Yes.
Evidence of meeting #30 for Status of Women in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #30 for Status of Women in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
Bruce Stanton Conservative Simcoe North, ON
I wanted to bring some clarity to that, and I appreciate your answers on that.
Just to go back to this, I think you used the term “re-focusing”—the $2 million.
10:35 a.m.
Coordinator, Office of the Coordinator, Status of Women Canada
Re-profiling.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
Bruce Stanton Conservative Simcoe North, ON
And I see where it is. I see again on page 4 where, under women's program, supplementary estimates (B), we're projecting $6.9 million there, and that'll drop down the following year to $4.9 million. Is that where the $2 million is?
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
10:35 a.m.
Director, Corporate Services Directorate, Status of Women Canada
It was part of the new money announced in the budget, and we didn't ask for the full $5 million in 2007-08. We asked for $3 million, and then we asked for $7 million in 2008-09.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
Bruce Stanton Conservative Simcoe North, ON
So because of the timing, you couldn't take the whole $5 million when it came out in the previous supplementary estimates (B).
10:35 a.m.
Director, Corporate Services Directorate, Status of Women Canada
That's right. We weren't getting it until March.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
Bruce Stanton Conservative Simcoe North, ON
So you took the $3 million, and then that allowed you to take an extra $2 million, and actually that extra $2 million will be in the 2008-09 year.
10:35 a.m.
Director, Corporate Services Directorate, Status of Women Canada
That's correct.
10:35 a.m.
Coordinator, Office of the Coordinator, Status of Women Canada
And we actually needed it this year because of the number of projects, some of which are two and three years and require a considerable amount of funding this year.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
Bruce Stanton Conservative Simcoe North, ON
That provides much-needed clarity.
I'd like to move to the question of the full-time equivalents. From your estimates on pages 8 and 10, in the first priority, which was strengthening full-time participation of women, we had a $2.5 million budget but 24 FTEs. Then on the programs side, financial assistance programs, we had roughly $29.2 million and 65 FTEs.
It seems a little low—$2.5 million for strengthening the participation of women in society. Is that all staff? Are there parts of that $2.5 million that are, for example, in research? What kinds of activities flow out of that $2.5 million?
10:35 a.m.
Director, Corporate Services Directorate, Status of Women Canada
That's mostly staff and operating.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
Bruce Stanton Conservative Simcoe North, ON
So it's strictly the office infrastructure, if you will.
10:35 a.m.
Coordinator, Office of the Coordinator, Status of Women Canada
The operating money is what we use to do some of our extra research work, beyond what's required for staff. For example, we would use operations money for the indicators project, gender-based analysis, our federal–provincial–territorial work, and our international work, because all of this requires operational funding. That's the way it's normally done. Grants and contributions funding is for the groups. Operational money is what we use to manage within the departmental agency.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
Bruce Stanton Conservative Simcoe North, ON
So those 24 people are essentially involved in, for example, providing counsel, support, and advice to some of the other departments and agencies trying to get their submissions properly done or evaluating and considering gender issues. Is this the kind of support you provide to other departments?
10:40 a.m.
Coordinator, Office of the Coordinator, Status of Women Canada
Yes, that's part of it. When we put money in, we also break it down in terms of our support services. Communication and corporate services support our major line, which is directed towards policy and programs. So those are built in, but they support the work we do with other departments in assisting them with training, gender-based analysis frameworks, and the work they're doing towards achieving better results.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Could you tell me if the Status of Women supplies its income and expense statements to government for review? Who audits you?
10:40 a.m.
Coordinator, Office of the Coordinator, Status of Women Canada
We supply everything through the normal channels.