Gender-based analysis plus

POLAR is committed to tracking its gender and Indigenous-based employment data and gaps, to inform every stage of program and policy development and to advance work to meet POLAR’s obligations under the Nunavut Agreement, including:

• Ensuring that gender-based issues are considered in POLAR’s policies, programs and initiatives and are informed by evidence-based trends; and,
• Regularly reviewing, updating and implementing POLAR’s Inuit Employment Plan that outlines strategies and targets to increase Nunavut Inuit employed at POLAR’s headquarters in Cambridge Bay, as per POLAR’s legal obligations under Article 23 of the Nunavut Agreement.

Although due consideration is given to GBA+ as outlined below, as a micro-organization POLAR has very limited capacity dedicated to GBA+-specific activities.

POLAR has assigned 0.1 full-time equivalent (FTE) within its Corporate Services Division to focus on oversight of GBA+ implementation activities and initiatives during 2020-21.

POLAR has committed to use GBA+ information, data and trends to inform its activities in support of departmental results. Specifically, in order to increase Indigenous participation in their activities, in 2020-21 POLAR planning to:

• Provide in-kind and financial support to research projects that include Indigenous and local knowledge;
• Encourage and facilitate engagement between researchers at the CHARS campus and community decision-makers; and,
• Support data and information management systems to document Indigenous knowledge to support local and integrated decision-making.

In order to increase the number of youth pursuing polar science and technology-related careers, POLAR is planning to:

• Provide support for science camps in northern communities;
• Support visiting scientist presentations;
• Make available educational tools (such as maps of the polar regions) to support curriculum development; and,
• Support student participation in science conferences.

Given the shared priorities in the North, POLAR is planning to explore connections to other northern and science-based departments and agencies, including CIRNAC, in an effort to share best GBA+ application practices and liaise more broadly with established GBA+ Networks to enhance integrated GBA+ implementation at POLAR.

POLAR will request its employees complete the GBA+ E-Basics Online Course.

POLAR’s core responsibility: “Polar Science and Knowledge,” has two departmental result commitments with indicators that support GBA+:

• With respect to the Departmental Result that “Canada’s Arctic science includes Indigenous and local knowledge,” in 2018-19, POLAR committed to begin measuring the percentage of Arctic research projects led or supported by POLAR that include Indigenous or local knowledge and to establish a baseline and target for this indicator. In its 2020-21 Departmental Results Report, POLAR will report on the data collected to date.
• With respect to the Departmental Result that “the next generation of Canadian polar researchers is developed,” in 2018-19, POLAR committed to measuring the number of youth involved in activities led or supported by Polar Knowledge Canada and to establish a baseline and target for this indicator. In its 2020-21 Departmental Results Report, POLAR will report on the data collected to date.