Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  In terms of the work that we're doing with shelters, first of all, Women's Shelters Canada is a very strong partner of ours. We work with them very closely on a range of issues. There are a couple of things I would say. One, the minister talked about the gender-based violence national action plan.

Status of Women committee  I'm going to see if I can ask Alia to answer that question, because Alia was around when all of this work was being done.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much for your question. I'm very happy to be able to share information about that with you. We've had several conversations with the representatives of the association you mentioned earlier. We put them in touch with our provincial and territorial colleagues, each of which has a network of partners they work with to develop and implement their plan.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much. Our priority is to roll out the national action plan. We want to make sure the association and its members are part of the conversations with their province or territory. It's important to us that the provinces and territories consult people on the ground.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. The purpose of the resources we have at Women and Gender Equality Canada is really to enable us to fulfill the role we've been given within the government as a whole. As the minister said, our organization has a few hundred people, which isn't a lot.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. With regard to the National Action Plan, it’s true that each participating province and territory must also contribute in some way, that’s part of the Action Plan. It is indeed a 10-year action plan. Presently, there is funding for four years. We’re working very closely with the provinces and territories to make sure the existing funds are well spent and that we can demonstrate the results of that funding on the ground.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. This is a societal issue we need to address, and men and boys are part of the solution. I've heard what the committee's witnesses have said here in the context of other studies you've done. Clearly, there's work to be done around the trauma that men and boys have experienced and the ways they manage their emotions.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question—

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  Sure. Generally speaking, when we do grants and contributions, it does take a fair bit of time for us to run a process, for example. I will just mention one of our latest processes on the women's programs, which closed on November 7. We had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of applications, which is great, but it does take time to do the assessment and advice on which ones get funded.

Status of Women committee  Well, it's to enable us to do the work of the proper assessment of the hundreds and hundreds of applications that we get, to be able to determine the amount of money we can provide and to whom, and to provide that advice, so it's $500,000 or so, which is a few people to do the work.

Status of Women committee  Well, generally speaking, I would say that the Treasury Board Secretariat tends to estimate full-time equivalent folks at a certain level. We do have, as well, the employee benefits plan that has to be factored into that. There's essentially a formula, depending on.... If it's the level of an officer, it might be an EC-05.

Status of Women committee  Let's think about the total value. The applications we get represent well over $500 million in terms of requests. For us to spend time properly assessing those, we really want to make sure we are giving everyone a fair shot. We take the time we need to assess each application carefully.

Status of Women committee  I'm saying it costs more money when you have a large volume of applications. Each application has to be looked at separately and properly. That takes the time that we have in our—