The CEA believes that the practice of economics in Canada should feel relevant to people from all groups in society and that people from groups that have faced discrimination, in particular, should feel that it is a respectful, relevant, and welcoming profession.  Building true inclusion is everyone’s responsibility. Therefore, the CEA, itself, aims to actively promote this goal of inclusion by taking a facilitating and, where appropriate, leading role.

Making progress toward that goal involves a combination of contributions and leadership from people from communities that face barriers and discrimination, as well as from the CEA.  It is also a goal that encompasses all the various facets of economics in Canada: academic; government; private sector; and not-for-profit. And, of course, the participation of and outcomes for students are vital in moving toward a future of an inclusive profession.

In pursuit of this goal, in June of 2022, the CEA convened a Diversity Summit just before the annual meetings at Carleton University. A productive conversation at that meeting led to a proposal to form action groups under the umbrella of a Canadian Economics Diversity Committee (CEDC). That committee was formally created by the CEA Board in September 2022 along with an Economics Profession Data Committee (EPDC), that is charged with creating an ongoing concerted effort to gather data on the economics profession in Canada.

CEDC Members Include:

Huw Lloyd-Ellis and Paul Beaudry as chairs; Huw Lloyd-Ellis as co-chair of the Mentorship Committee);

Sermin Gungor (as co-chair of the Mentorship Committee and representative of CWEC);

TBD (as co-chairs of the Best Practices Committee);
Rob Gillezeau and Viet Vu (as co-chairs of the Affinity Groups Committee);

Nick Dadson and Sermin Gungor (as co-chairs of the Data Committee); and

Ana Ferrer (as chair of the Code of Conduct Committee).

      The CEDC has within it an initial set of sub-committees:

       >> Mentorship Committee to extend the excellent work of CWEC to create mentorship opportunities for students and junior faculty from under-represented backgrounds;

       >> Best Practices Committee to bring together and disseminate information on the policies undertaken by economics departments to address diversity and inclusion;

       >> Affinity Groups Committee to co-ordinate actions for affinity groups as meeting places for under-represented groups in economics.

Several existing CEA committees, including the Code of Conduct and Communications committees, have also adjusted their mandate to take on work related to diversity and inclusion. A document explaining the role of each of these sub-committees and their goals more completely can be found here [PDF].

In all of this, we gratefully acknowledge the leadership and substantial efforts made by the Canadian Women Economists Committee (CWEC), not only relating to issues of gender in the profession but issues of diversity more broadly. It is important to emphasize that the CEDC will stand parallel to CWEC in the CEA structure, working with it on important issues. The CEDC does not subsume CWEC.

We also gratefully acknowledge the efforts of the many people who have stepped up to volunteer in these efforts, many of whom were working on these issues well before the CEA got involved. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Huw Lloyd-Ellis (lloydelh@queensu.ca) or Paul Beaudry (Paul.Beaudry@ubc.ca)