Thank you very much, Madame Chair.
It's an honour to appear before the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. I'd like to point out that I will be making short remarks that are derived from the long version that has been distributed to the members of the committee.
It's really gratifying that Parliament has continued its commitment to the work of the status of women and gender equality. This commitment really demonstrates that Parliament recognizes the importance of advancing gender equality.
During the last Parliament, the standing committee engaged in a tremendous amount of productive activity, which resulted in five reports to Parliament. These reports were not only comprehensive; they also put the government on notice that this committee means business, and we look forward to your continued vigilance.
Who are we and how do we work? To answer those questions, it's important to highlight the horizontal nature of this effort, which reflects a fundamental truth—gender equality is everyone's business. If we are to ensure the full participation of women in all aspects of the life of our country—economic, social, cultural and political—then ours is a mandate that must reach across every department at the federal level, as well as the provincial/territorial and municipal levels of government, and the private sector.
This is a broad mandate for a relatively small agency like Status of Women Canada. We seek to achieve our goals by acting as knowledge broker on gender equality by being a centre of expertise; and by being a catalyst in network building.
As a knowledge broker on gender equality, Status of Women Canada facilitates focused interaction and information sharing among stakeholders. We play a key role in identifying opportunities for timely and effective input into the federal policy development process.
As a centre of expertise on gender issues and equality for women, Status of Women Canada proactively promotes best practices, shares knowledge and frameworks with stakeholders and partners, and builds gender-based analysis capacity. Through these activities, Status of Women Canada assists them in their own efforts to advance gender equality in their own programs and policies.
As a catalyst in network building, Status of Women Canada connects people, strengthens communities, and facilitates opportunities for communities and stakeholders to interact with government and be engaged in taking action toward equality for women.
How do we look toward the future?
I want to emphasize here again that Status of Women Canada cannot and does not work in isolation. As I've said before, gender equality is everybody's business. Within the Government of Canada that means working with stakeholders from within and outside government, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector to contribute to achieving women's equality.
Reports to the Standing Committee have been important to us. They have helped us in preparing the blueprint for the work ahead. The Standing Committee's five reports have addressed important issues. The two reports on Women's Program—entitled “Increasing Funding to Equality-seeking Organizations” and “Funding Through the Women's Program: Women's Groups Speak Out,”—relate directly to SWC's area of responsibility. Similarly, the report on GBA—entitle “Gender-Based Analysis: Building Blocks for Success”a—also links directly to our mandate.
In May, the committee chair re-tabled these reports in the House of Commons. We look forward to responding on progress.
In 2005 regional, national, and electronic consultations were held. Along with the work of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, these consultations provided valuable input from Canadians, policy-makers, and NGOs on issues affecting women's lives, including poverty, the situation of aboriginal women, accountability, and the funding mechanism for advancing gender equality.
Status of Women Canada's women's program undertook an independent evaluation. The women's program also established a dialogue on proposed options as part of its redesign. As Status of Women Canada prepares for the renewal of the terms and conditions of the program, we will work to maintain program flexibility while continuing to focus on results.
Following the government response to the standing committee's report on gender-based analysis, the Government of Canada created an expert panel on gender equality accountability mechanisms. Its conclusions and recommendations were tabled in the House of Commons in November 2005.
Various other activities have taken place to fulfill the commitments in the government's response made by the three central agencies. I'm talking about the Privy Council Office, Treasury Board Secretariat, and the Department of Finance. Each central agency has appointed a gender-based analysis champion and agreed to strengthen its challenge function to ensure that in the future departments and other agencies do, in fact, demonstrate that gender-based analysis has been applied and that gender considerations have been taken into account.
While each agency pursues its individual capacity-building activities--such as training for officials and the creation of tools such as a best practices guide, as was done by the Department of Finance--a collective pilot project on a personal income tax policy initiative has been undertaken to provide them with a practical way of applying gender-based analysis within their challenge function.
The overarching themes of our current work are accountability and the sustainability of commitments to gender equality for the Government of Canada. We believe this builds on the government's work on accountability; therefore, we will be carrying out the following activities.
We will be developing indicators and benchmarks to help set objectives, establish priorities, measure change, assess progress, and flag problems or emerging trends. We will be increasing accountability mechanisms for the application of gender-based analysis and gender equality results.
We will also be conducting ongoing consultation with Canadians and raising public awareness about gender equality. Moreover, we will be providing effective support for women's and other equality-seeking organizations to ensure that women's realities, contributions and concerns are better reflected in policy.
Over the next few years, in the area of policy development, SWC will focus on the issue of poverty among certain groups of women, and on the situation of Aboriginal women. As regards poverty among certain groups of women, attention in this area will allow us to demonstrate links to the CEDAW Committee Report, to what we heard during consultations and last year's Standing Committee deliberations, and to SWC's work through Women's Program and the Policy Research Directorate.
The realities of poverty and women affect Canada at the international level, drawing criticism. In Geneva in early May, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights questioned Canada about our record on poverty, homelessness, Indigenous and migrant rights, health and education, finding the government wanting in all areas.
Several committee members said they were disturbed by the apparent lack of investment in social programs and by continuing high poverty rates of the most marginalized groups, including women, Aboriginal peoples, people of colour and immigrants.
Status of Women Canada contributes to policy research on and understanding of women and poverty and the situation of aboriginal women. For example, the policy research fund currently has 12 research projects underway, several of which are linked to the theme of poverty and its impact on women, under various areas including.... I will spare you the reading of the list that is in the document in front of you.
In addition, the policy research fund is planning to release five new research projects under the theme of urban migration. These projects examine specific aspects of poverty among aboriginal women living off reserves who have migrated to urban areas and have found themselves in temporary or episodic poverty or have even faced long-term homelessness.
And I'll again spare you the list of other research reports that will be published, which is in the longer document we've circulated.
Aboriginal women in Canada face a multitude of barriers to their full and equal participation in the life of their communities and of this country. The barriers include high rates of discrimination based on gendered racism, violence, poverty, single motherhood, disability and low rates of employment, to name a few. All of these factors negatively impact Aboriginal women's access to opportunities to realize their right to health and other human rights.
These factors also underscore the importance of our commitment under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and how deeply we need ongoing consultations with Canadians if we are to find solutions.
They underscore the importance of the standing committee's work and of our efforts in support of the Sisters in Spirit initiative. They also underscore the benefits arising from the federal-provincial-territorial aboriginal policy research conference that was held at the end of March of this calendar year, the family violence initiative, and the federal-provincial-territorial violence indicators, which will be released in the fall.
In partnership with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Status of Women Canada has previously funded a document on matrimonial real property rights on reserve that informs aboriginal women of their basic rights upon marriage breakdown. We will continue to work with INAC while they consult with aboriginal people on what changes might occur to better address the current situation.
Accountability, as we mentioned and as the committee mentioned, is important to Status of Women Canada. We will work to advance accountability across government to achieve gender-equality results.
Through Status of Women Canada's role as a knowledge broker on gender equality, as a centre of expertise on gender issues, and as a catalyst in network building, we will work with others to bring our unique knowledge and expertise to the pressing need to address gender-based poverty and the situation of aboriginal women.
Madame Chair, we look forward to your continued work in advancing equality for women.
Thank you.
