Status of Women committee  Thank you. I'll try to keep my comments brief and turn to my colleague from Treasury Board, Mr. Wild. My name is Anita Biguzs. I am the assistant secretary to the cabinet for operations in the Privy Council Office. I'm also the acting assistant secretary to the cabinet for soc

Status of Women committee  Were you asking about whether the Department of Finance has individuals?

Status of Women committee  I think you have an official appearing from the Department of Finance next week. I think you'd be best placed to actually ask the Department of Finance, in terms of—

Status of Women committee  But certainly, if I can comment in terms of the Privy Council, in the nature of PCO being a central agency, you do have people coming from the finance department, or going to other departments from PCO, or coming from line departments to PCO. In terms of the skill sets and the co

Status of Women committee  For PCO, the role of champion resides with the assistant secretary for social development policy, and that position, as I say, is designated by the clerk. As I mentioned at the beginning, the assistant secretary was promoted, actually, to an associate deputy position in December,

Status of Women committee  The role of the champion is to ensure that the officers—and the officers are the lead contact point with departments.... Our job as a champion is to make sure that we embed gender-based analysis in the policy challenge function and that we provide our officers with the tools they

Status of Women committee  In PCO, we focus largely on new initiatives coming in to cabinet. It may be a new initiative, or it may be the renewal of an initiative, if it requires a policy authority because something was sunsetting and requires renewed authority. That would be an opportunity, certainly, for

Status of Women committee  If I can clarify, the lead department is responsible for doing the analysis in terms of any initiative that would come forward to cabinet. The role of PCO and the PCO officer is to perform the challenge function and to ensure that gender-based analysis has actually been undertake

Status of Women committee  Ultimately cabinet and the government are the decision-makers. As I say, our job is to put information in front of them and to make sure they have what they need to make decisions. They do that on the basis of a variety of considerations and issues they have to take into account

Status of Women committee  May I just comment for PCO as well? Our focus is on the policy officers who actually do work on the front line with departments in terms of developing policy. That would include directors of operations. I think the role of champion at PCO, as in the case of Treasury Board, is a

Status of Women committee  No. I think Status of Women Canada is a leader, and I know you've had representatives from Status of Women appear before you in terms of the extent to which they do look at the international perspective. I think that certainly helps inform their approach. The training we receive

Status of Women committee  If I can just speak from the policy point of view, our role is to ensure that implications are assessed for any initiative coming forward, and that includes gender-based analysis. That includes asking the questions about the implications. If there is a differential impact, what i

Status of Women committee  On the memorandum to cabinet, our role is to ensure that we and the department provide the kind of analysis and the information it needs. It's noted to ministers if in fact there are information gaps or data gaps in terms of what's coming forward. And sometimes you deal with in

Status of Women committee  Yes, it is, and as I say, a lot of it is working closely with all the central agencies and also with a broader interdepartmental community, to make sure any implications for other departments are also taken into account.

Status of Women committee  I outlined some of the considerations in my opening comments. I think it goes to the heart of the policy-making process in terms of trying to analyze an issue that comes forward, trying to define the problem clearly. Are the goals and objectives clear? Are the results clear in te