'A living strategy': Edmonton anti-racism initiative will go to city council for approval

A plan to help address systemic racism in municipal governance and better support anti-racism initiatives in Edmonton is taking its first steps toward reality.

Council's community and public services committee approved the framework on Monday unanimously, after hearing from dozens of community members, organizations, and non-profits.

The plan will now go before city council at the end of the month, where both the strategy and a $2 million investment as an initial cost to spur the initiative ahead will require approval. That money is recommended to come from funds city council withheld from the Edmonton Police Service in December.

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said this strategy represents the first time in Edmonton that city administration has co-developed a plan to address racism with community partners.

"Racism creates a lot of pain," Sohi said. "When we talk about building an anti-racist city, we are talking about building a community for everyone. Where everyone feels safe."

He believes this effort, if passed, will help build the city's capacity to build anti-racist initiatives and better support existing grassroots campaigns and organizations work in the field.

"We are going through some very uncertain, difficult times," Sohi said. "We are seeing some concerning and disturbing polarization on a number of issues.

"In these difficult times, we need to pull communities together, and we need to make sure all of us are working together. So, I think what is different about this strategy is that community is deeply involved."

"This is such an exciting day for me, and I believe for Edmontonians," said Shalini Sinha, the chair of the anti-racism community.

"We've worked very, very hard as volunteers with a vision and a passion alongside city administration."

Sinha said that the strategy represents just one step toward addressing anti-racism in Edmonton.

For her, the most significant part represents building and equipping a new independent arms-length anti-racism organization for Edmonton that will help influence other institutions in the city, like school boards.

"This is continuing to be a living strategy," Sinha added. "We are going to start and build it. We are going to build it in a continued collaborative way."

Part of the strategy calls for creating an anti-racism organization within city administration to help address barriers to equity and act as an oversight mechanism.

When asked how this organization would look and function, City Manager Andre Corbould said the city is considering several different options, ranging from an ombudsman-like office, an anti-racism auditor, or some form of advisory council.

"I think more work is required to define exactly the size and scope of it," Corbould said. "But it does need to be equipped with the ability to really analyze data and collect data on racism in the city.

"They need to be structured and given a mandate such in a way that they can act and think on their own without a lot of direction and look at the things they need to look at, that they feel they need to look at as experts in the community," he said.