A peek at the updated Canadian Indicator Framework

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a United Nations led universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. They cover a broad range of social and economic development issues, including poverty, hunger, health, education, climate change, gender equality, and much more. The goals are underpinned by a framework of global indicators that allow Canada and other countries to monitor and report on progress. To enhance domestic monitoring, countries were encouraged to develop a national implementation plan that can include country-specific indicators.

The Canadian Indicator Framework (CIF) for the SDGs was developed to address specific national context and better measure progress towards national sustainable development priorities.  Each indicator in the CIF provides the most recent data available to inform policy makers and Canadians about the progress towards the achievement of the goals. Every three years, a strategic review of the CIF is conducted to ensure the continued relevance of the ambitions, targets, and indicators.

This year, the first strategic review led to numerous changes in the framework; notably, 20 indicators were added to fill measurement gaps or were updated to maintain their relevance. Let’s look at some of the highlights of these new additions.

Debt to disposable income ratio

Goal 1 of the SDGs aims to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. One of the indicators added under this goal is the debt to disposable income ratio, which measures how much debt households have compared with their available income after taxes and other deductions.

In the last quarter of 2023, Canadians held $1.75 of debt per dollar of disposable income, representing a decrease from $1.78 in the same period the previous year.

For average Canadian households, mortgages constitute most of their debt. In the last quarter of 2023, an average homeowner with a mortgage held $3.06 of debt for every dollar of disposable income, representing a ratio nearly five times higher than a homeowner without a mortgage ($0.64).

For more data related to this indicator, visit Indicator 1.3.1: Debt to disposable income ratio.

Proportion of persons with unmet health care needs

Goal 3 of the SDGs focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all, at all ages. Access to health care is considered a fundamental aspect of overall well-being, yet many Canadians face challenges in meeting their health care needs. As a result, the indicator on unmet health care needs was added under Goal 3.

In 2022, the proportion of Canadians with unmet health care needs rose to 9.2% from 7.9% the previous year. Women (10.4%) continued to experience higher unmet health care needs than men (8.0%). Among all provinces, both women (12.9%) and men (12.2%) in the Atlantic provinces had the highest proportion of unmet health care needs.

For more data related to this indicator, visit Indicator 3.15.1: Proportion of persons with unmet health care needs.

Shelter users experiencing chronic homelessness

Goal 11 of the SDGs aims to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. In Canada, chronic homelessness, defined as long-term or repeated periods of homelessness, remains a challenge affecting thousands who struggle to find stable housing. As a result, an indicator on chronic homelessness has been added under Goal 11.

In 2022, an estimated 29.8% of shelter users (31,476) in Canada experienced chronic homelessness, up 17.2% from the 2016 baseline of 26,866.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a slight reduction in 2020, where the number of chronically homeless shelter users dropped by 6.4% to 28,004 from 29,927 in 2019. This may be partly due to homelessness services adapting to allow for physical distancing, which led to temporary decreased shelter capacity during the pandemic.

For more data related to this indicator, visit Indicator 11.1.1: (a) Number of shelter users experiencing chronic homelessness; and (b) percentage change in the number of shelter users experiencing chronic homelessness from the 2016 baseline.

Civil court case completion time

Goal 16 of the SDGs relates to promoting peaceful and inclusive societies, providing access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable institutions. To help measure this goal, an indicator on civil court case completion time (the time elapsed from the initiation of a civil court case to its first disposition) was added under Goal 16.

In 2022/2023, 46.7% of total civil cases were completed within three months, up from 46.1% in 2021/2022.

Family cases, such as divorce, child custody, property division and adoption, have maintained a higher proportion of swift resolutions compared with general civil cases, which may involve disputes, such as contracts, bankruptcy and other claims involving money. In 2022/2023, 57.7% of family cases were resolved within three months in 2022/2023, compared with just under 40% of general civil cases being resolved within the same period.

At the same time, the percentage of cases taking over two years to resolve has increased. In 2022/2023, the proportion of cases lasting more than 24 months rose to 11.1%, up from 9.6% in 2021/2022.

For more data related to this indicator, visit Indicator 16.4.1: Civil court case completion time.

To access more information on Canada’s progress towards the SDGs, please visit the Canadian Indicator Framework for the Sustainable Development Goals Data Hub.