I'm representing Oxfam Canada.
Budgeting and fiscal policy are important tools the government can use to advance gender equality. The government introduced Canada's first-ever gender statement in budget 2017. Now it is time for Canada to take a step further and ensure that the budget-making process itself actually contributes to greater gender equality.
We call on the government to include more women's rights organizations in the budget process by appointing an advisory council on gender budgeting to advise the Minister of Finance and the parliamentary committee on finance to ensure that at least 15% of witnesses in the pre-budget consultations be from women's rights organizations.
Evidence shows that women's rights organizations are the single most effective means to building better public policy and to better the lives of women, yet they are the most underfunded in Canada and abroad.
We are calling on the government to invest in the success of its feminist international assistance policy by committing more resources to year-to-year increases to Canada's international assistance envelope and to strengthen the women's rights movement here in Canada by investing $100 million annually in the status of women.
Thank you.