Evidence of meeting #90 for Status of Women in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A video is available from Parliament.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Marci Ien Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
I will send that over to the deputy, because I want to be specific, Dominique.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
The officials will stay with us after you leave.
I was once a minister. You’ve probably had conversations with the President of Treasury Board. What kind of conversation did you have about these upcoming cuts?
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
So you didn’t receive any directives about the necessary cutbacks to meet the $15 billion in desired cuts.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Marci Ien Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
No, Dominique, the question was whether I had had a discussion with the Treasury Board president about cuts. I have not.
As soon as there is more information on that, we can get that to you.
I just want to be very clear.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Did your department receive an order to cut back from Treasury Board?
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Very well. What was that amount?
With all due respect, Minister, I’m somewhat surprised that you don’t have that figure in mind.
11:50 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
I’ll explain the conversations he had with Treasury Board.
Essentially, the process is still underway. Yes, we’re going to participate in it, as we’ve been asked to do. However, the numbers—
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
And how much will that participation amount to?
11:50 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
The figures for the requested share will appear in the Estimates.
What you probably saw, in Supplementary Estimates (B) 2023–2024, reflects cuts of roughly $579,000 in travel and professional services budgets. That’s what was in the documents tabled in Parliament, so far.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
I have one last question. There was one thing that my colleagues on this side of the room and I didn’t quite understand.
Is the budget for the Menstrual Equity Fund $25 million, or rather $18 million for the entire program?
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Going to the pilot program for menstrual equity, because we're here today for supplementary estimates, you're asking for $18 million more, but in the supplementary estimates that we have here, it's over $25 million when it's broken down. I understand that the equity contributions are simply $18 million. For clarification, is that where you're coming up with that number?
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
One of the questions I have—and we studied this in committee—is around the fact that federally regulated employees are eligible for this. That seems a little odd and wrong. We have low-income people accessing food banks at the highest rates in history, and you're mandating that federally regulated employees be subsidized to receive menstrual equity products.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Marci Ien Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
Michelle, thanks for the question, but those are two different things. It's just that they happened at the same time.
There were three things rolling out. In all federally regulated buildings, under the Ministry of Labour, there had to be menstrual products. At the same time as this pilot, the Minister of Labour and I believe it was Minister Hajdu for ISC—
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Marci Ien Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
That is a Minister of Labour decision, so I can get that to you.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
Yes, if you could table that for the committee, it would be wonderful.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Marci Ien Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
Yes, that's fine.
Then our menstrual equity pilot, in that fund, is separate.