Status of Women Committee on Nov. 30th, 2010

[Suzanne Clément]

We've been doing a lot of work with Public Works and Government Services. Of course, we have a particular affiliation with them now, sharing the same minister. We're working closely with them to reach out to women business owners. They've been doing some outreach sessions to women-owned businesses across the country to help them access public contracts.

What we're finding is that women in the business sectors are predominantly in smaller businesses, the small and medium-sized enterprises. They often can't access public contracts directly, because of the size of them. What we're trying to do is convince larger Canadian companies, nationals and multinationals, to promote having women-owned businesses as part of their supplier chains.

I know my time is up, but I'd love to speak about the WEConnect initiative.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Cathy McLeod]

We'll probably have some time in future rounds.

We'll go on to Ms. Mathyssen.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

It is always lovely to see you, and we appreciate your expertise.

But I have to say that I am disappointed that the minister wasn't able to come. I hope that we will encourage her to come at the earliest possible time.

December 7 is coming up quickly. It is the 40th anniversary of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women being tabled in the House of Commons. Is Status of Women Canada doing anything to mark the anniversary? Are there any plans?

[Suzanne Clément]

We marked the 25th anniversary. The 40th anniversary isn't seen as a particular landmark. The 50th anniversary would be the next opportunity for us to put a light on it.

We will definitely be marking it on our website. It was an extremely important milestone in the work on gender equality, and we will certainly make sure that information about it is posted on the website.

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

So there will be an acknowledgement of it.

[Suzanne Clément]

Absolutely.

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

Madam Sabia addressed the whole issue of inequality of wages. Women receive far less than men. It is a watershed that we cannot forget.

In your remarks, you talked about Status of Women receiving money to fund the first chapter on unpaid work. It's very important. You go on to say that sex-disaggregated data are available to inform policy and program making. That is very important. I'm concerned, and we heard it in this committee, about the cancellation of the long-form census and eliminating questions on unpaid work. Witnesses told us this would significantly diminish the quality of data on groups of vulnerable women.

Does Status of Women Canada have any plans to conduct an evaluation, after the census has been completed, on the impact of these very important data?

[Suzanne Clément]

Certainly, Status of Women Canada believes that capturing data and having relevant information on unpaid work is extremely important. We have worked with Statistics Canada, and they have assured us that the general social survey on time use cycle will be able to provide us with accurate and relevant information in order for us to be able to continue the work with “Women in Canada”. One of the chapters in “Women in Canada” will be on unpaid work.

As to evaluating the impact of the census, I would turn to the experts, Statistics Canada, to do that evaluation. The information they provide us in “Women in Canada” will be coming from four different sources. They will need to see if they've compromised the quality of information they've given us. But we have to rely on the experts to do that.

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

I understand that, but I do have to say that what we heard very clearly was that the long-form census was the gold standard, and that those supplementary assessments can be skewed and they can be misleading. It's only by comparing them to the long-form data that we can be assured of the quality of the data. So I have profound concerns. As you yourself have said, this data informs policy and programming, and we have heard that any compromise there is going to profoundly and negatively affect women.

In relation to the gender equality action plan, we've also heard from a number of groups that did not receive funding, who have worked consistently for equality, that the lack of funding is problematic. I suppose this is more of a comment than anything. Yes, there have been bits of funding for individual projects, but my concern is that that will not contribute to the move that former groups--groups that have been “de-funded”--provided in terms of moving along the equality of women. We'll see. Certainly that issue or that concern will come up again, I'm sure, when the minister arrives to meet with the committee.

The government responded to report number two from the public accounts committee, stating that Status of Women Canada would provide that committee with an interim status report with regard to the implementation of the GBA action plan. I'm wondering if it would be possible for you to provide this committee with that update and a copy of the original action plan.

[Suzanne Clément]

Absolutely. We can certainly provide copies of the original action plan to the clerk of the committee. It is also on the Status of Women Canada website.

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

How am I doing for time, Madam Chair?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Cathy McLeod]

You have 45 seconds.

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

I'll be very quick. It's been four years since the cancellation of the independent policy research fund, and I'm just looking through the 164 publications we pulled from the web, including information from Mr. Leroy Stone that we found very valuable with regard to the long-form census, and Women and Employment by Kathleen Lahey. All of this has been vital to our discussions here in the committee. I'm wondering if Status of Women Canada has undertaken an evaluation of the effect and impact of the cancellation of this program with regard to your work. Certainly it has and will impact our work.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Cathy McLeod]

If you have a one-line answer, because we're over time....

[Suzanne Clément]

I dealt with that question when I appeared in May, I believe. But definitely the source of information and data we work with come from a multitude of sources. We continue to work with many of the authors of previous research that was done through that program. We continue to have the ability to fund research within Status of Women, not as a program but as an operating expenditure within our organization, and we have been getting other departments to join in on that. Some very interesting work is coming with updating our trends on measuring violence against women that other departments, PHAC and Justice, are providing the funding for.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Cathy McLeod]

Thank you.

We're now on to our second round. It's five minutes, and we should be able to squeeze in at least four people.

We'll start with Mr. Cotler.

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

In your remarks, you noted on page 5 that women currently hold 22.2% of the seats in the House of Commons, which is a datum that has not changed for decades. You then note that while women now make up 47% of the labour force, over 40% of private companies have no women on their boards of directors, and you make reference to the grant to The Jeffery Group in that regard.

Do you have any recommendations respecting any legislative or policy initiatives that can enhance, to use the term “equal voice”, at both the parliamentary and the corporate level?

[Suzanne Clément]

I don't think it would be appropriate for me to be suggesting legislation, but many of the movements that have now begun in various sectors and from various stakeholders are certainly promising.

We're seeing it from corporations, particularly multinationals, which are being influenced by what is happening in some European countries and the U.S., on how organizations are seeing the value of increasing their representation of women on their boards. These multinationals are insisting that those organizations that they work with in Canada do the same. It is coming from those organizations.

The Jeffery Group is doing a project to try to get women to more proactively make themselves available and show interest in being on boards. What we've noticed is that many of the same women sit on a multitude of boards. We are trying to work with those women who sit on multiple boards to mentor other women to get them to be both interested and attractive for other board appointments.

Concerning the political participation, we did some work with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to help women prepare and get access to the means that will bring them to municipal politics, which is often the pillar or the first step for women moving into politics, but you would be better positioned to know what needs to be addressed within parliaments to make it more attractive for women.

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Let me just ask you a short second question.

To what extent is gender-based analysis, to which you referred in your remarks, being mainstreamed in the budgetary process?

[Suzanne Clément]

You'd have to invite my colleagues at the Department of Finance to come in to speak to that question, but I know they have a gender-based analysis expertise that they've institutionalized within Finance. I know it is being practised as one of the special lenses the budgetary proposals would go through. But you would need to ask our colleagues at Finance that question.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Cathy McLeod]

Does anyone else want your last minute?

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

If I have another minute, then I'll ask a question.

Have directives been given to those engaged in the budgetary process that they are to mainstream gender-based analysis in their preparation of the budget?

[Suzanne Clément]

I would say that the report by the public accounts committee is a very forceful mandate on the part of organizations. All central agencies, Finance, Treasury Board Secretariat, and PCO have instituted measures to ensure that gender-based analysis is mainstreamed. As part of the action plan, we had seven organizations that, as an obligation, had to participate in implementing the action plan.

We're very pleased with the advancement on that front. We will be tabling our report with the public accounts committee this coming month, in December. In fact, we're extremely pleased that we've had at least that many other departments that came to us and said they didn't want to wait until they were told by the public accounts committee to do it; they would like to voluntarily participate and work with us. We have been assisting a number of departments. Finance is one of them.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Cathy McLeod]

Madame Boucher.

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

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our committee. It is always interesting to talk to you.

I have a number of questions, but I would like you to answer one in particular. We just did a report on the non-traditional work of women. We saw that more and more women want to have access to these occupations or fields.

In recent weeks, Minister Ambrose announced that funds would be granted to certain projects, such as the Women in SETT Leadership Program. Could you talk to me a bit about that. I see that it is mainly for aboriginal and immigrant women who want to practice trades traditionally reserved for men. It's as important for aboriginal and immigrant women as it is for us.

Could you please talk to me about this project?