2021-22 Gender-based analysis plus

The services and benefits provided through the Non-Insured Health Benefit (NIHB) Program advances the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-Being goal of Canada's Gender Results Framework. Sustained coverage under the NIHB Program removes financial barriers for vulnerable First Nation and Inuit clients and contributes to ongoing efforts to diminish the substantial health disparities faced by many First Nation and Inuit individuals. The benefits provided through the NIHB Program support more years in good health, improved mental health and improved access to health services.

A comprehensive GBA+ review and analysis of the NIHB Program was conducted to consider differential impacts in terms of its operating environment and client population profile. The findings highlighted the strong and continued need for the Program to provide more than 887,000 eligible First Nation and Inuit individuals with coverage for a range of medically necessary services, that are not covered by other public or private health insurance plans, regardless of their sex, gender, age, income or geographic location.

Data collected by the NIHB Program can be disaggregated based on a variety of identity factors for analysis and reporting purposes. For example, the third generation of the Health Information and Claims Processing Services system, which came into effect in June 2020, includes "Gender X" as a data field, allowing sex/gender data to be further disaggregated in future years.

This information is used to inform policy development and a range of or interventions to address differential impacts and health inequalities noted in the GBA+ analysis.

Investments in Clinical and Client care support has improved health in First Nations communities, which aligns with the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-Being goal of Canada's Gender Results Framework.

Information about gender is collected at the clinical level via paper charts and, in some instances, electronic medical records, but is not reported at the program level. Similarly, information about diversity may be collected at the clinical level but is not reported at the program level. Lack of electronic data is a large impediment to reporting. Additionally, individual data that is collected is owned by the First Nations communities and is subject to guidelines around Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP) agreement, and agreed upon data/privacy principles for First Nations members. Consequently, data about health services and health status information that is routinely available for Canadians is not available for Indigenous Peoples.

Some funding is provided to First Nations communities through contribution agreements to expand the use of electronic medical record applications, which would still be under the ownership of the communities. In addition, a Clinical and Client Care Information technology project will explore the possibility of aggregate electronic data sharing arrangements with communities if electronic medical records are in place. This will include a GBA+ component for aggregate analysis of services provided through Clinical and Client Care.

The Community Oral Health Services can provide some information to advance the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well Being goal of Canada's Gender Results Framework. Some program information can be disaggregated by gender; however, challenges exist to provide disaggregation by distinctions. There is no way to identify if users of the program are First Nations or not unless they are registered within the Indian registry and have a valid registry number. Services are provided to anyone in the community and if they do not have a registry number, they are provided with an X-number as an identifier. Therefore, information on who is First Nations or Inuit or other is not identified within the database. The program will continue to find opportunities to collect this data, for instance, by leveraging on ISC's planned research and data-related activities for providing detailed insights into the diversity of Indigenous Peoples across the country or other such initiatives.

The Individual Affairs Program supports the Gender Equality Around the World pillar through the implementation of Bill S-3, An Act to amend the Indian Act (elimination of sex based inequities in registration).

The provisions for the removal of sex-based inequities in Indian Registration came into force in August 2019 under the Indian Act. These changes are expected to result in more than 270,000 women and their descendants gaining status and, as a result, access to a range of health, social and economic benefits and services. More than 25,000 applications are being processed and additional applications are received daily.

The Program tracks the number of requests and eligible individuals globally. Data is collected as part of registration activities which can be extracted and analyzed. As it relates to GBA+, the most relevant data would be age, sex, and province of residence.

To align the registration and card issuance program with the Policy Direction to Modernize the Government of Canada's Sex and Gender Information Practices, and to expand the department's capacity to report on impacts by gender and diversity, the department is introducing non-intrusive, flexible documentation options and a third, non-binary gender identifier to the Secure Certificate of Indian Status. This policy direction aims to support a Government of Canada initiative to reflect increasing recognition of gender diversity, to improve consistency across federal-provincial-territorial identity documents and to respond to complaints under the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Jordan's Principle collects sufficient data to better understand gender differences with respect to requests for products and services, in combination with data on usual place of residence (on-reserve vs. off-reserve) and age group. This work supports the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-Being goal of Canada's Gender Results Framework. Aligning with our commitment to advancing gender equality, the Jordan's Principle case management system includes characteristics that go beyond the differences between biological (sexes) and socio-cultural (genders) by including other identity factors such as ethnicity and age, and those characteristics will be included in our analyses if sufficient sample size is attained, to ensure privacy.

Jordan's Principle centralized case management system has been developed to facilitate the administration of services and the structured collection of data acquired in the adjudication of Individual and Group Requests. The system collects data regarding the products and services being requested under Jordan's Principle and is not designed to track specific unique individuals.

The data collection instruments for Jordan's Principle are used to collect data on the actual number of children served and the products and services provided through their service provision or service coordination.

The Mental Wellness Program works closely with Indigenous partners, organizations and communities to support mental wellness services that are Indigenous-led, culturally relevant, trauma-informed, and inclusive. This work supports the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-Being goal of Canada's Gender Results Framework. The program's efforts are strongly guided by Indigenous-led frameworks such as the First Nations Mental Wellness Continuum Framework, Honouring Our Strengths, and the National Inuit Suicide Prevention Strategy. Each of these frameworks outline a comprehensive, strengths-based approach that identifies the need for specific supports for populations at risk, including across genders and for individuals who identify as LGBTQ2. By highlighting key Indigenous social determinants of health, including self-determination, equity, and collaboration across all sections both nationally and internationally, these frameworks support all the pillars and goals of the Gender Results Framework. In addition, aspects of the Mental Wellness Program (in particular, health supports for those impacted by the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls), are designed to address the gendered impacts and experience of trauma and violence.

With a few exceptions, the program does not formally collect any data on mental wellness services or outcomes, but relies on external sources, particularly Indigenous-led monitoring, performance measurement, and evaluation, for tracking trends in mental wellness in Indigenous communities. Few exceptions to this are: the program does collect gender disaggregated data (with some limitations) relating to utilization of the Hope for Wellness Help Line and the Mental Health Services Tracking System (MHSTS) database provides the capacity to disaggregate data about gender identity from clients who have chosen to access mental health counselling. The program is looking to build capacity to better utilize these data sets in the future. The program continues to work closely with Indigenous partners and other stakeholders to ensure that Indigenous-led monitoring, performance measurement, and evaluation is supported as much as possible within existing resources.

Investments in Healthy Living support the ultimate outcome of improved health in First Nations and Inuit individuals and communities, which aligns in part to the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-being goal.

The program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor or report program impacts by GBA+. However, the program monitors data from relevant Indigenous led surveys such as the Regional Health Survey (First Nations) to identify when possible gender and diversity specific data. The Healthy Living program does not collect such data directly. Funding recipients and communities direct Healthy Living investments according to their needs and priorities, which often include targeting to specific genders.

Services provided through the Healthy Child Development (HCD) suite of programming advance the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-Being , Education and Skills, Gender-based Violence and Access to Justice goals of Canada's Gender Results Framework.

HCD works closely with Indigenous partners to fund community-based and culturally-relevant programming, services, and initiatives that aim to improve health outcomes focused towards First Nations and Inuit women, mothers, young children and families. Areas of focus include prenatal and postnatal health, midwifery, nutrition, early literacy and learning, healthy relationships, emotional and mental health.

In addition to community-based programming, HCD provides policy support and guidance to gender-based issues impacting Indigenous women and families such as gender-based violence and forced and coerced sterilization of Indigenous women.

HCD services are guided by Indigenous-led Frameworks, including the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care (IELCC) Framework which aims to provide Indigenous Peoples with greater control and influence over ELCC and serves as a guide for communities, service providers, policy makers and governments to work towards achieving a shared vision of high-quality culturally appropriate ELCC for all Indigenous children and families.

In recognition of the need to ensure the voices and perspectives of Indigenous women in departmental policy and decision-making processes, and as part of the response to reports of forced and coerced sterilization of Indigenous women in Canadian hospitals, ISC established an Advisory Committee on Indigenous Women's Wellbeing with Indigenous partners and federal departments. This Advisory Committee provides the department with gender and distinctions-based advice and guidance on issues within the social determinants of health. The HCD team at National Office acts as the secretariat for this Committee.

The HCD cluster collects gender-disaggregated data through its recipient reporting on prenatal/maternal child health and early childhood development services pertaining to pregnant women receiving and participating in services and activities by trimester, mothers with babies that breastfed, as well as children who have been screened, assessed and diagnosed with special needs.

Going forward, HCD will continue to work with Indigenous partners, including the Advisory Committee on Indigenous Women's Wellbeing as well as the IELCC Transformation Initiative, to ensure new GBA+ approaches are designed and guided by Indigenous Peoples.

The Home and Community Care (HCC) program has impacts that support the overall goals of the Gender Results Framework; however, the impacts are indirect. The goals include Education & Skills Development, Economic Participation & Prosperity and Leadership & Democratic Participation. The program currently collects sufficient data via the Electronic Service Delivery Reporting Template (eSDRT) to enable it to monitor and report program impacts by gender and diversity. As more communities move from eSDRT to the New First Nations and Inuit Home and Community Care (FNIHCC) Data Collection Instrument (DCI), the new DCI will have to be revised to collect gender-specific data. Client gender is collected (male or female) via eSDRT. This information is collected to inform program-level research, statistical analysis, and gender-based analysis. Sex characteristics are not relevant to the Home and Community Care program. Though the data is health related, it is not diagnostic or used for physiological health research, and biological information of sex assigned at birth is not necessary to fulfill the specific needs of the program, which are related to health service delivery. However, gender characteristics of an individual are relevant to the Home and Community Care program as it is important to know the gender composition of those receiving home care services and how service delivery has differential impacts on males, females, and gender-diverse people. This includes underlying conditions and reasons for needing home care services, and types of service usage. The program will aim to develop a new DCI to allow for collection of gender-specific data.

The Aboriginal Health Human Resources Initiative directly supports Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1: End poverty in all its form everywhere. The program aims to ensure that community-based workers, including health managers, are trained and certified to improve the quality and consistency of healthcare services provided in First Nations and Inuit communities. These program efforts have indirect linkages to the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-Being as well as Economic participation and prosperity goals of Canada's Gender Results Framework.

Currently, the community data collection reporting in place do not gather and report on program impacts by gender and diversity.

Environmental Public Health programs positively impact all members of the community to advance the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-being goal of Canada's Gender Results Framework. The beneficiaries of the programs include men, women, elders, youth, LGBTQ2+, and others. These programs provide health benefits for all members of First Nations on reserve communities, contribute to increasing access to the services for the most vulnerable within a community, and improve the health outcomes. For example, resolving long-term drinking water advisories positively impacts all members of the community. The Environmental Public Health Officers (EPHOs) and Community Based Drinking Water Quality Monitors are working to improve access to safe water to positively impact the health of individuals. Absent, inadequate or inappropriately managed water and wastewater services expose individuals to preventable health risks.

The Drinking Water Program plays an important role to promote the Gender Equality Around the World goal as insufficient water can add a considerable labour burden and have impacts on health. Due to the complex histories of First Nations people within Canada and considering that some communities may be matriarchal while others are not, care work may fall primarily on women, elders or youth. Literature and evidence has also outlined the traditional cultural roles that women play in Indigenous communities as water keepers. Improved access to clean, usable water will reduce the time and labour burden on women undertaking extra care duties, which is expected to increase the opportunity to pursue economic and/or educational goals. In places where there are drinking water advisories, Indigenous women on reserve may be disproportionately affected as there will be a need to obtain safe water for consumption, bathing, and cleaning. Women, pregnant women, the elderly and children may have trouble accessing heavy bottles of water to address water advisories.

The program collects data on the number of women and Indigenous EPHOs and, given the gender imbalances, are developing a recruitment and retention strategy.

The Communicable Disease Control and Management (CDCM) Program advances the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-Being goal of Canada's Gender Results Framework. CDCM directly provides or supports the delivery of health services in First Nations and Inuit communities. These services are available to all community members, including men, women, and gender diverse people of all ages and sexual identities. This programming is developed with Indigenous partners, and ISC is working to identify and address barriers that may result in inequitable access for some community members.

CDCM does not collect sufficient data to monitor and report program impacts by gender and diversity. Work is underway within ISC and within broader federal/provincial/territorial environment to standardize reporting on the key targets (outcomes) within gender-specific format across all regions/jurisdictions. In the meantime, gender-disaggregated reporting is available for some regions/jurisdictions, but this is not available in a uniform manner.

In addition, the CDCM program is currently being evaluated for the period of 2014-2019. The evaluation includes GBA+ elements and will allow CDCM to report on the degree to which CDCM programming is accessible to all community members and addresses barriers that may exist, as well as how the program can be improved to foster inclusivity of all members regardless of identity, gender, ability, and other factors. The report for this evaluation will be available in 2021.

Education programs focus on providing Grants and Contributions to increase First Nations and Inuit youth participation in education and labour market opportunities. Supported Post-Secondary Education (PSE) strategies include the First Nations Elementary and Secondary Educational Advancement; the First Nations Post-Secondary Education Strategy; the Inuit Post-Secondary Education Strategy; and the Métis Nation Post-Secondary Education Strategy.

GBA+ goals are supported by Education programs including equal opportunities and diversified paths in educations and skills development (Education and Skills Development), equal and full participation in the economy (Economic Participation and Prosperity), and reduced poverty and improved health outcomes (Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-being).

While the department collects annual data on the number of youth served, the number of youth returning to school and the number of youth who are employed/self-employed, there are limitations to the accuracy of the data as it is currently collected (youth evaluations) and is not gender-disaggregated. The department is working to update its data collection instruments for the program to align with Employment and Social Development Canada's (ESDC) new horizontal results framework and to more accurately reflect total participants.

The department has the ability, through the Education Information System, to measure a number of indicators related to education attainment. The indicators (graduation rates, special education assessments and learning plans, number of children attending school) are disaggregated by gender and other identifying factors. The Education Reports and Analysis Solution provides the ability to report on data, by student gender, through funding recipient reporting.

Using these systems, the department has the ability to collect and measure students who receive funding through the Post-Secondary Student Support Program, including the name of the post-secondary institution the student attended, the level of education sought, the area of study, and the student's achievement status at the end of the semester.

Various sectors support this work, such as Education and Skills Development that works towards equal opportunities and diversified paths in education and skills development; Economic Participation and Prosperity supports equal and full participation in the economy; and Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-being that supports reduced poverty and improved health outcomes.

Through the Grants and Contributions to provide income support to on-reserve residents and Status Indians in the Yukon Territory, the Program supports the following GBA+ pillars:

• Education and Skills Development;
• Economic Participation and Prosperity:
• Gender-based Violence and Access to Justice;
• Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-being.

ISC collects demographic data on clients of the Income Assistance program to monitor the use by women, men, and children, by age, gender and education. Additional data for persons with disabilities and LGBTQ2+ could support the program's outcomes.

ISC continues to work with First Nations partners to improve the outcomes of the income assistance program such as improvements to the program and its data collection instruments.

The Assisted Living Program supports the Gender Results Framework by helping low-income First Nations individuals, including women, seniors and persons with disabilities, cover the cost of home care and long-term care services. This Program also helps fund respite services for caregivers, who are predominantly women.

The Assisted Living Program currently collects a limited amount of individual client level data including data on an individual's sex. This allows for some measures of program performance with respect to GBA+, but the current data collected is primarily focused on program management and does not support high quality measurement of the program's impact on gender and diversity.

The Assisted Living Program, in alignment with its Management Action and Response Plan from its 2019 program evaluation, is beginning an engagement with First Nations and Inuit on a continuum of long-term care services. This engagement will include discussions on how data in the Program area will be collected and analyzed in the future in partnership with First Nations and Inuit. The Program will present the Government of Canada's interest in GBA+ data collection/analysis during these discussions. By taking a First Nations and Inuit-led approach to this engagement, it is hoped that any resulting changes to the data collection approach will take into consideration the need to measure progress on the Program's impact on Indigenous women, seniors and persons with disabilities.

Through the reform of the First Nations Child and Family Services (FNCFS) Program, this Program supports the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-Being pillar of the Gender Results Framework.

The FNCFS Program supports children, youth, and their families by providing supports for services and activities such as:

• keeping children safe and in their homes;
• providing supports to mitigate the risks of separating a child from his or her family/community;
• addressing risks so that children in care can be reunified with their families as quickly as possible;
• providing culturally appropriate mental health supports; and
• addressing the impacts of physical and sexual abuse.

The implementation to the Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families supports well-being outcomes by establishing national principles- the best interests of the child cultural continuity and substantive equality – which guide the provision of child and family services, and contributes to the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This Program does not collect sufficient data at this time to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity. The federal government's Six Points of Action for Child Welfare Reform includes the co-development of a data and reporting strategy, including gender-based indicators, with Provinces, Territories and Indigenous partners. ISC is also working with some partners and the Public Health Agency of Canada to determine if information related to Indigenous children, disaggregated by sex/gender can be included in the development of the Canadian Child Welfare Information System.

The need for new performance measures and data systems to address the unique requirements of child and family services and respect Indigenous data sovereignty is being communicated from communities, agencies and organizations across the country. These data improvements will allow for continued monitoring of outcomes, particularly those related to sex and gender, and ensure equity in the provision of prevention support and services to meet the needs of children, youth and families.

The Family Violence Prevention Program (FVPP) has a direct impact on the Gender-based Violence and Access to Justice pillar of the Gender Results Framework. By providing operational funding to 46 emergency shelters in First Nations communities and the Yukon and supporting family violence prevention programming, the FVPP assists Indigenous women and children escaping violence. Through the Shelter Initiative for Indigenous Women and Children, the FVPP will be expanding its network of shelters and thereby its reach to further assist in protecting Indigenous women, children and 2SLGBTQQIA people.

The FVPP's current Data Collection Instrument collects limited data that would allow for small-scale monitoring/reporting on access to shelters and prevention programming. By design, the FVPP is tailored towards addressing the needs of Indigenous women and children. However, it does not collect data on 2SLGBTQQIA people due to sensitivities surrounding the data capture for that subpopulation within some First Nations communities.

Through collaboration with its regional colleagues and network of shelters, the FVPP is currently in the process of redeveloping its Data Collection Instrument in order to better integrate a GBA+ lens. In doing so, the FVPP will be better able to monitor and report on shelter access and needs among the network of shelters and within First Nations communities.

Although Urban Programming for Indigenous Peoples (UPIP) does not have direct impacts that support the pillars and goals of the Gender Results Framework since its funding supports service providers, UPIP does have positive indirect impacts that support the Framework's following pillars and goals through its Programs and Services funding to service providers:

• Economic Participation and Prosperity;
• Education and Skills Development;
• Poverty Reduction, Health, and Well-Being.

UPIP currently collects limited data that does not allow to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity (GBA+).

UPIP recipients provide programming to urban Indigenous communities, and are not individual recipients. Therefore, UPIP recipients will be approached/engaged to discuss how they could enable future monitoring or reporting of the program's impacts by gender and diversity, noting that their clients' individual gender and diversity data is sensitive and personal information. Nonetheless, UPIP recipients provide UPIP programming to urban Indigenous communities who also identify as LGBTQ and Two-Spirit People and/or as persons with mental/physical disabilities, as evidenced by the success stories they provide.

The Program supports improved health outcomes for all First Nations members including women, men, girls, boys, gender-diverse people and people of all ages and sexual orientations by funding infrastructure and digital health care initiatives for Indigenous healthcare facilities. It primarily benefits Indigenous people but also non-Indigenous people living on reserve. It is important to note that improved health outcomes are not simply the result of a new building, but rather a number of factors primarily related to the program and service delivery in a building.

The Program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor or report program impacts by GBA+. As noted under the First Nations guidelines around Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP), any data collected by the Program does not include ethnic identifiers. Consequently, health status information that is routinely available for Canadians is not available for Indigenous Peoples.

To overcome these challenges, the department works collaboratively with Indigenous organizations such as the First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC). The FNIGC oversees the First Nations Regional Health Survey (RHS) that collects self-reported information on Western and Traditional understandings of health and well-being, on reserve. Although the RHS provides sex-disaggregated data that is broken down by age, the data collected via a self-reported survey and linked to perceived health outcomes. The RHS does not report on perceived health outcomes related to health infrastructure. Nonetheless, RHS data can help to provide important context and considerations surrounding the regional health status of First Nations, which can be used by the Health Facilities Program throughout program implementation. GBA+ impacts will be monitored using the Community-Based Reporting Template (CBRT). The CBRT, first implemented in 2008-09, combines performance information in a single template that recipients must report on annually to satisfy requirements set out in their Contribution Agreements. The Agreements consist of 50 questions and collects four types of information relevant to ISC programs for a given reporting cycle. A small portion of this information is organized by gender.

The eHealth Infostructure Program supports the goals of the GBA+ framework by improving working conditions of women in health care professionals such as federal nurses who use virtual care tools (telehealth) to access educational opportunities in remote work settings. The program positively benefits First Nations youth, women, and gender diverse individuals based on their specific needs. For example, telehealth helps to reduce the amount of travel by increasing access to pre-natal care and post-natal care in communities, which alleviates the burden of women leaving the community and their families for extended periods of time.

The Program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor or report program impacts by GBA+. Currently, the community data collection systems in place do not gather and report on program impacts by gender and diversity.

The Health Planning, Quality Management, and Systems Integration Program supports the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-Being goal of Canada's Gender Results Framework by improving First Nations and Inuit capacity, governance and control over health care services, which should have a positive impact for First Nations and Inuit who are currently receiving health services and programming through both the federal and provincial governments.

The Program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor or report program impacts by GBA+. As noted under the First Nations guidelines around Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP), any data collected by the Program does not include ethnic identifiers. Consequently, health status information that is routinely available for Canadians is not available for Indigenous Peoples.

Data collection for the Health Planning, Quality Management and Systems Integration Program is limited to community and organization levels across First Nations communities. Gender and diversity data cannot be collected as part of this program.

To overcome these data collection challenges, the department works collaboratively with Indigenous organizations such as the First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC). The FNIGC oversees the First Nations Regional Health Survey (RHS) that collects self-reported information on Western and Traditional understandings of health and well-being, on reserve. Although the RHS provides sex-disaggregated data that is broken down by age, the data collected via a self-reported survey and linked to perceived health outcomes. The RHS does not report on perceived health outcomes related to health infrastructure. Nonetheless, RHS data can help to provide important context and considerations surrounding the regional health status of First Nations, which can be used by the Program throughout program implementation. GBA+ impacts will be monitored using the Community-Based Reporting Template (CBRT). The CBRT, first implemented in 2008-09, combines performance information in a single template that recipients must report on annually to satisfy requirements set out in their Contribution Agreements. The Agreements consist of 50 questions and collects four types of information relevant to ISC's programs for a given reporting cycle. A small portion of this information is organized by gender.

This Program does not have impacts that support the pillars and goals of the Gender Results Framework. It also does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity (GBA+).

The department will be collecting quantitative and qualitative data to measure the impact of investing in governance capacity in which will help inform modernization of the Indigenous Governance and Capacity programs. This data may include GBA+ relevant information including the number of governance capacity development projects involving enhancing the representation of women and other diverse groups in community leadership and decision-making roles which will inform future governance capacity development initiatives.

The investments being made into water and wastewater infrastructure will support the well-being of Indigenous communities through closing gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in terms of equal access to quality water. Improving essential infrastructure like water and wastewater systems will positively impact all members of the community, including men, women, elders, youth, LGBTQ2+, and others.

The impacts of this program support the pillars and goals of the Gender Results Framework, through the Poverty, Reduction, Health and Well-being goal. Eliminating long-term drinking water advisories on public systems on reserve is listed as a key Government of Canada initiative for achieving this goal.

The Program does not collect micro-data information to monitor gender and diversity impacts. The water and wastewater program is directed at achieving comparability at the community level.

The Program is continuing to work with First Nation partners on advancing GBA+ principles and integrating these into current and future work. There are currently no plans to collect the micro-data needed for GBA+ monitoring.

The impacts of this program support the pillars and goals of the Gender Results Framework, through the education and skills development goals:

• equal opportunities and diversified paths in education and skills development;
• economic participation and prosperity – Equal and full participation in the economy; and
• poverty reduction, health and well-being – Reduced poverty and improved health outcomes.

First Nations identify their infrastructure needs through the First Nations Infrastructure Investment Plan process and proposed projects are assessed based on the following four priorities:

• protection of health and safety and assets;
• health and safety improvements;
• recapitalization/major maintenance; and
• population growth.

As per the Program's authorities and objective, ISC does not directly collect sex or gender-disaggregated data to analyze and assess the immediate gender impacts of ISC infrastructure investments. As a result, it is difficult to predict the differential impacts this program could have on Indigenous women, men, elders, youth, single parents, people with disabilities or LGBTQ2S+ people because each community develops their infrastructure plan according to their needs and priorities.

Overall, investments in education facilities will help bridge the infrastructure gap between First Nations and the rest of Canada and positively impact all members of the community, including women and men of various identities including age, culture, language, sexual orientation, education, ability, geographic location, faith, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. It will improve the overall social well-being and economic prosperity of First Nations communities on reserves.

The impacts of this Program support the pillars and goals of the Gender Results Framework, through the Poverty, Reduction, Health and Well-being goal with the objective to have fewer vulnerable individuals lacking stable, safe and permanent housing.

ISC provides funding to assist First Nations in building and maintaining quality housing and capacity for housing program service delivery in First Nations communities across Canada.

The department respects and adheres to the principle of Indigenous ownership of data. In 2021-22, ISC will work with Indigenous partners to co-develop a First Nations housing strategy that addresses the housing needs of women, youth, elders and other sub-populations.

ISC and its federal partners are supporting and engaging Indigenous organizations to collect data on vulnerable sub-populations to understand the barriers they face, identify program and service gaps, and co-develop solutions to address them.

In 2020–21, the Native Women's Association of Canada produced Indigenous Housing: Policy and Engagement - Final Report to Indigenous Services Canada, which outlined best practices to be applied across the country in support of housing needs for people living with a disability, Indigenous women and families, youth, and LGBTQ2+ persons. ISC is providing funding for a subsequent report, which is anticipated to be completed and presented in 2021-2022, which will summarize the impacts of COVID-19 on housing for Indigenous women, gender diverse, Two-Spirit people and Indigenous children in care.

The impacts of this Program support the pillars and goals of the Gender Results Framework, through the Economic Participation and Prosperity goal as well as the Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-Being goal. The department considers GBA+ principles as a core component of renewed, respectful, and inclusive nation-to-nation processes which will lead to reliable and sustainable infrastructure that supports the well-being of Indigenous communities through closing socio-economic gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Local and community-driven infrastructure projects improve the overall social well-being and economic prosperity of First Nation communities on reserve and supports First Nations in their efforts to develop healthier, more sustainable communities.

First Nations identify their infrastructure needs through the First Nations Infrastructure Investment Plan process and proposed projects are assessed based on the following four priorities: protection of health and safety and assets; health and safety improvements; recapitalization/major maintenance; and population growth.

As per the Program's authorities and objective, ISC does not directly collect sex or gender-disaggregated data to analyze and assess the immediate gender impacts of ISC infrastructure investments. As a result, it is difficult to predict the differential impacts this Program could have on Indigenous women, men, elders, youth, single parents, people with disabilities or LGBTQ2S+ people because each community develops their infrastructure plan according to their needs and priorities.

Establishing cultural spaces that are inclusive of the perspectives of Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual (2SLGBTQQIA) communities is a critical factor in ensuring that these populations are safe and included in decisions that affect them. This initiative will support the construction of culture and recreation facilities and help to ensure Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA have safe, no-barrier, permanent, and meaningful access to their cultures and languages. Investments could support community gathering places and cultural infrastructure that contribute to building identities and vibrant cultures.

Overall, investments in community infrastructure will help bridge the infrastructure gap between First Nations and the rest of Canada and positively impact all members of the community, including women and men of various identities including age, culture, language, sexual orientation, education, ability, geographic location, faith, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. It will improve the overall social well-being and economic prosperity of First Nation communities on reserves.

Although the Emergency Management Assistance Program (EMAP) does not have impacts that support the pillars and goals of the Gender Results Framework, there are a number of various GBA+ considerations within emergency management programs.

The negative impact of emergencies and evacuations are known to exacerbate and disproportionally impact vulnerable groups, including women, children, the elderly, the ill and persons with disabilities. During and following emergencies, individuals are exposed to varying levels of risk depending on their gender; this includes socio-economic impacts as well as health impacts. Dedicated efforts have been made to apply a gender-lens to the Emergency Management Assistance Program's policy, programming and service delivery to accommodate gender-specific needs during the response and recovery phases of emergencies. Furthermore, the Program is committed to incorporating GBA+ sensitive language in all communications materials during emergencies so as to ensure that all GBA+ groups feel equally valued, considered and safe.

The National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association (NACCA) to which the access to capital component of the Aboriginal Entrepreneurship Program (AEP) has been devolved, provides data disaggregated by gender. They report that approximately 30% of the businesses supported by the network of Aboriginal Financial Institutions and Métis Capital Corporations are owned by Indigenous women. NACCA launched the Indigenous Women's Entrepreneurship (IWE) initiative in 2019 with a goal of increasing the participation of Indigenous women by 50% by 2025. This year, the IWE will roll out new tools, services and resources, including communications products and training efforts. ISC is working with NACCA to explore changes to AEP policy to ensure inclusiveness.

The First Nations Waste Management Initiative does not significantly impact any of the pillars of the Gender Results Framework. The Program does not collect gender specific statistics related to the Initiative. Overall, a lack of essential community infrastructure negatively impacts all members of the community. This Initiative improves the overall social well-being and economic prosperity of First Nation girls and boys and well as women and men of various identities including age, culture, language, sexual orientation, education, ability, geographic location, faith, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. No additional actions to monitor the impacts by gender and diversity are being proposed at this time.

The Indigenous Centre for Cumulative Effects does not significantly impact the pillars of the Gender Results Framework. The Indigenous Centre for Cumulative Effects is a non-for profit corporation, housed outside government, that was created to support the technical and scientific capacity of communities to undertake cumulative effects assessment, based on the values of First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities. Although the Centre does not collect data to enable the monitoring and/or reporting of impacts by gender and diversity, it does promote the consideration of potential environmental, social, health and economic impacts, including cumulative impacts in a holistic nature of sustainable development. Indigenous groups are expecting governments to ensure the cumulative effects of developments in their territories are assessed and taken into account beyond a project-specific review, and have increasingly expressed concerns over adverse cumulative effects on their section 35 rights. The Centre will allow for the enhanced capacity for management of impacts on the environment, and will contribute to positive outcomes for Indigenous Peoples, including women, children and low-income groups. In this spirit, the Centre will support intergenerational equity, as actions taken in the present will help to ensure environmental and natural resources sustainability to support the needs of future generations.

ISC's Environment Review Process needs to ensure that non-designated projects on reserve do not cause adverse environmental impacts. The Environmental Review Process does not collect sufficient data to enable monitoring and reporting of potential project impacts on gender and diversity. However, the Environmental Review Process and related guidance are being revised to take into account the new requirements set out in the Impact Assessment Act. Accordingly, environmental reviews will increasingly consider a project's potential adverse impacts on health, social and economic conditions. One of the guiding principles for this analysis will be the consideration of potential impacts on diverse groups and sub-groups within a project area, including gender, age and diversity.

The Contaminated Sites on Reserve Program contributes to improved community and social well-being, by providing opportunities with Indigenous communities by involving them in the cleanup of sites both in the North and on reserve lands, while decreasing risks to human health. While all demographic groups affected by contaminated sites immediately benefit from remediation, youth and future generations most greatly benefit; especially those who live near sites with long term environmental monitoring in place, as they will have assurance that their food and drinking water sources will remain protected. Contaminated sites often result in socio-psycho stresses within affected communities that can be related to human health risks (e.g. uncertainties surrounding safe drinking water and uncontaminated food sources) and remediating sites can increase social wellbeing for future generations.

Among other supports, the Reserve Land and Environment Management Program provides a training and certification program for land managers. Therefore, there are indirect impacts to the education and skills development, and economic participation and prosperity goals of the Gender Results Framework. The program is not currently tracking gender specific data, however the design of the training program was designed to ensure there are no barriers for older students, women or caretakers. In 2021-22, the program will work to more closely track GBA+ results.

The land use planning initiative ties to two Gender Results Framework goals; leadership and democratic participation, and economic participation and prosperity. The initiative provides support for community-led planning to ensure accessibility to services within residential zones for childcare, health services and education as well as ensuring that all community members including youth and the elderly are engaged and participate in land use planning. As land-use planning is a community driven exercise, ISC does not track gender specific data related to the initiative. ISC will commit to discussions with our Indigenous partner organization to determine whether we can more fully report on GBA+ for land use planning.

The 10-year grants advance self-determination of First Nations which advances the Gender Results Framework goals of: Economic Equal and full participation in the economy, and reduced poverty and improved health outcomes.

ISC will continue to rely on practices rooted in the co-developed principles of mutual accountability, including the co-development of a National Outcome-Based Framework, which should allow for gender-disaggregated analysis at the national level. ISC will co-develop approaches to address gender considerations in reporting with linkages to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including by identifying and taking steps to address data gaps.

The Strategic Policy, Planning & Information Directorate GBA+ team has connected with colleagues at the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) to share work and exchange ideas and best practices. In September 2019, the department shared with the FNHA a GBA+ guidance document for ISC employees as part of the management and operational planning process.

Communications as an internal service supports programs in using GBA+ to assess how diverse groups of women, men, and gender diverse people may experience our policies, programs, and initiatives. This is used to inform how to position messaging and tailor communications products for specific audiences. Communications services also supports in providing information to employees via Deputy Ministers messages and intranet content on training, tools and resources available.

Human Resources and Workplace Services provides opportunities and flexibilities to managers to meet the department's objectives for Indigenous workforce as well as other designated Employment Equity groups. It also provides support on diversity and inclusiveness plans and activities.

ISC Evaluators are actively exploring how to use the GBA+ approach in their work to understand how diverse groups of people may be affected differently by ISC policies and programs. As an example, ISC evaluators are currently incorporating a GBA+ lens into the evaluation of the Communicable Disease Control and Management program, which deals with people's health, an area that affects people of various genders, ages, cultures, sexual orientations and abilities differently.