Founded in 2000 by George Roter and Parker Mitchell, engineering graduates from the University of Waterloo, it is a registered Canadian charity focused on finding solutions to extreme poverty, specifically in rural Africa.

EWB Canada also works in advocacy campaigns aimed convincing the Canadian government to change policies and laws concerning international development issues.

Unknown to many, EWB Canada played a large role in the Canadian Live 8 concert in 2005 and has won numerous awards both nationally and internationally.

To raise money, EWB Canada created the Run to End Poverty (R2EP) national movement in 2009.

Chapters are able to send overseas volunteers for four month work terms through the Junior Fellowship in International Development Program.

Short term volunteers, or Junior Fellows, are student members returning to their chapter following their time overseas.

The goal of these placements is not to alleviate poverty alone, but also to build capacity among the local non-governmental organization partners and community at large.

In particular, the Canadian group was a strong critic of EWB-USA's focus on short-term development projects run by each chapter, arguing that "locally driven, locally appropriate change is the only sustainable change that will reduce people’s vulnerabilities and thus, reduce the need for short term, humanitarian type projects.