Evidence of meeting #20 for Status of Women in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was violence.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:50 p.m.
NDP
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, again, to the witnesses for attending our committee today. I know everybody is really busy.
I do have some questions, but I just wanted to mention.... Ms. Ashton had talked about Status of Women Canada not funding the solutions on the ground. I was actually going to mention that too.
I mean, this is a Status of Women committee, so we only have so much funding for Status of Women. I know from being on the special committee for the murdered and missing aboriginal women that there were millions and millions of dollars being spent in aboriginal communities. I don't think you do, but I just thought I would check, you don't have any stats on the spending for women, do you?
4:50 p.m.
Acting Head of Agency, Status of Women Canada
No. Government spending is not really captured in this manner, so any time there's a request for one department to look at a specific issue, a call goes out to all departments to try to extract information from their systems. But unfortunately the financial systems are different from department to department, and we're not always able to sort things out in the manner we're looking for.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Thank you. As I said, I know many departments are involved because there are different projects that they're always funding, so thank you for that anyway.
We were hearing about allocations of funds for Status of Women and how you work to fund projects that speak to your mandated goals of improving economic security for women and girls, ending violence against women, and supporting the advancement and increased representation of women and girls in leadership roles. The women's program seems to be the main conduit through which you disburse the funding and support to accomplish this.
I know that the women's program operates with continuous funding as well as targeted funding opportunities, but what are the specific aims and goals of the program? How do you organize your priorities and programming to achieve these goals? I mean, there are so many great programs that you have.
4:50 p.m.
Acting Head of Agency, Status of Women Canada
You're correct that the women's program is our primary conduit for doing work out in the communities across Canada. Each year we revise our priorities under the three pillars that have been fairly consistent over time. We look at the issue of violence, the issue of economic security and prosperity, and women's leadership. Our departmental priorities will fall within one of those three categories and will be more specific. So this year, as last year, we have certain priorities that relate to violence against women and girls.
But we do have some new priorities with respect, for instance, to the entrepreneurship that I was speaking to, and those tend to align with government priorities, and the direction comes from government to determine where we will be focusing our efforts.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Thank you.
I'm glad that Status of Women Canada is including men and boys in some of the programs now, because I do hear that when I am attending or hosting a round table or meeting with other individuals or some of the non-profit organizations in my riding. I mean, you can keep, you know, reminding and informing women of what is acceptable and not acceptable, that they don't have to be in certain situations or ways to get out of them. But, you know, I think it's very important to tell the men and boys as well, so I'm glad that seems to be working itself in there.
How do you ensure that your targeted call for proposals reflects inclusive criteria and is not biased towards one demographic of Canadian women?
4:55 p.m.
Acting Head of Agency, Status of Women Canada
Our criteria are fairly consistent, call after call, on many levels. What we are looking for are groups that know their target audience, so rather than us trying to figure out what works well with an immigrant population in Toronto or an aboriginal population in northern Saskatchewan, we rely on the expertise of the applicant group. Part of the criteria is demonstrating that they have that expertise, that they know their population, and that they know what recipes and approaches are appropriate, culturally appropriate, or otherwise appropriate geographically, etc.
Our criteria tend to be at the level that allows us to assess based on partnerships, capacity, and knowledge. It doesn't need to be that granular. Our criteria will not go into specific populations themselves; they will be assessing the group that will be delivering the actual project.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Thank you.
How do you get the word out? I mean, I know you probably have certain groups that are always applying time after time, and maybe they continue to get funding or maybe they don't, or maybe they get it once. But what about...? There are probably some great organizations out there. I know certainly in London I tried to send it to as many people as I could think of. If they apply, great, but at least they know. But how do you get the word out to some of these groups?
4:55 p.m.
Acting Head of Agency, Status of Women Canada
Well for instance, in this latest call, the spring call, by having a very strong economic focus, we are tapping into the networks of our economic partners like the economic development agencies and also the federal-provincial relationship with multiple provinces that have a common interest. So we tap into other people's networks, and it's not uncommon. Actually it's more the norm for the information about our call for proposals being circulated through newsletters of other agencies, not just our own.
We also have our own database. Anyone who has contacted us or who has applied is entered into our own database for what we call our email blasts, so the word gets out. We've been fairly satisfied with the degree of reach that we've had over the last few years—actually for a number of years. Just the number of applications we get I think is a reflection of the success we've had reaching out. We also monitor very closely how many are repeat applicants, and how many are people who are totally new to us and unknown. So consistently, call after call, we get new applicants in good numbers, sometimes 25%, sometimes 50%. We are still continuing to diversify the reach to the groups that could have an interest in our cause.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Thank you.
As far as schools or community groups promoting certain events, specifically international women's week or the International Day of the Girl, do you send out any hard copies? I know you have the website, but is there anything that goes out to the schools to promote to young girls that it's International Women's Day or the International Day of the Girl?
4:55 p.m.
Acting Head of Agency, Status of Women Canada
We don't tend to send out paper-based material any longer, but we do make our material available for schools, for women's groups, for school boards. So, yes, our material becomes available for school boards interested in having an event; for instance, International Women's Day or women's history month.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
4:55 p.m.
NDP
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I noticed in the briefing materials provided that there's no plan for a decrease in the workforce at Status of Women Canada. Within Status of Women Canada, do you have employees in all provinces of Canada?
4:55 p.m.
Acting Head of Agency, Status of Women Canada
No, we do not. We have service points that, in many cases, cover multiple provinces. For instance, the Atlantic office is located in Moncton and serves the four Atlantic provinces.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Okay, so there are no employees in the other Atlantic provinces. For the Atlantic area, the office is based in Moncton.
5 p.m.
Acting Head of Agency, Status of Women Canada
Yes. Our structure is such that we have an Atlantic office in Moncton. We have a western office in Edmonton, and we have an office for Quebec that’s in Montreal.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Thank you.
Back in 2010, the government announced $25 million over five years for a seven-point strategy to improve responses of law enforcement in the justice system, the cases of murdered and missing aboriginal women and girls, and to increase community safety. I presume you're familiar with that? Okay.
Can you take us through, to this point in time, what progress has been made? The goal of the program was to improve responses of law enforcement, improve responses of the justice system, and increase community safety. I presume that these are being measured against some metrics.
Can you tell us what data is available on the progress of that announcement and that investment?
5 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada
First of all, I will remind the committee that the Department of Justice has a responsibility overall for the implementation of the seven-point strategy, and presumably there will be an evaluation of that strategy in the coming months that will eventually report to Canadians the results of this 7.5-year strategy.
So far, there has been progress made under each of the elements. For example, the creation of the national centre for missing persons, which is now in existence in the RCMP, or for that matter, the additional support to victims of crime, and the creation of shelters for aboriginal women, the community safety plans through Public Safety Canada—there has been progress on each front. But as I said earlier, Justice Canada will ensure to undertake an evaluation of the strategy.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Okay, thank you for that.
Is it fair to say that the better person to ask those questions of would be the Minister of Justice as they have overall carriage of the program?
5 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada
If your question is about the results of the 7.5-year strategy, yes. The question is better addressed to the Minister of Justice.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Thank you.
I know you spent some time in the last half hour talking about gender-based analysis. I want to come back to it because your organizational priorities mention a plan to expand gender-based analysis. Based on your previous answers, I understand that the Status of Women Canada puts on programs for other government departments, to bring awareness and promotion to gender-based analysis. Is that essentially the role or is that essentially what you're talking about when your organizational priorities refer to expanded partnerships in gender-based analysis?
5 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada
Maybe I wasn't clear earlier in my response. Essentially, as I mentioned, we are in—
