Yes, to answer the first part of your question, I think one of the factors that had a big impact on where Canada was and where Canada has got to is that there have been changes in economic currents, not only in Canada but also around the globe. At a certain point in Canada's history, the emphasis was very intensely focused on attempting to contain costs at the federal and provincial levels. I believe a gender-based analysis, if it had been used at that time, could have alerted people to the fact that some of the cuts that were made had a more devastating effect on women than they did on men, by virtue of both the nature of the cuts that were made and the overall economic vulnerability of women going into it.
So I think what happened to make women less equal in recent years is very much a product of not having implemented the gender-based analysis of fiscal instruments quickly enough. Remember, Canada went to the 1995 Beijing conference saying it had already secured agreement from all government departments to do gender-based analysis, and some departments did begin doing it right away.
I agree a lot can be done to build on the past, and a tremendous amount of work can be brought into the process. However, we all know the law that seems to change the most quickly is the Income Tax Act, right? It's twice a year, as regular as...what? I don't know. It's probably the most regular thing I know of.
Because of this, the rules are always changing, and they always need to be looked at again. Every time you change one provision in a budget, it will interface with other provisions. It's a fluid process. So this analysis, once it's put in place, needs to be carried out over and over again as quarterly economic reports become available, as new budgets are put in place, etc.