Ottawa Has Spent at Least $30 Million on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Programs Since 2019

The facade of the headquarters of the Department of National Defence is pictured in Ottawa in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

The Canadian government has spent over $30 million on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives since 2019, according to recent documents analyzed by The Epoch Times. The released data show that DEI spending has been ramping up each year since 2019, some years increasing by over 100 percent.

The Department of National Defence was the top spender on DEI at $9.32 million. It was followed by Employment and Social Development Canada ($7.93 million) Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada ($2.14 million); the Parole Board of Canada ($2.27 million); and the Department of Canadian Heritage ($1.72 million).

Other notable spenders included the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions ($910,000), the Correctional Service of Canada ($691,000), the Canadian Space Agency ($648,000), Infrastructure Canada ($636,000), the Privy Council Office ($522,000), the Public Prosecution Service of Canada ($521,000), the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ($455,000), and the Canada Border Services Agency ($509,000).

Of the agencies that reported their expenditure figures, those who spent the least on DEI services were the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety ($360), the Canadian Grain Commission ($412.50), Canada Energy Regulator ($4,800), Accessibility Standards Canada ($5,748.75), the Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada ($6,637.50), and the Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada ($7,755).

The data came in a May 6 response to an Inquiry of Ministry request submitted by Conservative MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay.

While the Canada Revenue Agency reportedly spent just $8,475 since 2019, on a single guest speaker in 2023, it included a note saying “many contracts not reported.”

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The Canadian Security Intelligence Service would not say how much it spent on DEI initiatives. Public Services and Procurement Canada, Transport Canada, Shared Services Canada, Women and Gender Equality Canada, the Canadian Transportation Agency, Natural Resources Canada, and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said they are not tracking those numbers.

Across all government departments, the $30 million total spending on DEI since 2019 amounted to some $1.75 million in 2019, $1.82 million in 2020, $5.74 million in 2021, $5.94 million in 2022, $12.70 million in 2023, and $2.27 million so far in 2024.

Specific Initiatives

DEI initiatives the departments put in place included workshops, guest speakers, research services, management consultants, seminars, and coaching, with the costs ranging from just a few hundred dollars to millions of dollars.

At the Department of National Defence, individual expenses included $21,750 in 2019 for Feminomics, “a boutique consulting firm specializing in women’s economic empowerment,” to provide “advice to the Defence Indigenous Advisory Group on integrating gender and diversity perspectives in work with external stakeholders.” In 2021, $55,905 was paid to HumanSystems Incorporated for an analysis on “how to enable greater diversity and inclusion in the Canadian Armed Forces through allyship.“ In 2024, a university professor specializing in ”social justice and community studies” received $22,600 as a guest speaker for a Black History Month event.

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) paid $20,790 to Bakau Consulting Inc. in 2021 for diversity and inclusion training, and $39,450 to Feminuity, a “full service diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consulting firm” in 2022 to obtain “recommendations for expanding the capacity of organizations to support the social inclusion of Black racialized communities and other racialized individuals with disabilities in Canada.” ESDC also paid $15,120 to the Mayday Club Youth Choir in 2023 as part of an effort to find and compile “actual positive stories and learning examples from people across Canada about the impact of accessibility and disability inclusion." 

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISEDC) paid $76,500 to BDO from July 2021 to March 2022 to review its employment systems to identify barriers to DEI, and $19,500 to Howatt Strategic Human Resources Consulting in 2021 to provide recommendations for investing in the “employee experience.” ISEDC also paid $18,645 to a consultant in 2021 for the “facilitation of Safe Space discussions” offered to approximately 890 employees across Canada, which involved providing “resources for constructive and safe dialogue on structural racism, systemic racism and systemic discrimination.”

Effectiveness of DEI

DEI initiatives, meant to help people of different backgrounds feel included in workplaces, have increasingly become a regular part of government agencies and businesses as well as universities, and the amount of money spent on DEI has grown in recent years. An analysis by The Epoch Times last summer showed that the number of highly paid Ontario public sector employees in DEI-related positions has increased significantly over the last decade.

Among the DEI areas of focus for the federal public service are generating and publishing data on gaps in the representation of employment equity groups, increasing the diversity of senior leaders, supporting an action plan for black public servants, addressing systemic barriers, and addressing harassment, discrimination, and violence in the workplace.

Meanwhile, as some insist DEI programs are crucial, debate is growing as to whether the initiatives are useful or if they in fact lead to more harm.

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat says the work of DEI “is as important as it is urgent.” It says the federal government has “made important progress over the years” in creating “a workplace that is safe, inclusive, and free of all forms of racism and discrimination.”

DEI initiatives and programs “aim to help organizations identify and more effectively tackle disparities or inequities in their organizations,” Tatishe Nteta, provost professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, co-wrote with other academics in a paper in the Conversation in April.

Erica Jacqueline Licht, research project director for the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project (IARA) at Harvard Kennedy School, wrote last year that “DEI programs have been time-tested as changing campuses for the better and attracting more Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian students.”

“When students feel like they belong, they stay in school and graduate after four years at a higher rate than those who do not,” she wrote.

However, David Haskell, an associate professor of digital media as well as religion and culture at Wilfred Laurier University, says his studies show that DEI initiatives result in more harm than good.

“My observation is the research proves that DEI, that kind of training, does nothing positive ... and there’s strong evidence that it does harm,” he said in an interview.

Mr. Haskell conducted a study for the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy in February, in which he reviewed the literature and aggregated meta-analyses on DEI training from the world’s top social scientific journals. His study says there is evidence that the growth of DEI instruction has not led to positive benefits but can instead “activate bigotry” in people who undergo the training.

“What those studies concluded was that DEI has no empirical evidence that it does anything positive. But then I also examined other studies that looked at the impact, and there’s clear evidence that it increases bigotry, it increases prejudice,” Mr. Haskell said.

In July 2023, former Toronto District School Board principal Richard Bilkszto took his own life following diversity training sessions in 2021 that led to his being accused of white supremacy and facing pressure at his workplace.

Jack Mintz, a President’s Fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, echoed Mr. Haskell’s remarks, saying that despite growing spending on DEI initiatives, there is growing debate on its effectiveness.

“There’s always some value in making sure that people do treat each other appropriately. ... And I think any organization would want to avoid harassment in its workforce because you need people to work together,” Mr. Mintz said.

“But I think it’s more appropriate to make sure you have rules in the workforce to deal with things like harassment, no matter who does it and who is the target.”