Status of Women Committee on Feb. 29th, 2012

[Linda Savoie]

Rather than create new services, we try to fund things that will improve existing services, so that we're not creating exactly that situation you're describing. For instance, if there are services for immigrant women in a certain part of the country and they're not satisfactory, what we do is help them analyze the defects and work with the service providers to fix those gaps.

[The Chair, NDP, Irene Mathyssen]

Thank you.

We'll go to Mr. Albas, please, for five minutes.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to thank our witnesses for being here today. I am new to the committee, so it's been a great learning opportunity for me.

Earlier, Ms. James was going through a number of questions in regard to different projects specific to girls. Since we are going to be doing a study on girls, I figured I probably could ask some questions along that line so I can learn a little more.

I understand there are 35 girl-specific projects you are currently working with. Is that correct?

[Linda Savoie]

That's how many we funded in the last approximately two years.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Okay.

[Linda Savoie]

Those are girl-specific. That doesn't mean there are not a number of other projects we are funding that have a girl component, but those would be for women and girls.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

I think you also mentioned that obviously violence against women would apply. There would be a benefit to family members such as girls? Okay.

How many of those would you say are related to the pillar of prosperity or of becoming economically engaged? Would it be a third? I know it must be difficult, because it sounds to me as though often it's grassroot organizations that say this is what they see missing in their community.

[Linda Savoie]

I don't have an exact number right now, but we could provide that—the number of those 35 that are economic. But I would say they rarely have an economic focus.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Okay, that's fair to say, and I appreciate that.

I do note that the chair mentioned you would be referring a breakdown of projects to the committee. So that would apply to these 35. Is that correct?

[Linda Savoie]

We could certainly include those 35.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Could you do that along with some basic figures by region, indicating whether it is more urban-based or rural-based? I think that would be helpful. You mentioned there's a difference between, let's say, aboriginal programs and certain cultural programs that are specific to an area, as well as the cost and what not. I think it would be really helpful for us to get a handle on what we're currently doing, because we may want to use some of those examples.

Speaking of examples, could you give me an example of one of those types of programs that you think is rather interesting from the perspective of someone who deals with and works on these projects on an ongoing basis? Maybe you could give an example and tell us something interesting you found in the outcome from it.

[Linda Savoie]

It's difficult to choose.

[Victoria Martino]

We're funding a number of projects with a lot of interesting approaches. One project in particular is working to develop girl-led clubs in schools to empower girls and young women to assume leadership roles in their schools and in their communities. It's a project that's working at educating and giving the knowledge to these girls about domestic as well as international issues around gender inequalities. It's interesting that they're working in their settings to allow them to be proactive in their school setting. So this is empowering them, giving them the leadership skills, and giving them the knowledge about the issues and barriers.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

That's interesting.

I was at a Girl Guides conference. I was just there for the opening ceremonies, and I sat down with some of the leaders. They actually said one of the ways they found most effective to get to younger girls is to have older girls such as the Pathfinders present to them.

I guess they would call it the “Game of Life”, and they would say, “We're going to fundraise for a project. How will we come up with the money?” They engage them on it, and they find that's the most effective way of doing it. It sounds like a very similar thing.

What region of Canada is this in?

[Victoria Martino]

It's a national project.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

It's a national one? Excellent.

[Pascale Robichaud]

It's national. It started in Toronto as a pilot. It's going to Vancouver, and it's also going to be going to the east coast. I don't have the name off the top of my head, but Vancouver is there and so is Toronto. I guess the locations are mostly decided, because they do build partnerships with school boards, and it's quite a process. So they go where the school boards are open to starting those girls' clubs.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

I think that's very interesting, because oftentimes we talk about partnering with other levels of government, such as the province, and on occasion obviously with the province through the municipalities, but also, in this case, with school districts. That's very interesting. I guess that would be one way of reaching them.

[The Chair, NDP, Irene Mathyssen]

Thank you very much.

Madam James, you have five minutes.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm actually going to pass my time over to Ms. Young. I understand she has some questions or a continuation of her questions, and then the order of questions can continue with Ms. Bateman and then Ms. Ambler, if there's time.

Thank you.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

Thank you for that, Ms. James.

I just wanted to continue our conversation around the blueprint process, because from what I understood you to say, that has in fact made the process clearer for the organizations as well as possibly for the program overall. I wanted to just sort of explore that to see how that's changed for the program.

You said when I last asked you that the blueprint process had helped the organizations develop a clearer direction or idea of what they want to do with their project. Can you just expand on that a little bit?

[Linda Savoie]

What we were proposing for each of the projects we were going to fund—for instance, under the theme of the blueprint projects—was a specific recipe. But we left it to the groups to propose activities that take into consideration their local circumstances. The big framework was set. There must be a gender-based analysis. There must be a knowledge dissemination strategy. In some cases we wanted to see things such as a mentoring component. So those broad components were required.

The groups had some flexibility in identifying the best fit in implementing their work. So the direction was clear from the outset, rather than starting from scratch. Some groups are more experienced than others in developing project proposals, and each department has its own little framework that they like groups to fit in, as does each province. For the applicants, it was much simpler and they were thankful for that.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

So overall, the community groups and the organizations were supportive of the blueprint project?

[Linda Savoie]

Every time I go to visit groups they mention this as one of the best changes implemented at Status of Women in the last year.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

Has doubling the budget and streamlining the process made people happier about the Status of Women program?