Thank you, Madam Chair.
Professor Russell, thanks for coming.
We've been wrestling in this committee with the whole idea of the costs of implementing gender budget analysis, and we realize it's expensive. At the same time, my staff and I have been looking at groups like the UN, the IMF, and the World Bank. They all talk about gender budgeting as a way to have far more productive economies. The GDP would be greater and would grow faster if both men and women were able to live up to their potential economically and productively within society.
I realize you're talking about having information. I agree that the more information we have the better. We're at the start of that process here. If we did undertake such a process and got it into the budget and did it, can you comment on whether you think it would outweigh the cost? It's hard to see that from this distance, but what kind of indicators would you use along the way?
In order for us to be able to sell it, if we as a committee chose to go that way, we would have to be able to tell people that it could do that. We realize it's important in and of itself, but this is politics, and we have to show that we can make a difference with it.
Do you have any thoughts you could give us on that?