Status of Women Committee on March 19th, 2013

[Suzanne Clément]

We're very proud of the website, and please, I encourage everybody to go and visit it. The website was developed to encourage all Canadians, women and men, girls and boys, to recognize and do something about the issue of violence against women and girls. We know that awareness is a very powerful tool. Ensuring that there's more information available to all Canadians would certainly have the impact of increasing awareness.

The website acts as a hub of information and it includes various sections. It has forms of violence, its economic impact, and who is most at risk of abuse. It also includes information on how to respond when you're faced with a situation of violence. It has tips for parents, educators, youth, and others. It has a wealth of information on services available. When you go into the site and you want information on a specific area, as a parent, for example, you can go into your province and it will identify all of the provincial or territorial services that are available for you in that area. We feature a number of initiatives through the site, like EVA BC, the project that the minister mentioned earlier. We have information on the RespectED program, which is available in schools, on developing non-abusive relationships. There's also the Stop Sex With Kids initiative from the Government of Manitoba, for example, that is featured. There are a number of initiatives by NGOs, by governments, etc.

It also provides a cohesive picture of what initiatives the Government of Canada has undertaken to address the issue of violence from the various government departments.

In developing the website, which was completely done in-house, we worked very closely with Justice, Public Safety, INAC, and a number of other departments, and especially provincial and territorial colleagues who provided us with all of the information that the site was able to connect to. In order to attract people to this site—because we know there's an abundance of information available on the Internet—we were able to access some funding from the central advertising fund. We were provided with $250,000 in this fiscal year, which we received through the supplementary estimates (A) in order to develop, create, and purchase web banners and Google ads that would drive traffic to the site. When you're in LinkedIn or on news sites, you'll get a banner that comes across and tells you about it. If a person is interested or affected by violence or abuse, they would be able to get to our violence website. It's been a very popular site since its launch February 23. We've had between 1,000 and 2,000 hits a day, and 83% come from the banners, people discovered it through the banners and then go into the site.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

When you say it was launched February 23, do you mean this February? A few weeks ago?

[Suzanne Clément]

Yes.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

This is in fact a pretty comprehensive initiative from the department. I'm very impressed that you worked with all the different departments and that it was done in-house because we have the in-house expertise obviously. I'm also very impressed that you're doing the central advertising as well.

As we all know, Canada is a very large country with the second largest land mass in the world, but we have a very scattered population throughout and up north, and in rural communities, which we talked about earlier. This will in fact put the resources, the information, the education, and the steps that one takes right out there, so that anybody in any community in Canada can access that, whether you're a parent, a teacher, a local community group, a women's group, a men's group, etc. Given the thousands of hits that you've received today in such short time, what do you anticipate as an outcome for this website?

Very quickly, because I have other questions.

[Suzanne Clément]

As I said, information is a powerful tool. The outcome would be to have a greater awareness, a greater level of information, and a greater commitment by all Canadians that violence is something that we can end, and it requires everybody to take action.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

One minute.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

I wanted to quickly ask you about the fund transfer from the main estimates. This is something that the minister alluded to earlier, but we didn't quite have a spotlight on it, I guess. I'll give you a small example. Last year, the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Police Department actually held a conference to celebrate 100 years....I want to put that on the record that the City of Vancouver has had women police officers in Vancouver for 100 years. Last year, they held a conference. They invited speakers from all over Canada to profile this, which is an incredible thing for Vancouver.

I worked with Minister Ambrose to get funding for that conference, and we were actually able to get some from the Department of Public Safety, eventually, for this conference. Basically, we did exactly what was happening with this transfer of funds. That is—

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Ms. Young, I am sorry, but your time is up.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

Very quickly, what the minister alluded to was in fact not just the actual money from Status of Women, but that's expanded through other departments by collaborating with them.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Thank you, Ms. Young.

We now move to Ms. Day.

You have seven minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

A little earlier, I asked the minister some quite lengthy questions. She did not answer the last part. It was probably too long. So I am going to ask my question again.

Given the seriousness of the problem of sexual violence against first nations women, is Status of Women Canada recommending a national inquiry on missing or murdered aboriginal women?

[Suzanne Clément]

Studying that question or recommending that an inquiry be held is not part of Status of Women Canada's mandate. The matter is the responsibility of the Department of Justice and the Department of Public Safety. It is a matter that deals with police decisions in criminal matters.

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

I am going to ask another question, Ms. Clément.

Though the committee has not yet had the opportunity to examine the report on plans and priorities for the present financial year, we note in the estimates that funding for operational expenditures will be reduced by $150,000 compared to the expenditures budget to date, and that funding for statutory spending will increase by only $20,000 for the present financial year, according to the current estimates for 2012-2013.

Can you describe the internal measures taken to adjust to the reduction in operational expenditures?

[Suzanne Clément]

The figures are complicated. I know that there has been no change to our budgets. There are often variances because of transfers between departments for projects, such as the ”Women in Canada” report. Last year, we received a transfer of $25,000 from Health Canada.

There are also on-going adjustments related to collective agreements with employees. All those amounts are added to the budget as the year progresses. So there are variances in those budget items. There were no cuts in salary from last year.

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

There is a reduction of $150,000. The question was about internal measures. Where will the cuts be?

[Suzanne Clément]

I would need to know the source of your information.

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

We are talking about operational expenditures. We are told that operational expenditures will be reduced by $150,000 compared to the previous budget. We would like to know where the budget will be reduced.

[Johanne Tremblay, Acting Director, Corporate Services, Status of Women Canada]

Are you saying that internal operating expenditures for this year will be reduced by $150,000 next year, that is, in the Main Estimates 2013-2014.

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

I am talking about current expenditures for 2012-2013 compared to expenditures for 2013-2014.

[Suzanne Clément]

You are talking about current expenditures, in the same year, is that correct?

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

Could you provide us with the answer later?

[Suzanne Clément]

I am not sure I understood. You would have to give us the source for your information.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

We will find it and the clerk will be in touch with you about it.

[Suzanne Clément]

Fine. Thank you.

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

The information comes from the House of Commons, so it will be easy for you to find it.

The committee has also noticed that Status of Women Canada's strategic outcome referring to the equality of women and their full participation in the economic, social and democratic life of Canada has been replaced by the promotion of equality between men and women in Canada.

What repercussions will this change in strategic outcome have or may possibly have on equality programs?