Status of Women Committee on Nov. 21st, 2007

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

Just to finish something, Mr. Stanton put his finger on something that's very important, and that is the estimates. If our work is done right with respect to identifying and figuring out how this is done, it should be that in future, when estimates are done, they will in fact reflect the gender-budgeting data and information in them so that members of all other committees, not just ours, will know what impact policy is having in that context in those departments.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

I think that's what our end result is going to be--the impact of our policy and the dollars we invest. I call it the return on investment--do we get it, or do we not.

Yes.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Danielle Bélisle]

I just wanted to summarize. So it's agreed that the committee start by focusing on how gender budgeting works by looking at other jurisdictions, and thereafter to focus on specific areas.

If you want to amend...?

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

I think one component would be that we also talk to a witness from Treasury Board, even if it's just one, just to understand to what degree gender-based budgeting is already being utilized by various departments.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Members of committee, I think you received an e-mail from the clerk advising you that the coordinator for the Status of Women Canada can't come on Monday at 11 o'clock or 4:30, as she has to go to a funeral. The officials of Status of Women Canada cannot come without her, or it's easier to get them all together. Is 4:30 or 11 o'clock agreeable? I think five people said yes to 11 o'clock on Monday, and others did not respond.

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

I prefer 4:30.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Okay.

Ms. Mathyssen.

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

I prefer 4:30.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

So we'll have the meeting from 4:30 to 5:30 with the coordinator from the Status of Women Canada and some of the staff. We'll be talking about estimates and departmental performance.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

On the schedule for this study, how many meetings are we envisioning?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

That's a good question. Once we get the framework and the parameters from the analyst, she will be able to give us an idea of how long Manitoba took. We need to learn from their experience. It also depends on the number of witnesses we decide to call and how we go around it.

Will we have the document by Monday?

[Clara Morgan]

Do you want a work plan first?

Yes, you can have it by Monday.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

If we have the work plan on Monday, perhaps we can spend from 3:30 to 4:30 on the work plan. Then at 4:30 we can hear the witnesses from Status of Women Canada.

[A voice]

We don't have a problem with that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

That's good. So we will do that.

Ms. Minna.

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

Last week when we finished our meeting we were still discussing other issues, other possible studies. There were motions, and there was the report we had done in the spring--the issues I'd been involved with. At some point that might also tie in with this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

That's the court challenges program?

What is the desire of the committee?

Mrs. Davidson.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I was maybe mistakenly under the impression that we were going to receive a list of all of the topics that had been suggested, and then we would determine where to go from there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

That list of suggestions for future business was prepared and given to us, if you want an extra copy. We all have a copy of it.

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

But were we not going to choose from that where we would go?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Yes. The copy talks about Canada's sixth and seventh combined report on the convention, female migrant workers, gender and trade, gender-based analysis, and gender budgeting.

On what Ms. Minna is suggesting, if we take any of them.... For example, I think somebody suggested Sisters in Spirit, and it's a huge study. If we want to have immediate gains or show something before the break, we could probably do a court challenges program in three or four weeks.

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

So we're going to do that instead of the gender-based budgeting?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

No. Once we get the work plan on gender-based budgeting, we will be able to determine what is the timeframe we require and what sort of witness, because we will go through the list of potential witnesses we might have.

Meanwhile, to ensure that we are busy and doing some work, the option that we could do, perhaps—it's an option suggested, and then it requires the committee's approval—is to take a review of the court challenges program, which might help us through the way while we are doing some filling up on the assignments on gender-based budgeting.

Madame Boucher.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Budgeting the “gender whatever it is” will take time. Afterwards, perhaps we will see what we want to work on. It will take time. The entire team wants to do this work. That seems to be a logical place to begin, afterwards we can go on to other ideas. The main point is choosing the budget. We should focus on that and choose something afterwards. That is where we must begin, because it will take time if we want to do a good job.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Can I make a suggestion, then, that when we look at the plan on Monday and as we discuss the work plan, if we feel that there is going to be enough time that we would not be able to manage to get the gender-based budgeting through by December, that we have some manoeuvrability, that we can on Monday decide whether we can proceed with that?

Madame Demers.