surge, “there is a risk that families who already have fewer choices will be pushed out of the childcare system altogether,” Cardow warned.
Another recent example of how the region is working towards equitable access came with the region’s COVID vaccine rollout.
Baig was part of the team that looked for ways to get the vaccine into marginalized areas and break down language barriers.
It involved engaging with more than 300 community leaders, knocking on doors in priority neighbourhoods, and bringing the vaccine bus to underserved neighbourhoods to increase access and vaccine uptake.
“What we heard loud and clear is that translated communications are essential to overcoming some of the access barriers, but going even further than that is ensuring it is getting it into the hands of people that would need it,” Baig said.
She said her first priority, will be implementing some of the key recommendations that have come out of the region’s anti-racism working group, along with some of the calls to action from the community.
One recent call to action is a recommendation coming to council next week that staff continue to partner with the Coalition of Muslim Women of Kitchener Waterloo, the Muslim Women of Cambridge, and area municipalities to collaborate on a coordinated strategy to counter Islamophobia.
It includes calls to establish anti-Islamophobia training for regional staff and to beef up enforcement when someone is acting in a way that's threatening, racist or otherwise offensive on regional property.
Asked if the investment in the equity office could pay off in terms of attracting more newcomers to the region to fill critical roles where labour shortages exist, Baig said any time a community thrives and its residents thrive there’s a benefit, "whether it’s economic, whether it’s social, whether it’s environmental.”
“I think when we focus on what people need and we ensure people are able to reach their maximum potential, that they’re not facing undue hardships, that they are really thriving…the returns are seen in ways that are not typically measured.
“I know there’s definitely things we need to work on, but there’s so much potential and there’s so much commitment in this community to do things better,” she said. “You’ll see that continue to amplify.”
