Hi. Good afternoon, everyone.
Thank you so much for your patience. What's the rule that says where technology can go wrong, it typically does, especially when it's important?
I'll try to make my opening comments very brief.
Once again, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you to the chair and the rest of the finance committee for this important opportunity.
My name is Liban Abokor, and I'm a working group member with the Foundation for Black Communities, Canada's first-ever philanthropic foundation dedicated to Black Canadians. The goal of the foundation is to ensure that Black communities have reliable, relevant and sustained access to the supports they need to thrive and to find their own futures.
In December of last year, 2020, the Foundation for Black Communities released a groundbreaking report entitled “Unfunded: Black Communities Overlooked by Canadian Philanthropy”. In this report, the findings revealed systematic underinvestment in Black-led, Black-serving non-profits and charities by Canada's leading philanthropic foundations.
Through this systematic review of publicly available T3010 data, we found that as little as seven cents out of every $100 granted by Canada's leading charities was going to Black communities. This systematic underfunding poses a critical threat to an already embattled community reeling from the disproportionate health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Black unemployment, as many of you may know, is at nearly 20%, more than double the national average. Black women and youth have been especially hit the hardest by this economic downturn. Food insecurity and housing precarity are also at unprecedented levels and are quickly accelerating.
In nearly every indicator, the pandemic has left Black communities in crisis. Without strong and comprehensive investments, some of which we've seen in this budget, our community won't be able to participate in the ambitious goal of this government and this nation, which is to build back better—and that is simply an intolerable outcome.
That's why we applaud the important steps taken in this budget to deliver on some of the demands from our community, mainly the $100-million investment in the supporting Black Canadian communities initiative and the $200-million investment to establish Canada's first Black-led philanthropic endowment, which is something we strongly advocated for at the Foundation for Black Communities. We want to take a moment to recognize all the MPs and staffers we had a chance to meet with during the discussions around this concept.
While these featured pieces have caught the attention of most folks in our community, we recognize that we can further unlock significant other benefits from the rest of the budget to support priority areas for Black communities—such as housing, business, science and social finance—by applying a Black lens to the budget implementation and rollout.
If I may, I'd like to give you two quick examples or two recommendations as to how we can unlock further benefit and participation for Black communities through this budget.
The federal government is investing $750 million in social finance. The social finance fund must establish, we believe, specific goals and objectives for how it can involve Black communities in developing and growing the social economy. More precisely, we're advocating for the establishment of a Black intermediary to assist the flow of funds to Black social-purpose organizations.
Similarly—and my final example—the federal government proposes a national housing strategy of $70 billion over 10 years. The housing crisis is not a level playing field, necessitating targeted and equitable solutions. The CMHC must create and present a clear Black housing strategy that includes housing for aging seniors who are on fixed incomes, housing for youth who are aging out of care and affordable housing as a pathway for Black home ownership and generational wealth creation.
While we welcome these important investments and look forward to finding further ways to unlock greater impact and benefit from this unprecedented budget, we want to ensure that it does so in a way that ensures Black Canadians equitable participation in our nation's vision to build back better.
With that said, I want to thank the committee once again for the opportunity to provide my opening remarks. I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
Thank you very much.