Photo by John Jones, licensed under CC BY 2.0

Community benefits are a tool to help local communities organize and leverage public infrastructure investments to create good jobs and apprenticeships, grow social enterprises, build affordable housing, and more for people who don’t usually benefit from capital projects.

The following resources have been assembled to support people who are organizing for community benefits. Is there something we should add? Please email us at communications at ccednet-rcdec.ca  

Introduction to Community Benefits

• Making Community Benefits a Reality in Ontario, Atkinson Foundation, 2016
• Community Benefits FAQs, Dina Graser, 2018
• Community Benefits Agreements and Organizing for Equitable Development (webinar), PolicyLink, 2018
• Community Benefits 101, California Partnership for Working Families
• Community Benefits Agreements: Making Development Projects Accountable, Good Jobs First & California Partnership for Working Families, 2005
   

Resources

• The Fight for the Right to Housing and a No Displacement CBA in Herongate, ACORN Canada, 2019
• Engage, Design, Evaluate: The Social Value Scorecard for Community Benefit Agreements, Buy Social Canada, 2018
• Engage and Empower: Defining and Engaging Community in Ontario's Community Benefits Initiatives, Mowat Centre, 2018
• Community Benefits Agreements:  Empowering Communities to Maximize Returns on Public Infrastructure Investments, Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy, 2017
• Realizing Social and Economic Objectives through Infrastructure Planning and Investment, Evergreen, 2017
• Delivering Benefit - Achieving Community Benefits in Ontario, Mowat Centre, 2017
• Community Benefits from Development: Improving Neighbourhoods and Enabling Affordable Housing, City of Vancouver, 2017
• Community Benefits in Practice and in Policy: Lessons from the U.S. and the U.K., Atkinson Foundation, 2016
• Community Benefits and Social Procurement Policies: A Jurisdictional Review, Mowat Centre, 2016
• Community Benefits and Tower Renewal, Evergreen, 2016
• Bringing Community Benefits to Tower Neighbourhoods, Ben Hanff, 2016
• Community Benefits Agreements, Mowat Centre, 2015
• Analysis of the Impact and Value of Community Benefit Clauses in Procurement, University of Glasgow, 2015
• Community Benefits: Delivering Maximum Value for the Welsh Pound, Welsh Government, 2014
• IBA (Impact and Benefit Agreements) Community Toolkit, The Gordon Foundation, 2015
• Impact and Benefit Agreements: The Role of Negotiated Agreements in the Creation of Collaborative Planning in Resource Development, Adam J. Wright, 2013
• Toward a Community Benefit Model of Procurement in Community Services, The Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria, 2013
• Community Benefits Agreements: The Power, Practice, and Promise of a Responsible Redevelopment Tool, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2007
• Achieving Community Benefits Through Contracts: Law, Policy & Practice, Rowntree Foundation, 2002

CBA Case Studies and Examples

• Parkdale Community Benefits Framework: Guide for Development without Displacement, full report, Parkdale Community Economy Development (PCED) Planning Project, November 2018
• Community Benefits as a Strategy for Economic Inclusion in Ontario: The Eglinton Crosstown LRT Story, Atkinson Foundation, 2017
• Metrolinx Community Benefits Framework and Program
• Rexdale Rising and Woodbine Casino Community Benefits Agreement
• Manitoba East Side Road Authority Community Benefits Agreement, see also this paper
• Gordie Howe International Bridge Community Benefits Report
• Building on Success: An evaluation of the Community Benefits Agreement for the Vancouver Olympic Village Site, Karen Peachey, 2009 and Negotiations Report
• US CBAs Currently in Effect
• US Case Studies: Pittsburgh, Oakland, Dallas, Houston and Milwaukee
• Vancouver Community Benefit Agreement Policy, August 2018

Canadian Legislation and Policies of Interest

• City of Toronto Community Benefits Framework, 2019
• Bill C-344, 2018
• Government of Canada, Community Employment Benefits program, announced June, 2018
• BC’s community benefits agreement framework, July 2018
• Island and Sunshine Coast Communities Creating Community Benefit Hub, July 2018
• Community benefits survey raises eyebrows among industry skeptics, August 2018
• Ontario Announces Community Benefit Infrastructure Projects, May 2018
• Ground-breaking legislation passed in Ontario encouraging community benefits in infrastructure projects, June 2015
• Ontario Infrastructure and Jobs for Prosperity Act, 2015
• Ontario's Long-Term Infrastructure Plan  (Chapter 3), 2017

Find out More and Take Action

These are some of the organizations and people leading the work on community benefits and social procurement in Canada.  

• Power Lab (Atkinson Foundation and Broadbent Institute 2018)
• Toronto Community Benefits Network and some additional background documents
• Buy Social Canada
• Dina Graser
• Sandra Hamilton
• Julian Gross (US)
• Richard Macfarlane (UK)
• Community Benefits Coalition of BC
• Lebreton Flats Community Benefits Coalition
• Hamilton Community Benefits Network
• Windsor Essex Community Benefits Coalition
• Peel Community Benefits Network