Evidence of meeting #180 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was departments.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
—so if you could provide a narrative in your answer, through the clerk, to Mr. Blaikie's direct question, that would be much appreciated.
Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
Sure. I'd be very happy to answer it.
Conservative
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Thanks for coming.
An amount of $300,000 is allocated for advancing gender equality. How is that funding being spent?
Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
That's correct. In December the Canadian Gender Budgeting Act passed. Under that act, there's a requirement for the Minister of Finance to look at incremental measures and to do GBA+ assessments. A gender budgeting document accompanied the last budget, and it did these kinds of assessments. Under that act, there's a requirement for the President of the Treasury Board to look at, for lack of a better word, the “stock” of spending—existing spending—and to do an ex post assessment of GBA+ of government programming. That funding will be used to help support that initiative on an ongoing basis.
Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
Collecting—
Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
Collecting data, and the addition of an extra FTE. It will work towards trying to get better administrative-level data from programs, and working with other departments to ensure that better administrative-level data is able to sync with StatsCan data in a way that will allow better data to come from these programs.
The intention is to do this on an ongoing annual basis, and looking at our existing reporting structure—like on the departmental results reports and so forth—to see how we can integrate that information better. That funding is going towards annual costs for Treasury Board to implement the requirements under the Canadian Gender Budgeting Act.
Liberal
Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
It will be an extra FTE, but also—
Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
Full-time equivalent, so an extra person. It will also go towards whatever data implementation is necessary for doing that.
There are certain data activities that will be required, and working with the departmental community—possibly consultations and so forth—and so those funds will be used to defray the costs of those initiatives.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
In your departmental plan, it says that the TBS plans to increase diversity at the executive levels of the federal public service. What initiatives will the TBS put in place to increase diversity?
Assistant Secretary and Chief Financial Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
First of all, I'd like to say that currently, for the number of EXs from minority groups, we are over and above the workforce availability. That's for executive groups.
The percentage of executive employees who are aboriginal persons, however, is below the workforce availability. We will try to increase the overall representation of aboriginal persons through targeted recruitment programs. We will also address potential barriers to career advancement and work with departments to accommodate second language training. To be an executive you have to be able to speak both languages. Those are a few of measures we will take to meet the need for indigenous public servants.
I don't know, Sandra, if you want to add to that, but it's what we're planning to do.
We're also looking at different ways of increasing the accessibility of our building through the tools we offer the employees.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much.
Colleagues, since this is our last meeting of this Parliament, I wish all of you a very good and, hopefully, productive summer.
Since we're all partisans around this table, it would be completely disingenuous of me to say I hope to see all of you back here again.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
However, in all honesty and all sincerity, I do wish all of you the best of luck in the upcoming campaigns. I hope you really do have a good summer.
Mr. Purves, to you and your officials, thank you once again for being here. I do hope to see you and your officials back here the next time we sit. Once again, I hope all of you have a very successful and productive summer.
Colleagues, we are adjourned.