By Lincoln DePradine

A Toronto-based company has been awarded a contract by the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to conduct research and provide consultancy for a project, whose objectives include improving “the quality and comparability of statistical data” in the group of regional small-island nations.

Dunn, Pierre, Barnett & Company Canada Ltd. (DPBA), after an open bidding process, was chosen for the consultancy services that would lead to the OECS preparation of a five-year strategy for a “regional statistical capacity building” project that it calls DDM — “Data for Decision Making”.

DPBA, a Black-owned workforce development and research firm, secured the OECS contract just as it was concluding a six-month Labour Market Needs Assessment (LMNA) survey for the government of St Lucia and a National Skills Audit assessment in Guyana.

DPBA, which has been in business for more than 15 years, has worked extensively in the Caribbean region and has advocated for an LMNA in Canada to address unemployment and underemployment among the country’s Black population.

According to labour statistician Dr C. Justine Pierre, DPBA’s director of research and business development, successive governments in Canada have had minimal experience interacting with the Black population. He noted that the World Bank has conducted these types of Labour Market Needs Assessment surveys for more than 60 years.

The World Bank also has provided financial assistance to over 80 developing countries, including many Black-dominated countries in Africa and the Caribbean Region, to conduct LMNA surveys. However, such a survey has never been conducted among Black people in Canada’s history, Pierre pointed out.

He said the data garnered from a labour market survey could help rectify what he describes as the low “business-to-population’’ ratio in the Black, African and Caribbean communities; and also would enable policies and measures to be taken for businesses — owned by African-Canadians — to be better positioned to hire more job-seeking Black youth.

Pierre reiterated that Canada needs 60,000 Black business enterprises by 2027, with at least five employees. This, he told The Caribbean Camera, will alleviate the high underemployment and unemployment situation in Canada.

“We have one of the lowest business-to-population ratios among most ethnic groups in Canada. We have a ratio of 2.65 percent and, as a result, we cannot employ our young people when they come out of school,’’ Pierre said.

Pierre and DPBA, who have begun building a Canadian Black Data Portal that emphasizes the need for an increase in African-Canadian businesses, have compiled research information that shows that in Canada, “over 88 percent of businesses have no Black suppliers”, and that “almost 98 percent of government contracts are not awarded to Black contractors.”

In addition, the company argues that “occupational segregation, educational gaps, implicit bias, lack of diverse leadership, and cultural barriers contribute to the persistent inequity in the Canadian labour market. Businesses can play a crucial role, increasing Black representation in their workforce and buying from — and supporting — Black-owned businesses”.

One of DPBA’s published research documents is called, “The Paycheque Penalty: The Price of Being Black in Canada’s Workforce”.

In it, DPBA says that systemic racism “continues to impact Black Canadians’ wages in 2024, creating significant pay disparities compared to non-Black counterparts”.

In addition, the company argues that “occupational segregation, educational gaps, implicit bias, lack of diverse leadership, and cultural barriers contribute to the persistent inequity in the Canadian labour market. Businesses can play a crucial role, not only increasing Black representation in their workforce but also actually buying from — and supporting — Black-owned businesses”.

The St. Lucia-based OECS Commission said that, after evaluating applicants seeking the DDM service provider contract, it was determined that Pierre was “the most experienced and best-qualified candidate for carrying out the assignment”.

Pierre was the lead statistician who evaluated the recently concluded Government of Canada-sponsored Project for the Regional Advancement of Statistics in the Caribbean (PRASC) https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/about/cooperation/prasc

The consultancy for the World Bank-funded DDM project began earlier this month.

Pierre and his research team have been tasked with identifying and documenting “statistical capacity gaps that exist in the region, with the focus on Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and The Grenadines”.

The DPBA assignment will last four months and the team is conducting national in-person consultations to gather data to help the OECS establish a mechanism to “enhance the availability and accessibility of statistical information”; and also to “support evidence-based decision-making and policy development, foster regional integration and cooperation, and build capacity and expertise in statistical development”.

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter