Below is a speech I delivered to the Council for the Regional Municipality of Niagara

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for providing me with an opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Sabrina Hill, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee Chair and a Women’s Advisory Committee member.

I would like to speak tonight in favour of the DEI Action Plan.

When I was a young person – struggling with my own gender identity, there were few allies. There were even fewer places I could turn to for advice, support, and safety. Around every corner, there was just a potential to be bullied; the possibility of being mocked, dismissed, and to be told that I was just “confused.”

While undoubtedly unsure about who I was and why I didn’t share the same comfort, confidence, and ease with myself as many of my friends, I was aware of the struggles of others who did transition and what they faced. I was aware of their frustrations in finding employment, housing, dealing with depression, isolation, suicide, and access to adequate healthcare. This only prolonged my internal turmoil and despair.

It was a historic first step when the Region moved to create the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee. The Committee’s goal was to address biases and discrimination, mitigate negative impacts, and enhance the quality of life for diverse communities across Niagara. Our goal, established by the Region through the terms of reference, was to promote and foster better understanding and inclusion in Niagara.

The twelve individuals that serve on the first iteration of the DEIAC come from unique backgrounds, experiences, and education. Over the last fifteen months, they brought forward issues facing multiple groups, including perspectives from Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community, people from various religions, and people with visible and hidden disabilities.

Why are Diversity and Equity important?

To borrow language from the Plan, “many individuals in Niagara face barriers and exclusion due to their race, immigrant status, disability, religion, gender, sexuality, and age, among other factors. Individuals have unique and overlapping identities. These intersecting aspects of identity result in some people experiencing more discrimination than others in areas such as health care, employment, and housing. The Plan addresses the negative impacts of bias and discrimination on quality of life, safety, health and inclusion.“

Mr. Chair, if adopted, the DEI Action Plan will work to fundamentally shift how the staff creates and executes the establishment, implementation, and service delivery of new and existing services and programs across the Region. Ultimately making Niagara more welcoming, diverse and inclusive and unquestionably improving the lives and experiences of those that work and reside here.

The Region as Employer and Community Leader

As academics and business leaders across Canada and elsewhere have noted, a diverse workforce with true equity and inclusion strengthens the organization and the organization’s reputation, attracting talent and more diverse professionals. When a company has a positive culture of inclusion with a respectful workplace, people want to come to work and collaborate. They feel like they are part of a team, which increases employee engagement and improves retention rates.

If the Region wants to further cement itself as an inclusive employer, one that fosters and encourages accountability, community leadership, and good governance, and one that responsibly reflects the community all across the peninsula, the Council needs to consider adopting the framework presented in the document before you tonight.

Missing in my young life at the time was a system of support. While the work of our public institutions to assist equity-seeking residents is never entirely complete, this Plan is a symbol; a pledge. It will stand as recognition of the experiences, and often trauma, that those who have been marginalized endure daily. And though the institutions and framework laid out in the Plan is still just in its infancy, just now being realized, it’s an auspicious start.

Fifteen months ago, the Committee was tasked with supporting staff in drafting and implementing the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan. Over that time, it provided recommendations, advice, and information to Regional Council and Regional Staff on matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I think we realized and achieved this noteworthy mandate.

This Plan by the Region represents more than just some vague, utopian idealism. It stands as a symbol of acceptance, inclusion, hope, and opportunity.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen; for letting the next young version of me out there know that their existence is acknowledged; accepted; for breaking the intergenerational cycle of trauma and exclusion; and most importantly, for reminding them:

that they are accepted;
and that there is hope.

This concludes my comments supporting the Strategic Action Plan before Council this evening. Thank you, Mr. Chair.