Status of Women Committee on March 29th, 2010

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

—as chief accounting officer, but it is the minister. I think for the record it was important to put that clarification in place.

I would like to focus on a couple of areas. You've held numerous positions within the federal public service. First of all, if you look at your previous experience and the short three months you've had in this new role, can you tell me about the connections you're making in how that experience is going to help you with the job you've taken on?

[Suzanne Clément]

Certainly.

Yes, I have held quite a few positions in the federal public service, and almost every opportunity brought on something new. With the accumulation of experience from one position to the next, you always realize the extraordinary learning you made in the previous assignment and how it becomes beneficial in the position you are holding now.

When I look at the Status of Women Canada and see the foundations that will allow me to hopefully progress on our mandate of achieving equality for women, I would say first that I arrive with a very solid knowledge of how government works, how decisions are made in organizations, and how all of my colleagues in different departments work and prepare for providing advice to their leaders and how they work with organizations. That certainly facilitates our ability to be able to determine at what point and where we need to work with them, to possibly influence them or challenge them in how they look at new policies or new programs.

I've delivered a number of national grants and contributions programs, so that's not a learning curve for me in arriving in this position. That helps.

I've had to manage regional offices.

For the youth employment strategy at HRSDC, I was hired at a time when the youth employment sector had a very small staff, with about a $20 million program at the time, essentially managing the stay-in-school strategy with the provincial governments, which was coming to an end. At that time there was a 20% unemployment rate for youth, so there was definitely a need to act and act quickly. In doing so, HRSDC did not attempt to deal with the situation on its own. We went to all of the federal organizations and said that governments working in communities were part of the solution. We created a horizontal table. It was probably one of the first horizontal program initiatives in government. I created a network across departments; we developed horizontal objectives. I make it sound easy; it wasn't easy. I think it was a major success in delivering what ended up being a more than $300 million program two years later, in the grants and contributions.

I have a very strong financial background, so the learning curve there is a lot less. I have worked with NGOs, probably for the better part of the last twenty years, in government. Knowing the NGO community, knowing how communities function, and knowing how important communities are in achieving any of the objectives we want to achieve as a government is crucial in advancing the work of Status of Women Canada.

Then there is just learning, with experience, how to recognize and to seize opportunities. We know that the policy development process is not a perfect, theoretical process; there are many sources and initiatives and ideas that come together, and at some point an opportunity opens, and if you are ready to move forward with it, you usually are able to build successes. That's how I hope to be able to prepare my colleagues in various departments to get to understand what impact they are having on women in Canada, and with what initiatives, and how they can change those initiatives to have a greater impact and a greater understanding.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

So there is work experience that you bring to this table, but sometimes what we do outside of work also provides opportunities and skills and knowledge. I was noting that you were with the Montfort Hospital as a member of the quality assurance committee. Are there connections in learning and skills that are transferrable to this role?

[Suzanne Clément]

I started doing community volunteer work when I was about 12. I come from a small rural area, and I was the first youth who decided to organize my colleagues in the town to try to get some recreational facilities because we had nothing except for the corner store as a place to meet.

I've always continued to participate on a voluntary basis with communities. I think people have to take ownership of solutions, and I think most communities are quite good at doing that. My current work at Montfort Hospital is in the context of a member of the quality assurance committee. This is a new approach, that hospitals in Ontario have to have committees that provide advice to the board of directors and the management of the hospital on the initiatives they are undertaking to ensure the quality of their patients' care.

So yes, I get to see the functioning of an organization that is very different. Running a hospital is very different from running a federal department. But at the same time I'm seeing that a lot of the learnings I have gained in the public service are also beneficial to bring to the hospital environment. So there is always learning across organizations. You see things in a very different perspective when you sit around a different table.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Irene Mathyssen.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you so much for coming back and sharing this time with us. I think it's very important for us to get to know you, and I'm very pleased that you have afforded us that opportunity.

I have a couple of questions. I wanted to pick up on some of the things you said in your presentation. You said, “I see our organization help to bring the right players to the same table.” While I realize it's Foreign Affairs that is in charge of the constructing of the maternal and child welfare piece, we haven't heard very much from that in terms of detail. I wonder if Status of Women Canada will have a voice in the development of whatever policy or whatever the Government of Canada brings to the table, because it is women and children, and SWC has the expertise. So what role...or have you heard anything in regard to a role for SWC?

[Suzanne Clément]

Yes, absolutely. I think there are two levels of input that would come from Status of Women Canada. Our minister has already been in discussion with her colleagues on a policy level on this question. As far as the officials are concerned, as soon as the announcement was made we immediately made contact with our counterparts at CIDA and DFAIT to offer our help and demonstrate our interest in being part of the work in developing the government's objective and initiative on that front.

At this stage we've been providing and sharing information with them. The working group has not yet been embarked upon. Once the policy specifics are announced we will be at the interdepartmental working table with them to provide information and advice and to gain an understanding of what the initiative will be.

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

Thank you.

Have you had the opportunity to meet with some of the women's organizations and the NGOs that Status deals with? There are lots of them, and I wondered if you had those discussions. What kind of relationship do you have? What kind of relationship would you like to have? What are you working toward?

[Suzanne Clément]

Having been there for only a couple of months, I've had to spend a lot of time on understanding what the organization does and what its inner workings are, as well as learning our initiatives as much as possible, but I have had an opportunity to meet with many of the NGOs that are delivering national projects for us, particularly the partnership projects.

When I was in New York at the UNCSW, I did have an opportunity to meet with 15 or so of the organizations representing the labour sector, and we had a very good conversation. We mutually agreed that we would continue to have meetings and periodic get-togethers to exchange information.

I am planning on visiting the three regional offices, and I've asked them to set up meetings with NGOs and influential organizations on women's issues within their regions so that I can meet with them as well to discuss their issues and learn from that process.

In my view, probably the key source of information that will be coming in to Status of Women Canada is to learn the issues that people are facing when they're working directly with women in the communities.

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

Thank you.

You expressed concern, and we've all felt concern, in regard to the Auditor General's spring report about GBA and how it was unevenly implemented across government. I think that report clearly revealed the work that needs to be done.

You say you intend to widely promote the use of GBA and its integration into institutional processes, and that the work is under way. Could you describe your part of that work, what's been achieved to date, and what plans you have in that regard?

[Suzanne Clément]

As you know, six departments were audited by the Auditor General, and those six departments have an action plan that they must be implementing in a period of one year. The three central agencies are also part of that implementation plan.

A positive surprise was that five departments contacted Status of Women Canada and said that they would like to do this too. Even though they were not forced to through the audit, they wanted to embark on it as part of the first year, so quite a large number of departments are now part of the implementation of the action plan.

The immediate deliverables are that by June 2010, this coming June, all departments will have established their frameworks for gender-based analysis, meaning that they will have identified and staffed institutional mechanisms within their departments that will ensure GBA is fully integrated into the decision-making process at the various levels of the organization. By June 2010 these departments will also have to identify one initiative within their organization that will be used as a measure to see how well this new framework functions and to identify whether there are areas that need improvement.

A self-assessment process goes on throughout this implementation. Within the next two months we at Status of Women Canada will develop an evaluation framework for them to use to evaluate themselves as they progress on the implementation of GBA. They will also have identified a champion at a very senior level within their department. That champion will form part of a committee across government, which I will chair, and we will meet on a regular basis to make sure that the implementation of GBA remains a top priority at a senior level within departments.

I will have continuing and regular discussions with my colleagues at central agencies. Last Friday I was in a meeting with the GBA champion at Treasury Board Secretariat, and we're reviewing the progress both in departments and at the central agency. I was very pleased to see that there is a challenge role that certainly has been played on a few occasions by the central agencies. I know for a fact that there were submissions that were asked to go back to the drawing board before they got on the agenda, and it was the central agency playing that challenge role.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Madam Clément.

We will move on now to the second round. The second round is a five-minute round, again, for question and answer.

I'll begin with Kirsty Duncan.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to all of you for coming.

Madam Clément, could you share with us the process to your being appointed? Is it to make people aware you're interested? Is it an open competition? How does this take place?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'm afraid that question is out of order, Madam Duncan.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Sorry. Okay, I apologize.

Am I allowed to ask if there was an interview or is that...?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

No. You're not allowed to ask about the process of how that appointment occurred.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Okay, then I will skip all of that.

I apologize.

Since you will be heading this agency, it's important for you to understand the recent history, and indeed the history, of it. So I will come back to the 12 out of the 16 sites. What is the average size of the regional office in terms of people and funding?

[Suzanne Clément]

Currently, the four offices? It's four or five employees per office, depending on the vastness of the region they're covering.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Prior to the cut, what was the average size of the office? Was it the same?

[Suzanne Clément]

I think there might have been one or two offices that were larger. Do you mind if I defer the question to someone who might have been there?

Havelin.

[Havelin Anand, Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada]

I wasn't quite there when the cuts took place as well, but I think there were a number of regions that I would call service stations where, in addition to the regional office, for example, there might have been a bigger office in a place like Moncton. But in Halifax, say, they might have hired one or two people, or in St. John's they might have hired one or two people. So in that way the region, as a whole, had more people to service the population in the region as opposed to the numbers or the complements in individual offices.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

I'd like to know what the rationale was for the cuts? How many people did we lose? What programs were lost?

Do we have adequate coverage now? Or is this something we need to look at going forward?

It's about the number of people, the programs lost, and how you feel about this.

[Suzanne Clément]

I wouldn't be able to answer questions on the rationale. Firstly, I wasn't there, and it was a decision of the government of the day, so it's a policy decision.

But what was lost? There were no programs lost. The reduction in the regional offices came at the same time as a reconfiguration of the terms and conditions. The government's objective was to reach out and help women directly in the communities. So there was training of the employees that took place simultaneously on the new terms and conditions that had been developed.

With the reduction in the office locations, the office developed, at the time, very proactive training information sessions across the country to be able to go to different locations, more so than the 16 that would have been covered by the region.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

I guess I'm struggling with...there was a 75% cut and no programs were lost.

[Suzanne Clément]

There was no 75% cut.