Status of Women Committee on Nov. 26th, 2013

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Thank you very much for the question.

I have to say that Kara Flynn, who is the human resources director at Syncrude, is very proud of the women who run those large dump trucks. One of the reasons that over 50% of the drivers at Syncrude are women is they take better care of the equipment. It's a win-win for Syncrude Canada as well as for industry leaders to know that if they hire women who are taking on these skilled professional trades that we are encouraging them to take on, there is an economic opportunity for them of not only having great workers who are diligent and show up to work on time, but they take care of the equipment.

With respect to encouraging women to enter into skilled professional trades and other areas, I will mention a few things. One is that the Government of Canada has been very focused on a number of programs to aid all Canadians, which women will also benefit from. First is the Canada job grant, an excellent opportunity to allow employers to know where the jobs are, know where they are available, to be able to invest and make sure that Canadian women are receiving the skills they need for those jobs that are available today.

In addition, the youth employment strategy has multiple facets to it that help develop skills for Canadians at different levels. Whether it be the career focus program, which targets post-secondary education students, the skills link program, which is for individuals mainly with a high school education who may need further education or skills training, or the summer jobs program which provides experience, all of these are available to younger Canadians. Many young women take full advantage of them.

As you are probably aware, since the early 1990s more than 61% of the graduates from post-secondary education institutions in this country have been women. What we need to do is not only encourage them to enter into university but also to enter into college. As you mentioned, the numbers speak for themselves. Not as many women are entering into professional trades or graduating. We're encouraging young Canadians to graduate, to complete their apprenticeships by providing incentive grants as well as completion grants, something which has been exceptionally popular across the country since being put in place.

At Status of Women Canada we also have a focus. We had our recent call for proposals on our economic security side, one of which is a program that I'll highlight because it focuses on women entrepreneurs. WEConnect Canada received over half a million dollars for a 30-month project to reduce the systemic barriers leading to under-representation of women-led businesses in the supply chains for Canadian corporations.

This program will aid women leaders from across the country to diversify their supply chain and develop their businesses. It provides mentorship. It provides opportunities for partnering. These are fabulous opportunities for women, and fabulous opportunities for other women because we know women hire women. We know that women invest in their communities when they are leading companies.

These are all positive things for women, by increasing the number of jobs available to them and to their local communities.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much. Five minutes goes by quickly.

Mrs. Sellah, you now have the floor.

[Djaouida Sellah, NDP, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you Madam Chair.

First of all, I would like to thank the minister for her first appearance before the committee. I am also new to this committee. I would also like to thank those who are accompanying the minister here today.

In order to be efficient and precise, Minister, I would ask you to answer briefly and concisely please, so that I may ask other questions.

You recently stated to the media that even in cases of rape as an act of war and forced child marriage, Canada will not give foreign aid to the organizations that perform or refer women to abortion services.

Abortion is legal in Canada, so I would like to ask you why the government has made this singular exemption around abortion services.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Sorry, Madam Chair, on a point of order again, I'm not sure what that has to do with supplementary estimates (B) or status of women issues that we do here at committee.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Given that the minister is here, I will allow her to answer this question.

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

With respect to forced child marriages—

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Madam Crockatt.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

When there is a point of order like that, Madam Chair, should you not take debate on it? It seems to me that the questions here are going wildly off what we're here to discuss today. I would like an opportunity to be able to address that before we throw everything but the kitchen sink in here.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

I would ask the minister to please give a brief answer. Then we will move on to another question.

Thank you.

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

With respect to forced child marriages, and I mentioned this in my comments, today an estimated one in three girls in the developed world is married before the age of 18. This practice, in my opinion, and I think others, denies girls their rights to an education, to health care services, and to future opportunities.

I want to be very clear. Canada is committed to taking a leadership role with respect to this issue. I stated that at the United Nations when I was there in October. We will continue to find ways to partner with others across the globe in order to combat this. I want to be very clear, and I'll state again what I stated in my notes, that when I was at the United Nations in New York on October 11 for International Day of the Girl Child, I was very pleased to formally announce that Canada is working with other partner countries to pursue the first-ever stand-alone resolution on child, early, forced marriages. This will be put forward by Canada at the UN General Assembly later this year.

Our government has taken a leadership role in addressing health challenges faced by women, newborns, and children in the world's poorest countries. Our government has been very focused on attaining real results. By focusing on areas where Canada is a world leader, we have put forward, and our Prime Minister put forward, the Muskoka initiative.

Now, as a physician, I'll be very clear. Interventions on pre- and postpartum care—I'm not sure if the member wants to hear this—are exceptionally important. She would know as a family physician, as I do as a pediatric surgeon, that these are life-saving acts. When you're standing in an emergency department, when you are standing in a circumstance where you could have sterile instruments but you don't, you know what the risks are to that child. I can tell you that my preference is always to be in a safe and controlled environment, which is what we are creating, and that's what Canadians—

[Djaouida Sellah, NDP, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Minister.

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

You asked me the question, and I'm answering your question. Please do not interrupt.

[Djaouida Sellah, NDP, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Minister, I had asked you to be clear and precise because I have more questions. You still have not answered my question. I wanted to know why your government refuses access to abortion services. You know very well that in these countries rape and forced marriage are weapons of war. How can you then go before the United Nations and claim that you will cooperate internationally to defend these causes, while your government refuses these girls abortion services?

Please give us a short and clear answer.

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Well, as I was saying, I don't think any Canadian condones this abhorrent behaviour. Our government has made a choice to be very focused on what we can do to have real results. I can tell you, as a physician—and I'm sure this physician knows as well—that investments in pre- and postpartum care are essential to making sure we save lives. Our initiatives—and they're something Canadians can be exceptionally proud of—have prevented over 1.3 million child deaths from prematurity, prevented deaths of over 64,000 mothers, and enabled over 12 million couples to access important health care resources. These are things that Canadians should be very proud of. I know that I am proud of them.

On the issue of forced, early, child marriage Canadians should be proud that we are moving forward with respect to our resolution at the United Nations regarding this unacceptable behaviour. I'm sure Canadians agree with our government that moving forward on this resolution is exceptionally important, when young women are put in a position where they have to be married at an earlier age. As I mentioned before, the statistics are staggering. One in three girls in developing countries being married before the age of 18 puts them in a circumstance where they are not able to receive adequate education or health care services.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Minister, I thank you for appearing before our committee. We are going to break momentarily to allow you to leave the room. Thank you to all the participants for being here.

We will reconvene and hear from Ms. Clément, Ms. Tremblay and Mr. Goupil.

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

We will now resume our hearing.

If you are in agreement, I propose that each person have a five-minute question and answer period to allow more people to ask questions.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Not really, because we have our order of questions: seven minutes, seven, seven, seven, seven, and five. I think we should just leave it in the order that we have it.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

All right.

Ms. Ambler, you have the floor for seven minutes.

[Stella Ambler, Conservative, Mississauga South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, departmental officials, for being here today. Already it has been a very interesting meeting. I really appreciate your time. I'm sure it takes quite a bit to prepare for these appearances, so thank you for that too.

I wanted to ask about women on boards in particular and what Status of Women Canada is doing in this area. Canadian women have high levels of education and business experience and represent more than 50% of university graduates, but female CEOs lead just 2% of the world's largest companies and are represented only on 10% of boards.

We are all aware that this is an issue and it's sometimes hard to reconcile that fact with the fact that there are so many women entrepreneurs who lead successful businesses and are active in so many areas of community life but for some reason are consistently under-represented on boards.

The minister in the first hour mentioned the WEConnect Canada organization. I had the pleasure of attending their conference in Toronto a few weeks ago. I met a number of successful women entrepreneurs and took part in a panel with representatives and people who have benefited from the expertise of an organization like WEConnect Canada. First of all, let me congratulate Status of Women Canada and the minister in her absence for funding this organization, because I do believe that we have to have mentoring programs and training grounds for women so that they have the qualifications to serve on these corporate boards.

You are probably aware that some governments in some countries around the world have tried the quota system for solving this problem. I can understand where that comes from, where the desire to fix the problem quickly comes from, because it just seems fundamentally unjust, right? How can this be? Women are obviously qualified to do this, so why are the numbers so low?

Models like the one in Norway, Women on Boards, seem to have largely backfired. I'm hoping to be reassured that our model for getting more women to serve on corporate boards is better. I'm also hoping that you can reassure me that we have a plan. My colleague from Calgary Centre told me about a recent study. It came out yesterday and will be published in the Journal of Corporate Finance. Professor Li from the University of British Columbia released a study that shows that when there are women on corporate boards, they are more successful in mergers and acquisitions. I read a little bit about the study and found that they are attributing it to the fact that sociological studies show that women don't overestimate their abilities as much as men do—sorry about that, Terence—and that people on corporate boards are confident and self-aware, but women in particular are more cautious.

I thought that was pertinent to the conversation. I'll stop talking so you can tell me what Status of Women Canada is doing about the issue of the representation of women on boards.

[Sébastien Goupil, Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada]

Thanks for the question. I think it's a very important file.

The first thing we do is support the minister with our advisory council for participation of women on boards. This is an advisory council that was announced through economic action plan 2012. There have already been two meetings of the advisory council. They were asked to provide advice on how industry can increase representation on corporate boards. It suggests how the industry and government can better track and report on results. This is a very critical aspect of the issue, looking at how we monitor progress. Also, they were asked to make recommendations on how governments can recognize those who are making progress, taking action, and committing.

Apart from supporting the minister on this important government priority, we've played a very proactive role in engaging our federal, provincial and territorial forum on this issue. I'd like to mention two key initiatives in particular that we've supported over the past year in collaboration and partnership with the provinces and territories.

The first one is that we organize a very important knowledge exchange event on the issue. One of the goals, and this is something that was discussed across jurisdictions, is that people want to make sure we're all complementing one another, that we're advancing in the same direction, sharing a common understanding of what the issue is all about, what the business case is all about, and who the key stakeholders are who have to be mobilized. This was the type of discussion that we addressed.

Another important thing that was done was that we commissioned, through the FPT forum and the Conference Board of Canada, to develop a very snappy document that I recommend you all have a look at. We can send it to the clerk of the committee. It's on the business case for why it is important to have more women on boards.

There's been lots of research done on this file. I think the business case is well-informed, but we wanted to have something very snappy that could be shared with the leaders in the business community so they understand that it's in their interests to advance on this front.

We continue to support the minister, as I mentioned, but also to find ways to collaborate with the provinces and territories on moving forward on this important file. We take the pulse of what other jurisdictions are doing to inform the way forward.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much, Mr. Goupil. I would ask that you please send the link to that document to the committee clerk.

Thank you, Ms. Ambler.

Ms. Papillon, you now have the floor for seven minutes.

[Annick Papillon, NDP, Québec, QC]

Madam Chair, following the minister's appearance before the committee, I would first like to say that I am in shock after hearing that she thinks that the Standing Committee on the Status of Women has nothing to do with the issues of abortion, forced early marriages or the definition of reproductive organs.

I find it very disturbing that she thinks that this committee should not be raising or addressing these issues. Quite honestly, we did not get any answers to our questions. That's appalling. We are here as legislators and we should be able to explain the changes. If the minister cannot even explain the changes made to legislation, then I think they are not appropriate changes.

That being said, I would like to ask Mr. Goupil a question.

Did Status of Women Canada measure the success of their departmental action plan on gender-based analysis following the Auditor General's 2009 audit?

[Sébastien Goupil]

I imagine that this question is for me again.

We are currently working on implementing the departmental action plan on gender-based analysis. Concerning the measurement of results, I would like to talk to you about the progress we have made in gender-based analysis, or GBA. Since the plan was implemented in 2010-2011, we have mobilized 25 departments and agencies to develop GBA frameworks so that they can make these practices viable.

We should not lose sight of the fact that the role of Status of Women Canada is to help federal institutions develop expertise in this area. We support federal institutions with knowledge-based tools. We have developed a platform, among other things. We have modernized our tools and developed the first interactive online course on gender-based analysis and made it universally accessible. This course is accessible to federal public servants, but also to the public, to allow everyone to be involved.

There are several federal institutions. Departments may intervene in many different fields and they have varied expertise. We wanted to help them in the broadest way possible. Since the course was implemented, we have trained more than 800 public servants working in 41 organizations. Those are the most recent data.

Since we started working on gender-based analysis, this is the first time we have left the social domain. For years, it was easier to get socially-oriented departments to contribute. Several departments participated in the plan's first two implementation phases. In the last year, we have worked extensively with organizations that had not necessarily developed the habit of thinking about gender and diversity. We work with scientific organizations, public safety organizations, and other organizations to help us with this.

We are also working hard to mobilize those at the top of the public service to participate in GBA. We are doing so in different ways because we want to ensure that all departments participate. Over the last two years, we have created a new week to raise awareness about gender-based analysis. We were very proud that the Clerk of the Privy Council commented on the importance of this tool when making decisions.

There has been a lot of progress in the field. There are several subjects where gender-based analysis is being discussed. I would like to mention some of the departments that have shown best practices in this area. The Public Health Agency of Canada has trained nearly 100 people, which is a large percentage of its staff. That agency has applied GBA to many subjects, including AIDS, wait times, cardiovascular disease, etc.

The Department of Human Resources and Skills Development, which is now called Employment and Social Development Canada—ESDC—has done the same thing. It has applied GBA to some of its programs, for example its program for aboriginals and its programs for seniors. The Department of Natural Resources is also making substantial efforts to apply GBA. Last week, we organized an important event with that department about considering gender in the context of technological failings, in order to see how gender could be a factor in promoting innovation.

[Annick Papillon, NDP, Québec, QC]

You say that you have made a lot of progress, but could you provide us with what you have said about this progress in writing?