Status of Women Committee on March 20th, 2007

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

Basically, Madam Chair, I had heard from a number of women's organizations that they had done valuable research that had almost come to fruition and simply needed to be translated and finally published, but they had been notified that the research would not be published. In a meeting with the minister on February 22, I believe, I raised this with her. She indicated that it was the intention of Status of Women Canada to indeed publish and finish all materials that were outstanding and to make sure the research was available.

I did get back to those groups, those individuals, and they indicated that they had received a letter from the deputy minister indicating that their work would not be published. I have sought clarification on that. Because this is valuable work that the taxpayers have already supported, I think it's important that it be published and made available.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Is there any discussion?

Ms. Smith.

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you.

When the motion came out, we were pondering why this motion was here. In actual fact, three reports have been completed and five are online, on the website. Ten are not going to be published because they're not complete and there's not enough information.

Also, for next week, we will bring a copy of all the names of the reports and everything so that the committee can see them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Madame Demers.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Of course we will be supporting this motion, Ms. Mathyssen. It talks about outstanding research projects from Status of Women Canada's Policy Research Fund, although we know that some research projects have been interrupted, and thus are no longer outstanding. If we use the word "outstanding", there is a danger that these projects that have been interrupted will not be part of the list you are requesting.

That is my only question, Madam Chair, because there is a reference to the outstanding research projects.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Ms. Mathyssen, do you have a response to that?

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

I would welcome that amendment, inasmuch as I'm sure there was a great deal of very good research that would be lost if those projects didn't proceed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Ms. Minna, and then Ms. Smith.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Just as a point of clarification from Ms. Mathyssen, are these reports that you're referring to in the motion reports that have been completed or partially completed? Are there some that are partially completed? I'm just trying to get a handle on what we're doing.

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

In the original motion, these were reports that were essentially completed. They did need to be translated and then published by SWC, but the authors were told that would not happen. In my conversation with the minister, she assured me that was not the case, so I think a clarification about this is important.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

And you've written a letter to the minister, I see.

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

Yes.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

You have not received a reply for clarification. Is that why this motion is here?

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

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Ms. Smith.

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

I would just say that because of the information I just gave you, and because of the fact that we can come with the listing of the projects, we will not be supporting this motion on this side of the House. It's untimely and the information out there is incomplete. I would suggest that we await a reply from the minister, because we've brought forward a lot of the information today.

So our side of the House will not be supporting the motion or the amendment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Mr. Stanton.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Mathyssen, I just have a couple of questions.

The wording in the motion is “that the Government publish all outstanding research”. First of all, what is meant by the term “outstanding”? Presumably, any of the completed work is already published if it is indeed complete, i.e., including translation and so on. What we're talking about are projects that were undertaken by the policy research fund that are incomplete? Is that what we mean by “outstanding research projects”?

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

My original conversation was with individuals and groups who had actually completed work. It needed to be translated and published, and they were told that would not happen. But Madam Demers has indicated that she would be in favour of including the work that was already in progress in that grouping, so that we'd have the benefit not just of the work that was ready for publication, but also of work that had already been undertaken and would also be valuable.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Okay, and that sort of tied into my question about publishing. Clearly, if it's a project that's not complete, you can't really publish an incomplete work, so it presumes that there would have to be some other continued work to complete these partially completed projects.

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

It would have to allow the authors to finish their work, yes.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Have you looked into the cost or the volume of work that needs to be completed?

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

That has been rather difficult to track down, and we need that information from the minister's office, of course. They would have a better sense of how much. But it would seem to me that since money has already been invested in this work, it only makes good sense to bring it to fruition.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Those are all the questions I have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Ms. Davidson.