Peg acknowledges that our work takes place on Treaty 1 Territory, the land of the Cree, Ojibway, Dene and Dakota peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation, where the original people of Turtle Island have gathered for as long as can be remembered. Treaty No. 1 was entered into on August 3, 1871, at Lower Fort Garry. As Winnipeggers, we also acknowledge the water we drink comes from Treaty 3 territory of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, and our electricity comes from Treaty 5 territory.

As a community indicators system, Peg recognizes its own responsibilities when it comes to data. Measurement, mapping and data have historically served as tools in the colonizing of Indigenous lands, resources, and peoples—from surveying land for Britain, France and Canada, to experiments carried out in residential schools without Indigenous families’ knowledge or consent, to using statistics to perpetuate harmful stereotypes of Indigenous people today. We acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past and dedicate ourselves to moving forward in partnership with Indigenous peoples in a spirit of truth, reconciliation, and collaboration.

What is Peg?

Peg measures the well-being of our community year over year – in ways that count. We report on everything from the health of babies born in Winnipeg right through to how many of them graduate 18 years later. We track how much garbage we take to the landfill, how we move around the city and how we choose to spend our time.

It’s through Peg that Winnipeggers can learn how their life, their neighbourhood, and their city is changing. Peg is a starting place for Winnipeg’s citizens, business owners, and policy makers to learn the facts so they can lead change to create a better city.

Peg is a community indicator system, tracking measures called “indicators” that reflect and measure our city’s well-being. The indicators, developed by more than 800 Winnipeggers, community groups and data experts, are grouped into eight theme areas: Built Environment, Basic Needs, Economy, Education & Learning, Health, Natural Environment, Social Vitality & Governance and Demographics.

What is Peg’s Purpose?

Peg’s tagline is “Tracking Progress, Inspiring Action.” Peg is a central source for tracking a curated set of indicators that matter most to our city’s well-being. These indicators pull together data from a variety of sources (including Statistics Canada, the City of Winnipeg, the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, and more) into a single place. Using graphs, maps and other visualization techniques, Peg provides a clear snapshot of our city’s well-being while identifying changes over time.

Peg is designed to benefit all Winnipeggers, providing reliable and credible information on key indicators. Particular groups who may benefit from Peg include:

  • Government and other decision-makers, to inform policy and processes.
  • Business owners, to explore connections to their corporate social responsibility plans and SDGs.
  • Students and researchers, to research projects and take action in the community.
  • Non-profit organizations, to gather information, inform proposals and tailor programming to their community’s needs.
  • Members of the public, to learn more about their neighbourhood and their city.

Community members and decision-makers from every sector can use Peg to learn the facts about our city. By tracking the most important indicators in a user-friendly way, we can celebrate our successes as well as inspire action where it’s needed most.

About Community Indicator Systems

What is a Community Indicator?

Community indicators are measurements that provide information about past and current trends within a community. They show the relationship between social, environmental, and economic factors that affect a community’s well-being. Community indicators provide information on the overall direction of a community, providing data on where it is improving, declining, and/or staying the same.

Community indicators are often grouped into category areas or themes. Peg has grouped the community indicators into eight theme areas: Built Environment, Basic Needs, Economy, Education & Learning, Health, Natural Environment, Social Vitality & Governance and Demographics. However, indicators and the broader topics they represent are highly interrelated. Some indicators appear in more than one theme area for this reason. We recognize that most indicators, even if they only appear in one theme area on Peg, interact in complex ways in the outside world we live in.

What is a Community Indicator System?

Community indicators systems identify and track indicators that speak to a community’s well-being. They look at a web of indicators that relate to the economic, environmental, cultural, social, and other issues that matter most to a community. The system tracks and shares data for each indicator, making the information fully available to members of the community.

A community indicator system allows a city or community to look at the inter-relationship between many indicators, seeing whether they interact to enhance a community’s well-being.

How Do Community Indicator Systems Benefit Their Communities?

A community indicator system provides a way for individuals, community groups, and organizations in all sectors to easily access data. It also enhances collaboration, provides tools to encourage progress, improves decision-making, informs research, and increases public knowledge about key economic, environmental, social, and cultural issues. At a more immediate level, a community indicator system benefits all members of a community by providing reliable, credible information.

More recently, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) has been leading the way in working with communities across Canada and internationally to incorporate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their community indicator systems. In so doing, cities are better able to track the impact of their local actions on the indicators related to the global goals for our planet’s well-being. Peg is IISD’s flagship community indicator system in this expanding area.

Peg’s Data

How Do I Access the Data?

Along the left side of the website you will see eight icons for the eight theme areas in Peg. When you click on an icon, it will provide you with a list of indicators. Clicking an indicator will take you to a page with multiple ways of learning about the indicator.

The first tab provides background information on that indicator, such as its source and why the indicator is important. The following tabs provide the data in the form of a graph, map or other visualization. Where the data is available, we show the data trends over time as well as a comparison of community areas with the most recent data. At the bottom of the page, you will find a link for the data, which you can download as a spreadsheet or map. 

The final tab tells you which SDG(s) the indicator relates to, making it clearer what we need to accomplish locally to reach our goals globally.

How Are Peg’s Indicators Chosen?

Peg engaged in an intensive community consultation process with over 800 people from a variety of sectors to brainstorm, shortlist, and determine theme areas and indicators. The indicators are monitored and evaluated on an ongoing basis by a cross-sectoral Advisory Group and project team members from IISD and United Way Winnipeg.

Where Does Peg Get Its Information and Data?

Data for Peg is obtained from reliable and credible data providers. The parameters and limitations of each source are stated with the background information for each indicator.

By involving many individuals and groups at every level of development, Peg provides a non-biased approach. Peg does not generate or collect data itself, but rather communicates data that has been collected externally. Each indicator specifies the data source (e.g., Statistics Canada, Province of Manitoba, Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, City of Winnipeg, etc.). The data on Peg is updated as it becomes available from its sources. For most indicators, the data is updated annually; however, some data is collected on a two-year or multi-year cycle.

IISD conducts an in-depth quality assurance, quality control process before entering information on the site.

How Does Peg Show Data?

Peg shows data according to multiple geographies depending on the data available.

Where possible, Peg prioritizes showing data according to 12 “community characterization areas,” representing a shared definition of boundaries related to different areas of our city. This definition was created by the Winnipeg Data Consortium, which includes the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, the City of Winnipeg, various provincial government departments, and a number of community groups.

Using a consistent level of geography allows users to compare different indicators for the same area. Each community characterization area, made up of several neighbourhood clusters, represents a population of approximately 55,000 people.

However, indicator data is not always available at this level. In these cases, the data is visualized according to the geography of the data provider (e.g., Winnipeg CMA, regional health authority, etc.).

More About Peg

Who Is Peg?

Peg is led by two partnering organizations – International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) and United Way Winnipeg.

Since community ownership is critical to the development and success of the system, these two organizations actively incorporate the perspectives, wisdom, and advice of Winnipeggers. This includes the Peg Advisory Group, responsible for the overall guidance and oversight of Peg efforts. At the end of the day, Peg belongs to Winnipeggers.

Who is on the Peg Advisory Group?

  • Carolee Buckler, Province of Manitoba
  • Brenda Jasper, City of Winnipeg
  • Hannah Moffat, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority
  • Sarah Leeson-Klym, Canadian Community Economic Development Network
  • Scott McCullough, Institute of Urban Studies
  • Brendan Reimer, Assiniboine Credit Union
  • Colin Fast, Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce
  • Noralou Ross, University of Manitoba – Manitoba Centre for Health Policy
  • Cathy Steven, Health in Common
  • Pam Sveinson, Winnipeg Poverty Reduction Council
  • Darren Swanson, Novel Futures Corporation
  • LuAnn Lovlin, The Winnipeg Foundation

Who Does Peg Collaborate With?

As a community-based project, Peg collaborates with a number of like-minded initiatives and organizations whose common objective is to share quality, open data and information to communities to inform decision-making and inspire action.

Two such Winnipeg-based groups are the Manitoba Collaborative Data Portal and the Winnipeg Data Consortium, which Peg is a member of. Peg also works closely with our data providers and with groups that do educational work around community indicators systems, such as the Community Indicators Consortium (CIC), or around the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

How is Peg Funded?

Peg strives for cross-sectoral funding support. Funding is provided by United Way Winnipeg and The Winnipeg Foundation, along with in-kind support from the International Institute for Sustainable Development and United Way Winnipeg.

Founding support to develop and implement Peg came from the City of Winnipeg, the Province of Manitoba, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Assiniboine Credit Union, Great-West Life, and Investors Group. 

Peg also recognizes the financial support of the ECHO Foundation and Natural Resources Canada’s GeoConnections Program for the development of the tracking-progress tool.