Community Benefits Agreements

Produced by the Mowat Centre at the School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto.Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) are a strategic tool used in the process of building community wealth. CBAs are negotiated agreements between a private or public development agent and a coalition of community-based groups. This coalition may include neighbourhood representatives, single-issue advocates, labour unions, social service agencies, religious congregations, faith-based groups and others. This paper explores CBAs attached to large-scale real estate or infrastructure developments. It situates CBAs firmly in the Ontario context. It looks to the experiences of practitioners in other jurisdictions for lessons and cautions. It also considers how community organizers, public servants and developers can adapt this approach to their current realities.Together, they give a voice to people in infrastructure planning and land development processes – especially those individuals who have been historically excluded or marginalized from these processes and decisions that affect them. The paper examines the structure of CBAs and the process for developing them. It will describe the leading examples, the current provincial landscape, and related strategic considerations before drawing some conclusions and identifying next steps.Commissioned by the Atkinson Foundation