My question is for Mr. Linklater. Further to our discussion on making GBA a mandatory requirement, it has been more than 20 years since Canada committed, as part of the 1995 United Nations fourth world conference on women, to analyzing gender-specific policy impacts on women and men before making any decisions on policies, legislation, and programs throughout all the government departments and agencies.
I think the Auditor General's report shows that we have made fairly minimum progress in the last two decades. This is I guess unsurprising, since it seems that GBA is more a request of a government department, rather than a requirement mandated by PCO or the Treasury Board.
What consequences are there if managers do not have their performance or that of their department measured and evaluated based at least in part on their implementation of GBA? Of course, implementation will be incomplete and spotty.
I have to ask, if PCO is not going to make GBA mandatory, just how seriously should we take your commitment to its wider adoption? As you mentioned in your opening remarks, the Prime Minister's mandate letter to the Minister of Status of Women called for GBA to be applied to proposals for cabinet decision-making. Is this enough to make GBA mandatory? Or do you need further policy direction on that?