Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  We provide training to employees almost on a continual basis. It can be on specific or general areas. As well, all new employees are mentored one-on-one, and of course, as you say, all employees are covered by all those policies, values, and ethics. They all sign. To digress for just a moment, I can say we were very pleased with the results of the last public service employee survey that was done.

Status of Women committee  That's correct, yes.

Status of Women committee  Our average age of cases is one year.

Status of Women committee  I could provide both in the information. We do have the breakdown of cases and how they have been handled and resolved.

Status of Women committee  Not necessarily, other than the conclusion that we had drawn: it is the hierarchical male-dominated organizations where we see the greatest proportionate number of complaints of sexual harassment. In both cases we will sometimes receive the complaints on the basis that concern has been expressed over the internal grievance process, because of the chain of command.

Status of Women committee  Yes, we have the discretion under our legislation to refer it out. According to the way section 41 of our act reads, we are required to accept the complaint “unless”, and the first “unless” is if there is a redress mechanism, an alternate mechanism, or a grievance process that can handle the complaint.

Status of Women committee  I know we have never done it, and I'm not aware of whether the public service has.

Status of Women committee  Yes. I think from a time point of view, I can certainly provide the information. I'm wondering whether it might be helpful to provide that after the fact—

Status of Women committee  —and I can answer also the question on the percentage of complaints that have been brought by men alleging a female perpetrator and that kind of information.

Status of Women committee  No, there haven't been changes in finances, except that the commission did receive additional funding of $5.7 million at the time of change to our legislation in 2008 over five years, with the change being that complaints can now be brought by first nations people in this country, both against the federal government and against first nations government for matters done under or pursuant to the Indian Act, which were previously precluded.

Status of Women committee  I would not necessarily say that they are being diverted, because if the respondent or the employer says they want us to refer it to the alternate dispute process that they have, it is within our jurisdiction, under our act, to refer it out. However, it is open to the complainant to raise the reasons that he or she should not be required to go through that other process, and we can choose, then, to deal with it ourselves in those appropriate circumstances, so it's not always being diverted out.

Status of Women committee  Yes, we do have a preventive role. Certainly that's one of the mandates, and we have a branch devoted to that. Ms. Maillet is from our knowledge centre, which develops policies and knowledge-based research, and there is our discrimination prevention branch as well. We have a recent tool, the human rights maturity model, which is a tool to assist employers in developing a culture of human rights in the workplace.

Status of Women committee  I wouldn't necessarily be able to answer what the view is. The reason for saying it, though, is that based upon the statistics we have, the complaints statistics, 3.7% of all our complaints are with respect to sexual harassment, and, as I said, in the federal public service, which would generally be regarded not as a male-dominated hierarchical organization, 3% of their complaints are.

Status of Women committee  We receive cases from people in all levels of an organization.