Status of Women Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2009

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I call the meeting to order. It being 3:38, I hope we can make up those eight minutes and end at 5:38 instead, guys, because we have a lot of work to do.

Before I let Candice speak, I want to welcome Minister Guergis, Ms. Paquette, and Ms. Waugh from the agency of Status of Women Canada, who are here to speak to the performance report.

Yes, Candice.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I want to raise a point of order. I realize we have a lot of work to do, but I feel it's very important, and I would like to raise this point of order.

First of all, and most importantly, based on what's happened this past week with the politicization of remembrances in Montreal—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I don't think this is appropriate right now.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

It absolutely is. It's privy to our doing our work.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

No, we are not discussing business—

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

But we can't do our work. We can't do our work.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

The minister is here, Ms. Hoeppner. I will rule you out of order—

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

I would like to continue with my point of order, Madam Chair—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Will you listen to the minister? When we discuss committee business, you may bring that up—

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

We can't even carry on. We cannot carry on with what has gone on this week.

If people disagree with the long gun registry, they have every right to disagree with it, but to politicize this remembrance is wrong. To demonize me and to say that I don't care about women and that somehow I don't have the right to be at that event--and I was told that by every party, everybody that's at this table—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Ms. Hoeppner, this is not a point of order.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

It is absolutely a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Minister, will you please begin your presentation?

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

We cannot do our work. How can we continue with our work? We cannot continue with our work. You're basically saying—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Ms. Hoeppner, I have ruled you out of order.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

This pertains to business.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

No. You cannot challenge the chair. You are out of order.

The minister is here. She's here to present on a particular thing. We can discuss this when the minister has left.

Minister Guergis.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

We cannot do our work—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Minister Guergis, please.

Ms. Hoeppner, please restrain yourself.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Minister of State (Status of Women)]

Madam Chair, if I could highlight, I know many times I've been around this table, and without sounding perhaps petty...my name is pronounced “George-iss”. I know that often lots of opposition members mispronounce my name. I'm not sure if it's because they don't know how to say my name or if it's on purpose, but I would really appreciate it if we could pronounce it as “George-iss” because it is “George-iss”.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I am sorry, Minister Guergis.

Begin, please.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Thank you very much.

Madam Chair and committee members,

It's a pleasure to have you with us today.

Since November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and with December 6 just a few days away, I am pleased to be here this afternoon to share with you the concrete actions that our government is taking to increase women's full participation in Canadian Life.

I would like to begin by offering my thanks and appreciation for the extensive work that has been carried out by this committee in a variety of areas that touch the lives of women and girls in this country and in other parts of the world. I believe we are united in our goal to build a Canada in which women and girls are safe, engage in the democratic process, and enjoy prosperity and financial security as full participants in our economy. Perhaps at times we differ on the methods we need to take in order to reach this goal, but ultimately we want the same things, and as women around this table so often, we should be working towards that goal together.

We believe that addressing these challenges requires a multi-layered, multidisciplinary, and multi-faceted approach that includes, in addition to a commitment to end violence against women, that we support women's full involvement in our economy and in the political leadership of our nation. We know that an individual woman or girl who has access to education, to employment opportunities, to mentors and to other important economic and social assets is less likely to find herself dependent upon others, or vulnerable to poverty, violence, and discrimination.

This committee has done some very important work on issues such as gender-based analysis, pay equity, pensions, the extension of EI benefits to self-employed women, and many others. I congratulate all of you for these important contributions to the ongoing search for the best and most effective ways to advance equality for women and their full participation in the economic, social, and democratic life of our country.

I welcome the opportunity to discuss how the priorities and activities of the Government of Canada are moving us closer to these goals. For example, I am sure you are aware of the many OECD reports that note that the surest way for a nation to advance economically and socially is to empower women. I'd like to highlight that on October 28 the World Economic Forum released its Global Gender Gap Index report. Canada moved ahead of the United States in the annual global survey. This survey assessed the participation of women in the economic and democratic life of 134 countries. In fact, we did rise six spots to 25th.

We are a leader in three of the four categories: economic participation, educational attainment, and health. The fourth category was political empowerment, and every one of us around this table knows that we have a lot of work to do. Canada was in fact first in literacy rates and in economic participation, and we continue as a government to work to close the gender gap. Canada's standing gained ground as a result of improvements in the economic performance of women. That is real progress for women and real progress for Canada.

I'd like to talk about the role of Status of Women Canada and some of our key activities. In Canada, women and men are equal under the law. Status of Women Canada collaborates with a number of partners such as other federal departments and agencies, provincial and territorial governments, the private and voluntary sectors, and international organizations on an ongoing basis. Our efforts are directed toward an overall outcome to strengthen the full participation of women in the economic, social, and democratic life of Canada. But to achieve this outcome, we have two program activities, the provision of strategic policy advice and financial assistance for projects through the Women's Community Fund and the Women's Partnership Fund, which I will speak about a little bit later.

The first is the provision of strategic policy advice and analysis, training and tools, as well as the development of partnerships to support federal departments and central agencies in integrating gender-based analysis in their policies, programs, and their services. As committee members will know, the Government of Canada has agreed with the recommendations of the Auditor General that the Treasury Board Secretariat and the Privy Council Office provide support to Status of Women Canada to help the government meet its commitments to gender-based analysis. This includes assessments of the differential impacts on women and men in policy and program development, taking intersectionality into account as well as the collection and monitoring of data. I'm very pleased that we're seeing a great deal of progress on this front.

The second program activity is the provision of funding and professional assistance for local, regional, and national projects that further the cause of women's equality through the Women's Community Fund and the Women's Partnership Fund. These activities are structured around the three pillars, which I announced earlier this year, of promoting economic security for women, promoting the ending of violence against women, and promoting leadership for women in key decision-making bodies.

These investments in grants and contributions are helping women across the country. Since 2007, Status of Women Canada has funded projects that have had a direct impact on more than 140,000 girls and women and an indirect impact on over 1.6 million girls and women.

Innovations at Status of Women Canada have allowed us to fund 69% more initiatives than in previous years, assisting hundreds of thousands more women. These projects are empowering more and more women with information, knowledge, skills, and support networks, and women are using these tools for success to identify and overcome barriers that impede their full participation in society.

A sampling of some of these successful projects during 2008-09 indicates that 50% of them were directed at issues related to women's economic security and prosperity, 42% addressed violence against women issues, and 8% focused on women's leadership and their decision-making roles. In March of this year I announced a partnership with WEConnect Canada, an organization that delivers the leading international certification standard for women-owned businesses.

We provided funding for a project called Opening Doors to Corporate Markets, which is an education, training, coaching, and mentoring program. This program seeks to increase economic opportunities for women-owned businesses by increasing market access in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries such as China and India. I first learned of this program in my former role as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Trade. I continue to support this program because I believe in the importance of market access.

Through the new Partnership Fund of Status of Women Canada, our government is supporting women in non-traditional trades. We are working with the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, CATA WIT, to support women in leadership in advanced technology sectors. We are providing knowledge transfer through our support to the well-known Women Building Futures initiative, which focuses on non-traditional fields such as the trades and construction and heavy equipment operations, supporting women who are coming from very difficult situations into this program. Let me tell you that the men I have been speaking with in the construction industry are telling me they prefer women in these roles: we're not breaking the equipment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Minister, excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt you, but witnesses have 10 minutes and you only have one and a half minutes left, so perhaps you can find a way to fast-forward your--

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I'll do the best I can, Madam Chair. I have probably a lot more than a minute here, so I'll do the best I can.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, then you should try to finish it in 10 minutes.