Original article
Sex, mines, and pipelines: Examining ‘Gender-based Analysis Plus’ in Canadian impact assessment resource extraction policy

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2021.100921Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Canada has federally mandated guidance to include gender and other identity factors in impact assessment processes (IA).

  • Gender violence is occluded during project appraisal, including guidance documents on gender and IA.

  • Feminist policy frameworks like GBA+ are limited within bureaucratic processes.

  • LGBTQ2S+ communities and peoples are left out of IA.

  • Emerging methods in IA require cultural safety and better mechanisms to assess colonialism and the gendered impacts of resource development.

Abstract

The need for gendered and culturally sensitive analyses of the impacts of resource development is being echoed across Canada. Such an imperative is especially significant in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities where individuals, including women, girls, and gender diverse people, bear the embodied burden of the impacts of resource development. While the need for gender sensitive impact assessment (IA) is clear, what is less clear is how to design and conduct assessments that meaningfully include the impacts on sex and gender. This article explores the application of Gender-based Analysis Plus, a policy tool, in approaches to IA. We review the utility of indicator frameworks given Section 22 (s) of Canada's Impact Assessment Act (2019) which states that sex, gender and other identity factors must be taken into account during IA processes. Such a clause is an overdue response to the increasing awareness of the need for improved regulation and the development of social and cultural IA processes that consider axes of difference such as gender, class, ableism, racialization, and their intersections. This paper reviews key literature on gender-based analysis and IA, and argues that gender-based indicator frameworks, as currently imagined in the IA processes, remain in tension with calls for community-specific and culturally appropriate methods.

Introduction

This paper lies at the intersection of Impact Assessment (IA) and Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) in Canada and builds on research that has demonstrated challenges in implementing a gendered lens in IA processes. IA is a tool used to adjudicate resource extraction projects internationally. GBA+ is a lens, used by the Status of Women Canada (now Women and Gender Equality Canada) for government-wide implementation. It is an analytical framework to promote more inclusive scoping and analysis through consideration of multiple and intersecting axes of difference such as gender, race, age, income, and ability and how they interplay with sociopolitical context.

The disproportionate costs, or adverse impacts, of resource development on women and girls are well demonstrated (See Gibson et al., 2017; National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls [MMIWG], 2019a; Murphy et al., 2021; Sweet, 2014). Data on income, gender and employment, highlights a discrepancy in who receives what benefits from potential projects (Ewing et al., 2017; Gibson et al., 2017). Age, ethnicity and regional geography additionally stratify the benefits and costs of resource development within and across provinces and territories. Further, gendered impacts such as increased violence against women and sex work have been underrepresented in the Canadian IA context (Gibson et al., 2017; National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls [MMIWG], 2019a, National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls [MMIWG], 2019b; Sweet, 2014). Previous research indicates the need for more socially and culturally sensitive community participation across the lifespan of projects, beginning during the early planning phase of IA and project appraisal through to project closures and even the decommissioning of sites (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada [INAC], 2013; Manning et al., 2018a; National Aboriginal Health Organization [NAHO], 2008; Pauktuutit Inuit Women's Association of Canada et al., 2012; Peletz and Hanna, 2019; Réseau Canadien de L'environnment/Canadian Environmental Network [RCEN], 2019; Sesele et al., 2021; Stienstra et al., 2016; Walker et al., 2019).

When considered, gendered impacts tend to be assessed ad hoc, as processes differ across jurisdictions and projects (Clow et al., 2018; Hamilton, 2018; Manning et al., 2018b; Lahiri-Dutt and Ahmad, 2013; Laplonge, 2016). Further, each phase of the IA and resource extraction process has costs and benefits that must be analyzed for diverse subsets of employees and adjacent communities. There is also a gap between Indigenous and practitioner reporting of gendered costs of projects and a paucity of tools and methods that adequately account for culturally safe and relevant analysis, including Indigenous-led gender-based analysis (Bond and Quinlan, 2018; Walker et al., 2019). This includes a gap related to methods that incorporate best practices to guide the development of safe, inclusive project sites and industry interactions with local communities (Jones et al., 2014), particularly for women, girls, gender diverse, and non-binary people (Koutouki et al., 2018), which recognizes their active resistance and participation in impact assessment processes (Sinclair, 2021). For example, in British Columbia on the west coast of Canada there is a provincial conversation taking place that stems from regional pressures to better assess gender issues; these pressures have mounted in response to the reporting of sexual violence and discrimination, indicated by the Minister's Advisory Council on Indigenous Women for example (MACIW). In this paper we ask, based on a literature review, engagement with policy guidance, and research on gender and IA, What are the key components of an inclusive, diversity focused, gender sensitive Impact Assessment process?

We argue for an informed approach to the integration of indicator frameworks in GBA+ and the need for further resources to fill a gap of knowledge and practice in relation to gender-based violence, project appraisal and resource development decision making. The central tension in the domain of IA and gender, is the need for a standardized tool set (or processes) for assessing the gendered impacts of resource development projects on people and communities, while recognizing that communities are at once diverse and unique, requiring specific consideration and methods. This paper reviews key literature on gender-based analysis and IA, and argues that gender-based indicator frameworks, as currently imagined in the IA processes, remain in tension with calls for community-specific and culturally appropriate methods. In this paper we illustrate that current research and writing on indicator frameworks reveals a gap in the development of theoretical engagement, methodological innovation, and policy development around how gender analysis is to be integrated into IA frameworks in Canada.

Section snippets

Gender-based analysis plus approach

Women and Gender Equality Canada defines Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) as:

An intersectional analytical process for examining how various intersecting identity factors impact the effectiveness of government initiatives. It involves examining disaggregated data and research, and considering social, economic, and cultural conditions and norms. Using GBA+ means taking a gender- and diversity-sensitive approach … Considering all intersecting identity factors as part of GBA+ – not only sex and

Literature review as method

The research that informs this paper was overseen by two research leads, with assistance and input from three research assistants. Literature in all languages was searched between the dates of 1999–2020. The review process used is consistent with the standard for systematic reviews and focused on social data related to equity issues: definition of eligibility criteria; a broad search identifying possibly eligible titles and abstracts; selection of titles and abstracts that might possibly be

Thematic analysis: Gender, impact assessment, and resource extraction

Our key findings build on work addressing the inadequacies of IA processes in mitigating inequitable and gendered impacts of extractive resource projects. Our findings reaffirm the persistence of serious gaps and lack of regulatory follow up. In general, there is discussion in the literature of the inconsistency of IAs and how their comprehensiveness and duration differ between projects (Arnold and Hanna, 2017). For example, Stienstra et al. (2016) discuss how some communities are left to deal

Discussion

The primary contribution of this article is the evaluation of literature with a focus on indicators, methods, and gaps to assist in the further analysis of gender within the context of IA. Here we turn our discussion to consideration of how policy and practice can become more attuned to the social responsibility that extractive projects have to adjacent communities and those they employ at project sites. The flow of this discussion mirrors our results, beginning with indicator frameworks.

Conclusion

Our paper presents findings from a review of academic and grey literature on methodological approaches, frameworks, and best practices for operationalizing the GBA+ approach given changes in Canadian IA that require gender be taken into account during project appraisal. Section 22 (s) of Canada's new Impact Assessment Act lists that sex, gender and other identity factors must be taken into account during the assessment process. Such a clause is an overdue response to increasing awareness of the

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge core funding for this project came from a SSHRC/IAAC knowledge synthesis grant. This article is derived from a publicly available report by the same co-authorship team and was adapted based in part on reflections from a presentation of the report at a SSHRC/IAAC forum in held in September 2020. We would like to acknowledge Chris Buse, Diana Kutzner, and Margot Parkes for collaborating throughout the project including on the initial project proposal. Thank

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