Measuring What Matters

Measuring What Matters aims to enhance access to high quality information and to better answer the question “How is Calgary really performing as a city?”  In addition, companies and nonprofits are increasingly incorporating community prosperity data into ever-more important environmental, social impact, and governance performance metrics. This means it has never been more crucial to start talking about how we understand and measure community prosperity.

What Matters?

We already have ready access to a range of economic indicators – employment, office vacancy, home sales, and so on. These are widely reported on in the news and drive many of the major decisions we make as a city. But these indicators do little to help us understand how Calgary is performing in ways that matter to people’s lives, and for all Calgarians.

A Changing City

In 2021, Calgary is holding a crucial municipal election. And the province, as a whole, is polarized and divided, especially on the fundamental question of our values and purpose.

We are seeing our identity as a city is shifting. Calgary is the third most racialized city in the county, yet we grapple with the historic and contemporary exclusion of critical voices in shaping Calgary’s community prosperity, and with what the narrative and experience of Calgary is in the context of Treaty 7.

Indigenous Community Prosperity

In order to understand how Calgary is really doing, we are taking a deep dive into measuring Indigenous community prosperity.  Calgary’s community prosperity is enabled by Treaty 7, and is a function of our collective ability to honour the intent of the Treaty, and more broadly of the imperative to act upon reconciliation and the pursuit of right relations.  

We have engaged a summer student to assist with reaching out to Indigenous organizations and knowledge keepers to deepen our shared understanding of what matters, as well how we approach identifying and measuring indicators of community prosperity important to Indigenous peoples living in Calgary and more broadly within Treaty 7. 

Indigenous Perspectives from Treaty 7 & Moh’kinsstsis (Calgary)

Angela Bear Chief’s paper outlines some important considerations for including Indigenous voices meaningfully in measuring what matters, probes the kinds of measures and broader practices worth considering, and outlines some of the existing efforts already underway locally, nationally and internationally, from which we might draw inspiration or learning. In compiling this report, I have reached out to Indigenous organizations and knowledge keepers, including but not limited to Indigenous members of Treaty 7 Nations, to deepen our shared understanding.

Key Terminology

Many of the terms we use to talk about Measuring What Matters lack definitional specificity.  To help navigate these concepts, below are key terms:  

Community Prosperity

refers to the cultural, economic, social and ecological conditions necessary for human potential to flourish. It is meant to encompass wellbeing, sustainability, quality of life, and civic vitality. 

Wellbeing

is the term used to describe an attribute of human existence. Your physical wellbeing, your mental wellbeing, and your financial wellbeing. On its own, without a modifier like 'physical', the term wellbeing takes on an encompassing role that simply describes the current state (well or wellness) of a (human) being.

Sustainability

means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.  Sustainable development is perhaps most widely recognized in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. 

An index

is a conglomerate of indicators, sometimes organized into ‘domains’, that organize concepts into a set of measurable values for ease of understanding or comparability. It is a way to rank, order and arrange subjects.

Indicators

are the lowest level of categorization in an index. They are used to inform larger groupings referred to as domains. Think of it like fingers to a hand. Each indicator is separate and useful in its own right but together they can tell a larger story (the domain). It can get complicated as indicators can sometimes fit into several domains and there can also be sub-indicators.


 
 

Models and Indexes

Local indexes and indicator projects

  • Calgary Vital Signs 

  • Calgary Equity Index 

  • State of Our City Report 

  • Serving Calgarians about Social Issues and Service Needs 

  • Indices of Community Wellbeing for Calgary Community Districts

  • City IQ

  • The Social Progress Imperative

Indexes and Indicator Projects from other Cities and Regions

  • BC Prosperity Index 

  • Centering First Nations Concepts of Wellbeing Towards a GDP Alternative Index in BC 

  • Urban HEART (Health Equity Assessment Response Tool): Toronto

National and International Indexes and Indicator Projects

  • Canadian Index of Wellbeing

  • Towards Canada’s 2030 Agenda National Strategy

  • The OECD Better Life Initiative

  • The Legatum Prosperity Index

  • The Living Standards Framework

  • World Happiness Report 2020

  • The Social Progress Imperative

The Institute for Community Prosperity and CityXLab is located on the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut'ina and the Iyarhe Nakoda First Nations. The City of Calgary is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3.