I'm looking at your introduction to “The Budget in Brief 2008”, which outlines the areas that were being prioritized for the federal Budget 2008. I think it would be very useful for the committee to ask whoever is doing the gender-based analysis within the Department of Finance for its gender-based analysis of each of these categories.
I would invite you to pay particular attention to number two, which was the careful management of spending “to ensure programs and services are efficient, effective, aligned with the priorities of Canadians, and affordable over the long term”, and to pay attention as well to “Investing in the future...for students and increasing support for research in science and technology”.
A GBA here would be very revealing, to see what the Department of Finance concluded was in the best interests of women as well as of all Canadians. I expect that the analysis they may have done either didn't make it to the minister or the senior ranks of the ministry, or it was disregarded for other priorities.