Status of Women Committee on March 1st, 2007

[Linda Lizotte-MacPherson]

This is our research, and it was undertaken subsequent to a request by this committee.

We found that this wage gap reduction was really the result of a number of factors, including the effectiveness of our employment equity programs, pay equity settlements, the professionalization of work inside the core public administration, and the fact that more women have chosen to further their education. Our research is showing that the gap is continuing to decrease.

Perhaps I'll just share a few more statistics. We will certainly share them with you following the session, but I think they are of interest.

The gap over the past 15 years has narrowed by over 13%, and our wage gap is 11% versus 17% for the general population. One of the main reasons is that there are more women being hired into highly paid jobs. That's up from an average of 53% to 61%. So that is also very significant.

Almost twice as many women now work in management, scientific, professional, and administrative jobs than they did in 1991. This is largely because new recruits are coming in to higher-paying jobs.

Finally, for the under-35 age group, the wages of men and women are almost identical. There's just a 2% gap, so we're definitely moving in the right direction. This is an area where we need to continue to really monitor our progress, but I think we expect the wage gap to continue to narrow, particularly as the male-dominated baby boomers start to retire in greater numbers over the next few years. A lot of work is also being led by the agency around classification, modernization, and the new standards we've put in place to include safeguards to help mitigate potential gender bias downstream.

Those are just a few statistics that I think really speak to some of the progress we've made inside the core public administration.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you.

I want to go back to your second commitment, to ensure management policies do not include unintended consequences from the gender perspective.

Can you talk a bit more about that, please, and tell me how that's happening?

[Linda Lizotte-MacPherson]

We have launched an initiative to review all of our policies, and we're about halfway through that. We have provided training for the folks who are actually developing the policies, so when they are preparing them, they're sensitive to that and understand what it means from a policy perspective.

Once the policies are developed, we have an internal challenge function. But as part of the policy development process, we have a very strict template and series of questions that each of the policy centres has to answer, including one that specifically speaks to the potential impact on gender.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Have you had to alter many?

[Linda Lizotte-MacPherson]

So far, 27 new policies have been updated or approved. We've altered some, but there has not been an impact from a gender perspective. But those are related more to financial management, internal audit, and so forth.

We're now getting into the human resources ones, and that's where we think there will likely be an impact, so we're watching them very closely. Some of that work is being led by my colleague from the agency as well.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Is there a timeframe on that?

[Linda Lizotte-MacPherson]

We're targeting to have the policies renewed and updated over the next 18 months.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

You have another minute.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Donna, you said that GBA is inherent in everything you do, and you're not really sure whether legislation would speed things up because it's already there.

Is that the case in all of these departments? I think it is, from what I've heard from everything. Do you know of other areas that we need to be looking at, or is that a fair question?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

You've got 30 seconds to answer that.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

It may not be fair to ask you that, I don't know, but as women involved with GBA and so on, we need to know if there are other areas.

[Donna Miller]

I'm not aware of any areas specifically. I'm speaking, of course, only for our department, but I'm not aware of anything.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you very much.

Mrs. Mathyssen.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you.

Thank you for all of this. It's certainly appreciated.

I'm wondering, and I'm building on my colleague's question, has there been a gender-based analysis of the cuts from last September 2006 on the programs, not on your department specifically but on the programs? We know that literacy, Status of Women Canada, court challenges, the Law Commission of Canada, all were affected, among many. Has there been an analysis of the impact of those cuts?

[Linda Lizotte-MacPherson]

In terms of the reductions, I think there were some very clear criteria that the government set out to really assess whether or not a particular program should be cut.

You'll recall in the budget the government promised to review all programs to make sure that every taxpayer dollar was spent to achieve results and to provide value for money. The funding was either reduced or eliminated for programs where there were unused funds because of lower take-up of programs or because objectives were achieved through other programs.

The second reason could be if they did not provide good value for money. The third is if those programs could be delivered more efficiently by streamlining or consolidating, and, finally, if they were not meeting the priority of Canadians. So those were essentially the four main criteria that were set out and that really formed the basis of what was brought forward.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Okay. Do we know the impact, though, of all of that? Has there been any analysis of the impact it's had on communities, or has that not been pursued?

[Linda Lizotte-MacPherson]

Not from an overall global perspective. Presumably, as departments were contemplating where the reductions were going to be, that would have been one of the factors that was considered. But, as I said, those were the four criteria. Those were the really primary lenses that were used.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Ms. O'Hara, you talked in your brief about your department using its efforts to look at the CEDAW recommendations, the implementation of CEDAW. There's been a great deal of concern of late, and we've heard it from a number of women's groups, about Canada's failure to meet its obligations.

I'm wondering, what's the current status of CEDAW? What's happening to that work? What did you discover in terms of that process of working towards implementation? Where are we, in other words?

[Kathy O'Hara]

Sorry, this is with respect to the international convention?

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Yes, the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination.

[Kathy O'Hara]

Right. I'm not well placed to speak to that directly because I wasn't involved, but if you like, I can get material to you on what exactly we provided in the process. I think, unfortunately, it was before I arrived in the department, so I don't know exactly, but I will undertake to find that information for you.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Okay. Is that work ongoing, do you know?

[Kathy O'Hara]

It's an ongoing process, but I would try to find exactly what we have provided for you.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Okay. Thank you.

I'll address this third question to all of you.

Ms. Lizotte-MacPherson's presentation indicated that the Privy Council Office plays a critical role in terms of GBA, and essentially that role is to ensure that departments and agencies have used an appropriate GBA lens in terms of their consideration of what they do.

I wonder if you could please tell me if the Privy Council has asked your department to amend policies because of GBA, with specific examples. I think that question was alluded to, but I wondered if you could give more details.