Status of Women Committee on March 19th, 2013

[Suzanne Clément]

I will ask Sébastien to answer that question.

[Sébastien Goupil, Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada]

Actually, there are really no repercussions. If you look at our organization's documents, you will see that we use different terms interchangeably. We talk about the promotion of gender equality as well as the promotion of equality for women and the promotion of equality between men and women.

One of the aspects we are highlighting is the recognition that genuine equality, substantive equality, as we call it, has not yet been fully achieved, in spite of some great advances in the last decades.

In any case, the terminology we use has not the slightest impact on our daily activities or our approach to programming.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Does that mean that using this terminology does not change anything for programs that provide funding to women’s rights groups, and that you have not started to fund new men's groups? There are no changes in fact?

[Suzanne Clément]

No. We have actually changed the terms and conditions, as I mentioned earlier. This makes it possible to carry out larger projects where men can work with women’s groups and other non-governmental organizations.

In other words, the program priorities have not changed. The three priorities are still the same.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you.

The committee noted that there are more conditions attached to the first of three annual transfers for the Department of Justice to develop the knowledge for aboriginal service deliverers have so that they can better deal with the sexual assault of girls.

The committee also noticed that a total amount of $1.2 million was granted to a Montreal organization, the Centre d’expertise Marie-Vincent. This organization seeks to ensure that child victims of sexual assault receive services adapted to their needs across Quebec.

How was this project developed or selected for funding?

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

You mentioned a project of approximately $1.2 million provided by the Status of Women Canada to the Centre d’expertise Marie-Vincent in Montreal. In fact, this project ended more than a year ago. As part of the project, we noticed that aboriginal communities were often going to the centre for similar services. Given that the first project did not focus on aboriginal peoples and their needs, the Centre d’expertise Marie-Vincent has approached us to share their interest in creating a project specifically for aboriginal peoples and service providers.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

I will have to stop you there, Ms. Savoie. Thank you for your answer.

We will now go to Ms. Crockatt, who has seven minutes.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Thank you. I'd just like to pick up on that, please.

On the centre for expertise against sexual aggression Marie-Vincent—I'm sure I'm not saying that correctly—is this the $250,000 that it received from Justice for that project?

[Linda Savoie]

There were two projects. The first one was solely funded through Status of Women Canada. The second one, which was the result of the identification of a need that surfaced during the course of the first project, is a joint collaboration between Justice and Status of Women Canada. Because this project that was proposed by the Centre d'expertise Marie-Vincent was well aligned with both of our objectives, we decided to get together as funders, and under one agreement, to simplify the process and be administratively streamlined, to fund the second project for the Centre d'expertise Marie-Vincent, which is what is in the supplementary estimates and we've been referring to, and the minister mentioned earlier today as well.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

I'll just go back to Suzanne, if I could.

And I don't want to quantify everything in dollar terms because we're interested in outcomes, not just expenditures, but I did want to talk.

We have a budget here of $29 million for Status of Women, which essentially is pretty much flat in this tough economic time. But we're really spending more money than we ever have before—are we not?—because we now have Justice contributing $250,000 more to Status of Women projects that are key priorities? Am I right about that?

[Suzanne Clément]

We are partnering with other organizations and we are getting some other departments interested in some of the work we do. I can't say whether it's something that would have happened separately if it hadn't happened together, but it was because of the first project that Status of Women Canada funded with Marie-Vincent that the expertise was identified, and the need with the aboriginal communities was identified, in particular. I think we're pretty safe in saying that the project that Status of Women Canada funded is what sparked that interest with Justice afterwards.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

So in dollar terms there is more money that is being spent on these projects than previously?

[Suzanne Clément]

In terms of program dollars, like grants and contributions, definitely since 2007 there's been an incredible increase, almost double the programs and agencies. That's the money that goes out to organizations to fund projects in communities.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

It's almost double over what timeframe?

[Suzanne Clément]

Since 2006-07.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Okay, that's great. I think that's important for Canadians to know.

I also wanted to talk a little bit about the programs that shelters deliver. My mom was one of the founders of one of the first shelters in Alberta, and “they've come a long way, baby”. I know there's a lot of programming going on, the economic development and leadership training, in particular. I was hoping you could tell us more about that.

[Suzanne Clément]

One of the things that we're really, really proud of at Status of Women is the project that we funded three years ago for the creation of a network for shelters in Canada. One of the issues with shelters—as I'm sure you know if you've had someone close to you involved—is their capacity is very limited, and they're constantly having to reinvent the formula as to how they deal with victims of abuse because the population changes, and the types and forms of violence change. Particularly in urban centres, where you have new families who immigrate, there are different forms of violence that may come up, and different forms of response to that violence.

So instead of having shelters trying to learn all of this and educate themselves and develop tools on their own, we created a network that would connect all of them together. We have all of the provinces and territories that are connected through the network, that then connect to all of the shelters within their provinces or territories. They launched a call for innovative ideas, so all of the shelters fed in. Some of them were selected, further developed, and then shared out with the shelters again.

It's a way of making sure we're not having this limited capacity to reinvent the wheel constantly out there as they're working with the communities. So that has been very, very successful, and we're very proud of it. In fact, it's been featured internationally as a good project.

[Linda Savoie]

I agree with Suzanne Clément that this is definitely one of the most efficient means we've found to work with shelters across Canada.

We've also undertaken some other targeted actions. For instance, a couple of years ago we launched a call for proposals. We asked specifically for proposals that would assist women in second-stage shelter circumstances. We're working with a number of shelters on this as well, trying to improve services for women.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Can you be specific for me? I'd like to know what kind of programming is moving women forward. We've gotten beyond just housing, as important as that may be, into programming so that they can move their lives forward. Are there mentorship programs? What is this leadership and economic development training that they're receiving? Could you give us some specific details so that we could get a handle on it?

[Linda Savoie]

Yes, certainly.

On the shelter side, we're trying—

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

There is one minute left.

[Linda Savoie]

One of our concerns is always trying to address root causes, whether of violence or of poverty. One tool to address root causes is to invest in leadership projects whereby women are themselves equipped to address these barriers to their financial, social, and economic success.

Some of our leadership initiatives have been focusing on that, trying to get the women to identify the issues, identify the barriers to their success, and work at addressing these barriers. That's where we focus our leadership efforts, if you will.

It was one of the components of the girls' call for leadership. We wanted the young girls to tackle barriers to their full involvement in Canadian society. We've had groups come to us with all kinds of excellent ideas. We hope to see the results in the next year and a half or so.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Ms. Crockatt, your time is up. You have used up your seven minutes. Thank you.

We will now continue with Ms. Sgro for seven minutes.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Again, thank you to the departmental officials. I know how much time you have to put into preparation for coming before the committee. I don't think we call you too often, so it's nice to have you here today.

The issue of mandate is one we have discussed before. The official mandate versus focus and changes in direction is one thing, but have you thought any further about looking at the mandate? It hasn't been updated—or changed, I should say—since the seventies. Now that we're in the 21st century and you're dealing with many of the issues facing women today in the 21st century, have you thought about changing the actual mandate of Status of Women Canada?

[Suzanne Clément]

It wouldn't be a decision of the organization to change—