GBA Plus in HIA: Opportunities, Practices, and Guidance for the Federal Impact Assessment Process

This document provides guidance on how to integrate GBA Plus into each step of the Health Impact Assessment for Impact Assessment projects. The document has five main sections: 1) Key Concepts; 2) Guide to Using this Document; 3)Foundational Principles; 4) Promising Practices for Incorporating GBA Plus in HIA; and 5) a Worked Example, using Employment to demonstrate how additional potential health impacts could be identified using this GBA Plus guide. It explains four foundational principles that should guide each stage of the process: Cultural relevance, Intersectionality, Reflexivity and Community engagement and ethical practice. And examples are provided for what should be considered when applying GBA Plus in each step of the IA process.

Using this guidance document will change what we know about the effects of infrastructure and resource projects and how these are addressed.

This practical and unique document was commissioned by Health Canada to assist staff at Health Canada, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, project proponents, and consultants to identify where and how to include GBA Plus in Health Impact Assessment (HIA) processes. It was developed by Faiza Waheed (Intrinsik Consulting), Jane Stinson (CRIAW), Professor Leah Levac (University of Guelph), Professor Deborah Stienstra (University of Guelph), and Rebecca Tatham (PhD Candidate, University of Guelph).