Thank you for the question.
Essentially, Status of Women Canada acts as a centre of excellence for GBA. We do a number of things to promote GBA, and of course, we fully welcome the report of the Auditor General that said we could do more. We also welcome the additional funds that will allow us to provide more support for departments and I'm confident we're heading in the right direction.
Also, I would hazard a guess—and I defer to my deputy—that we probably never spent so much time talking about GBA in previous governments, so I think that some of the elevation of conversation is also helping. I think the other part about that is having a full cabinet minister who is specifically tasked with addressing gender equality in cabinet. I would also defer to my colleagues, but I'm fairly vigorous about ensuring that GBA is applied thoroughly or at least we are highlighting MCs that are not applying GBA to my satisfaction, let's say, in the most collegial way.
I would say that we do provide support to departments in a number of ways. We provide people with training and tools. I love the suggestion that we should make GBA a mandatory part, and I would suggest not just for ministers but for all parliamentarians, because I think it's something we should all be reflective about, in things such as how we're presenting private members' bills, for example. It is not just ministers that are working on legislation and having interventions and conversations. We provide advice, expertise, and guidance regarding increasing capacity to implement GBA across the federal government.
We are, as I mentioned, encouraging and engaging leadership around GBA, and around what gender-based analysis is and looking at why it is valuable. We're using a multiple-lenses approach to that, so that it's not just about social justice or about equity but it's actually about the functioning of our country, and about making sure that with regard to the legislation, the policies, the procedures, and I would even argue the things that we procure, we're being thoughtful about how this is going to affect both genders.
The agency works very closely with the Privy Council Office and the Treasury Board Secretariat, as well as other federal departments, to recognize that GBA implementation does require a whole-of-government engagement. Now with a little extra financial support, we're going to be able to better track and monitor the progress of GBA implementation, which specifically answers your question, and then we're going to be able to report back on that.
We are really looking forward to gathering more data generally about gender. We've identified a huge gap in terms of gender data resulting from inaction over the years. We have data gaps and this is one of those areas, so we'll be collecting data in a much more vigorous manner.