Status of Women Committee on March 1st, 2007

[Kathy O'Hara]

But they're therefore working full-time.

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

With that in mind, this sort of skews the kind of information we're hearing here today, does it not? And does it really present an accurate picture of what is going on with women out in the larger community if we take those slices, rather than look at the larger population and the reality the larger population faces?

[Kathy O'Hara]

I guess one answer is the extent to which, in some cases, we know that women who are mothers of children, certainly under six, are choosing to work less than full-time because they want to do child care and childbearing as well as work.

I think that's, in a way, why it is important to disaggregate. We know that people are making different choices, so it's hard to generalize about a particular group without knowing that.

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

Yes, and perhaps they are not choosing at all. Perhaps they can't find child care or they're in this vice a lot of women have described of trying to do too much and bearing 60% of all work in society.

[Kathy O'Hara]

You mean people like the sandwich generation women. Yes, exactly.

[Linda Lizotte-MacPherson]

I might add to that, in terms of the report. Looking at the core public administration, the numbers that are included in the deck that was circulated include all employee types: casual, full-time, and part-time employees.

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

Thank you.

Have I more time, Madam Chair?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

You have 33 seconds.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

The 2005 report, Building Blocks for Success, from the Status of Women, said that in order to have real accountability mechanisms in GBA we needed advice from outside groups, from the equality-seeking organizations. I just wondered, have those organizations been included in this process? And if so, which ones? And what were they able to provide in terms of support, advice, and information?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Please answer very quickly, maybe in just a sentence or two, since our time is up. We have to go on to the next question.

[Donna Miller]

In terms of preparing for today, we did not consult with equality groups. The Department of Justice has a very strong working relationship with many NGOs, including equality-seeking groups. We view that kind of consultation as an essential part of good policy development.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

Ms. Grewal, you have five minutes.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all of you for your presentations.

I would like to know what impact gender-based analysis has on your departments in terms of human resources, financial costs, and implementation delays for legislation and policies.

[Janet Siddall]

We have all previously suggested, and it's certainly true for Citizenship and Immigration, that we have integrated the gender-based analysis throughout our policy and program areas. When we started up, we had dedicated resources, three full-time equivalents, but we have completed our training. I can't give you an exact figure, although we have at least one dedicated resource in the planning accountability part of the department to ensure that accountability is there.

In terms of the resources, because it's part of the policy development process, it does not cause delays in program or policy development because it's integrated into the whole consideration as policies are developed.

[Donna Miller]

Similarly with Justice Canada, when gender equality analysis first came into our department back in the 1980s and moving into the 1990s, we had a discrete section in our department whose role was to ensure that gender and diversity issues were considered across the whole of the department.

That is not the case today, as I mentioned in my remarks. We're now at a different phase in the understanding of diversity and gender assessments, such that it is fully integrated, part and parcel of everyone's responsibility.

[Kathy O'Hara]

That would be the same situation with our department. As with CIC, we have a small number of dedicated FTEs who are involved in learning events and training, about which I talked a little.

Basically gender-based analysis is integrated into our ongoing business, and it's part of every analyst's job.

[Linda Lizotte-MacPherson]

That would be our case, and we've integrated GBA in our policy and program centres in terms of their work.

In addition, as part of our expenditure analysis and compensation planning division, which is the team that prepared this particular report, we have a few people who are focused more on the gender-based analysis from a core public administration...to see how we're doing in terms of overall diversity, employment equity, and so forth. There's ongoing analysis that we do in the core administration.

[Monique Boudrias]

I would say that it's almost the same, and GBA is part of our capacity as policy analysts. In addition, we have a branch that looks at employment equity and the management of diversity. We have included together the four underrepresented groups: people with disabilities, natives, visible minorities, and women. We are looking at this as an overall approach to representation for the Government of Canada.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

What sort of training and support is provided by Status of Women Canada to other government departments?

[Monique Boudrias]

It's not part of my mandate, so I cannot answer your question.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Is there anyone else?

[Janet Siddall]

As I mentioned earlier, when we were developing our capacity initially, they were very helpful to us in developing our training. We feel we have a fairly mature training program now, so we're less involved with them on a day-to-day basis, but we certainly work with them in terms of any new initiatives, conferences, etc.

[Donna Miller]

That is precisely the position in Justice Canada.

[Kathy O'Hara]

And that would be the same....

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

We have 27 seconds left, so there's not much time.

Maybe what we'll say is thank you to all our presenters today for coming and giving your expertise and your very insightful comments. As a committee, we thank you for the time you have spent here today.

I would say, too, that I am going to suspend the meeting for just a couple of minutes to allow our guests to depart from the room, and I'll call the meeting back in two minutes.

The meeting is suspended briefly.

[Proceedings continue in camera]