Status of Women Committee on March 19th, 2013

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Yes, just.

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

We did commit—the title of the initiative is COMMIT, from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. We were one of the first countries to commit, and we highlighted a number of initiatives, some national, some local, some regional, that Status of Women Canada is working on. As I said, the opportunity for us, through the way that we're managing the department and our funds, is to target our call for proposals in a way that sometimes is able to result in a national approach and sometimes, depending upon where the needs are, to be more local, more targeted—for instance, rural and remote communities. We took a national approach to sexual assault on university campuses and colleges and CEGEPs, so we do have that flexibility, and I think that's important.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Thank you.

Now we move to the Conservative Party.

Ms. O'Neill Gordon, you have seven minutes.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank all of you for taking the time to be with us today. We realize you have a busy schedule, so it is much appreciated.

I understand that there has been an effort to increase the ability for volunteer organizations to participate in these calls by expanding the terms and conditions to allow groups that were before not formally eligible for funding. They are now able to apply for funding through Status of Women Canada's calls for proposals.

I'm wondering if Suzanne Clément could perhaps describe some of the changes that were made to make this available, and perhaps give us an example of a type of group that can now apply that before was not able to, and the new terms and conditions making what had been previously ineligible for funding now eligible.

[Suzanne Clément]

Thank you.

The women's program is a grants and contributions funding program. It is governed by the Treasury Board policy on transfer payments, which requires an evaluation of terms and conditions of programs be undertaken on a cyclical basis. In 2011-12 Status of Women Canada undertook an evaluation of our program, reviewing the Ts and Cs to see if any areas needed to be addressed to change the Ts and Cs.

The overall evaluation was very positive. It looked at five years of program activities and in particular the last two years. It found the focus of the program was still very relevant, a focus on gender equality. It found the design and the delivery mechanisms were appropriate to reach the population and the objectives we wanted to reach. It found we were stimulating the right partners, and in particular it highlighted the blueprint approach as very innovative and positive. It also found it was efficient in its operations.

It also indicated we needed to focus our projects more on widening their potential reach as well as the sustainable impact to have impact over a longer term.

With this in mind, the revised terms and conditions did increase the potential reach by adding new applicants and categories of applicants. One of those is cooperatives. In the past the cooperatives were not an eligible applicant, and we found a lot of the work they do at the community level made them very effective project deliverers.

We also looked at expanding the reach to aboriginal organizations. Most terms and conditions do not allow government organizations to apply for government funding, but we found in certain areas and in particular on reserve it was difficult to find organizations, NGOs, that could undertake projects. Where NGOs are lacking, we are able to have agreements with government organizations.

We can also have agreements with provincial and territorial governments, again where the NGO population or presence is insufficient to have projects.

We also increased flexibility in the types of activities we are able to fund. For example and in particular on engaging men and boys on violence, the previous Ts and Cs had a requirement that stated women had to be involved in all aspects of the project, which meant we couldn't work with a group of men, for example, that wanted to work with women. We modified that to say women are involved in many of the aspects of the project. I think that has gone a long way in allowing us to create those partnerships that are important to open the dialogue between men's and women's groups in communities.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Thank you.

All these changes were certainly worthwhile.

One of the calls for proposals mentioned issues that were addressed earlier, affecting women living in rural and remote communities and small urban centres. We know women living in rural and remote areas have different levels of access to programs and services from women living in urban centres, and we are so pleased to hear you've included a separate call for proposals for these women. Sometimes rural women need to travel to the next town to obtain help, find a shelter, or gain access to training to help improve their economic prospects.

Could you provide some additional detail on the call for proposals for women living in rural and remote communities?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

I'd be happy to do that.

We felt we didn't have the kinds of relationships with rural organizations that we should, so we put out the specific call. The response that came back was overwhelming. Clearly there is a need in the rural and remote areas.

For instance there aren't a lot of NGOs in Nunavut. It then made us think we should change our terms and conditions so we can partner with a government like Nunavut's so we can help deliver important projects in rural and remote areas like that.

But it's true—whether it's through community planning initiatives we're working on for safety within small rural communities or partnerships to identify and respond to specific needs like isolation, economic security, or insecurity in rural and remote areas—women living in small towns and small cities are facing very specific issues and challenges.

These really are excellent projects. We were thrilled because we were able to make connections and build relationships with these organizations that we didn't have in the past through Status of Women, and so we'll continue to work with them.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Thank you.

We now move to Ms. Sgro, for seven minutes.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Madam Minister, it's great to have you here with us. I very sincerely thank you for the good work you are doing. I may want you to do more, and I may want you to do many different things, but I thank you for what you are doing.

I have a couple of questions. I'll try to be quick because we only get one time slot here. I'd like to get short answers, but I'm probably going to ask you a complicated question and ask for a short answer that you probably won't be able to give me.

In a recent answer to an order paper question I had about the amount of money the government is spending on media monitoring, it came back that the government as a whole is spending over $30 million on monitoring responses to the government. You know what I'm talking about when I say “monitoring the media”. It's something we all do, as we want to know what people are saying and what the media is saying about what the government of the day is doing.

Frankly, that $30 million is a huge amount of money to spend on just media monitoring. Of that $30 million, you signed off on over $10.6 million, not only as the Status of Women minister but in your role as the minister of two portfolios. Can you tell me how much of that was related to Status of Women in particular? Can you also tell me what you felt you got out of the monitoring that told you about a different direction you might want to go in, whether that's from a polling perspective or about a different avenue that you might want to direct some of the funds to?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

Sure. From a Public Works point of view, we're the contracting authority. We manage the licences and contracting with the media and the news agencies and outlets. Through the centralization of those contracts and the consolidation of the contracting, I think we're saving the government $18 million a year now or something. I could get the specific figures for you.

But beyond that, each department makes the determination of what they need for their specific areas of information. That happens at an official level. Of course, then it's also determined what the needs are within the department, or the ministry, or the minister's office, so I can't really speak to that.

On Status of Women Canada, I can tell you that we have no expenditures because we are an agency through HRSDC. I don't know the exact amount.

Suzanne, do you know?

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

At a time when we are running up deficits and making all kinds of other cuts that have to be done to a variety of other organizations, spending $30 million on monitoring what the media is saying about the government I think is very much in excess of what should be spent. I can think of all kinds of programs that you could use that money for rather than spending $30 million as a whole. That's part of the issue.

So none of that $30 million would have been spent to monitor anything to do with Status of Women?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

I'm going to ask Suzanne to answer, because I'm not sure about that.

[Suzanne Clément]

We're very innovative at saving money at Status of Women.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[A voice]

Because you're a women's organization.

[Suzanne Clément]

We are part of the portfolio for HRSDC, so one of the things we did is that we were able to arrive at an arrangement with them such that they've added a few search words in their ongoing media monitoring and they're able to pull out the information that we would be interested in seeing. There is no cost to Status of Women Canada, and we're able to spend all of our money on our programs.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Not directly, but is the information you're getting from monitoring the media dictating your mandate and the direction you're taking?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

No. I don't get daily clippings. I get the communications department....

[Suzanne Clément]

It's a function of every department.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Yes. It's a huge amount of money. That's the point. In a time of austerity when we're cutting everywhere you can look at, when Service Canada offices, immigration department offices, and so on are being cut, we have $30 million to monitor what the media is saying about the government.

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

What I will say to that, though, is that as the contracting authority, as the Ministry of Public Works, we have worked to consolidate contracting, so that we are saving the government millions of dollars. In terms of how the departments are using this, I think we can find more savings, and we should find a way to ensure that it is being used effectively, efficiently, and if it's necessary. If it's not, then we should look to cut those costs.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

I think you could cut at least half of it and use it for helping seniors and a few others.

I appreciate your promotion of our country, of Canada and what it's doing when it comes to women, but in the latest reports that have come out, even as recently as last week from the United Nations, Canada is way down. In one of them, it was number 17, one ahead of the United States, as far as advancing women's issues goes. As much as we want to talk about how wonderful we are as a country—and we all do it—the reality, when it comes to the real numbers that come out of the United Nations, doesn't show Canada in the lead.

At one point, we were third or fourth on those many lists that the United Nations puts out. On one of them last week, we were at 17. We're falling tremendously in regard to some of these larger issues when it comes to the people who do those analyses.

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

I appreciate that. I think there's always more work that can be done. I would also say that there are other reports.

For instance, in 2012, just last year, there was a global poll of experts—and I say that because it was a global survey, but the experts were actually gender experts—specifically looking at the wide range of services offered to women, at resources, at research capacity. They found that within the G-20, Canada was the best place in the world to be a woman. You saw, of course, that Newsweek rated Canada the third-best place in the world to be a woman. The World Economic Forum, since 2008—and that's the gender forum in particular—has placed Canada ahead of the U.S. and Australia.

I know that there's always more work to be done, but we're doing well internationally in a lot of the surveys related specifically to gender.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Many of the organizations that have been advocates on behalf of women and so on throughout Canada over the last five or six years have lost their funding and have closed the doors of their organizations. Based on even these kinds of changes that you alluded to earlier—to the cooperatives, and to areas in which there are not organizations—are you planning any further changes that might allow other organizations to help advance the initiatives you've been talking about?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

Right off the bat I would say that we're always open to changes in our terms and conditions so that we can better serve women's organizations across the country; we're very responsive. We have also implemented a number of flexibilities in the ways that women's organizations can apply for funding. If it's online, we've made the application process much simpler. As you're probably aware, we're also very flexible: we'll work with an organization on refining their application, because often women's organizations don't have money to hire a consultant to write a long proposal.

So there's that. But we're also working very closely with a number of other departments on a committee that—