Minister Fortier meets with Mayor Bowman of Winnipeg 

Readout

July 21, 2021

Today, the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance, Mona Fortier spoke virtually with Brian Bowman, the Mayor of Winnipeg.

Minister Fortier and Mayor Bowman discussed Canada’s draft Quality of Life Framework that was introduced in Budget 2021 to integrate quality of life considerations into decision-making.  The Framework provides a guide for moving beyond one set of well-being indicators – such as GDP – to look at Canadians’ quality of life in five domains – prosperity, health, environment, society and good governance. In addition to this sort of multi-dimensional thinking, the framework emphasizes inclusive and long-term thinking.

The Minister sought input on the discussion paper released alongside Budget 2021 and specifically Mayor Bowman’s views on refining the indicators in the Framework to better assess quality of life by ensuring that a broad range of factors are used to guide policy decisions in Canada.  

Mayor Bowman shared the importance of continued investments in affordable housing to support families in Winnipeg. He also stressed the importance of supporting Indigenous communities who have been particularly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the Minister and the Mayor agreed that additional data is required to support good evidence based policy decisions. They agreed to continue working together to strengthen the availability of open-source data as a way of driving inclusive growth in communities all across Canada and protecting the health of Canadian democracy.

Minister Fortier indicated that the feedback from this meeting, as well as other meetings, would be used to refine the Framework, which will remain evergreen to ensure its continued relevance in measuring what matters for a good quality of life in Canada.

Minister Fortier also took the opportunity to discuss continued challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the work done by municipal governments to spearhead the country’s economic recovery. Canada entered the pandemic in a strong fiscal position, which has allowed the government to take quick and decisive action, support people and businesses, and make historic investments in the recovery.

Contacts

Media may contact:

Isabella Brisson
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance
isabella.brisson@fin.gc.ca

Media Relations
Department of Finance Canada
mediare@fin.gc.ca
613-369-4000

General enquiries

Phone: 1-833-712-2292
TTY: 613-369-3230
E-mail: financepublic-financepublique@fin.gc.ca

Stay connected

Twitter : @financecanada

RSS

Page details

Date modified: