Status of Women Committee on April 28th, 2014

[Stella Ambler, Conservative, Mississauga South, ON]

Oh, okay. Thank you. It's good that you work together on that.

That sort of relates to my second question, in that I'm wondering which other ministries Status of Women works with to implement programs. Perhaps the list is too long to answer the question or maybe there are one or two that you work with more often, such as, for instance, Justice.

[Linda Savoie]

You're correct that there are certain complementary points that are greater between certain departments than between others. For instance, on our aboriginal file, we work very closely with Justice. We work with Aboriginal Affairs. We work with Public Safety. On the issue of violence, we work very closely with Public Safety. We've worked with Health Canada.

If you look at the federal family of maybe 40 or 45 key departments, I'd say we work quite closely with at least half of these, depending on what the issue is. Our mandate is so broad and the edges are so soft that we can develop these relationships. If it's an economic issue, we're working with Industry and with the economic development agencies. If it's a violence issue or a health issue....

I'd hate to pick a favourite right now.

[Stella Ambler, Conservative, Mississauga South, ON]

No, that's good to know, actually.

I'm also particularly interested in encouraging more women to run for office. What ministries would you work with on those programs? What are the programs and do you think they're working?

[Linda Savoie]

A lot of that work is happening at the provincial level, but federally, we have funded organizations that have worked in multiple parts of the country. We've worked with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, we've worked with Groupe Femmes, Politique et Démocratie in Quebec. We've worked with some youth organizations and student councils.

So we work with a range of stakeholders that touch upon leadership positions in bringing young women or not so young women into these types of leadership positions. Canadian Heritage does some tremendous work in terms of youth programming to bring the citizenship component to the forefront of the education of young people. There are a number of other departments—maybe Daniel has others that come to mind—that play a role in this.

But clearly also the provinces and municipalities are quite active in this field.

[Stella Ambler, Conservative, Mississauga South, ON]

Yes, and I know it's something that the minister's interested in.

Is Equal Voice one of those groups that Status of Women Canada is working with?

[Linda Savoie]

Yes, we've worked with Equal Voice on numerous files over time. They always bring some very solid expertise to the table.

[Stella Ambler, Conservative, Mississauga South, ON]

Yes, they're very knowledgeable.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Young, you have five minutes.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to give my time to Madam Young, if that's agreeable.

Thank you.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

Thank you, Cousin Young.

It's me again. Sorry about that. It's just because we kind of got cut off a little earlier, so I do appreciate my colleague sharing his time.

We talked a little bit earlier about capturing programs and services that support women, and children and youth, obviously, in the different departments. But I want to just touch a bit about international work as well, as some of my colleagues have here.

I was very fortunate in that I was able to travel to Cambodia a couple of years ago and see one of the maternal and child health clinics that our government is funding under the Prime Minister's maternal and child health initiative that he did with the G-7 in 2009, I believe it was. That, as you know, is a $2-billion project and program with international funding. It's specifically targeted to women and children, and we all know that it's saving something like 6.6 million lives around the world. So there's that.

The second component of this is the human trafficking national action plan, which was headed up by one of our members of Parliament, Joy Smith, and outlines our plan internationally as well to work with and support women—mainly women, obviously—who are being trafficked. It was heartbreaking, but I also had the ability to go and see some of those programs that were funded through World Vision in Thailand and in India just recently, with the Governor General as a matter of fact.

I also wanted to talk to you about the fact that we are currently in the middle of doing a study, obviously, as was mentioned previously, on the economic prosperity and leadership of women. Under that we had somebody come in from the federal Business Development Bank who said that they also had a program helping women get set up to do business, whether it was a small business or a medium business, etc. So there again, there was another program specifically targeted for women.

Of course we all know about the International Day of the Girl that Minister Rona Ambrose developed and led internationally with the United Nations and the impact that is obviously, hopefully, having around the world.

So I guess my question to you good people is how are we capturing those international, really important, significantly impactful programs that this country, our government, is leading, and not just in Canada because some of these programs, obviously, are happening here too. We have the human trafficking one, for example. We have actually, as you know, busted groups and people who were trafficking, and there's a lot of work happening in that area.

So how are you capturing those things, and how is it that we can then learn from that?

Thank you.

[Daniel Sansfaçon]

In a sense, again coming back to what Linda was saying earlier about the very broad and horizontal mandate of Status of Women Canada, we don't as Status of Women Canada capture this information specifically. However we will be made informed by the relevant departments, whether it be the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development, whether it be specifically—I forget how it's called now—the development agency, or indeed in other cases, Citizenship and Immigration, Public Safety Canada, or through the RCMP working internationally in the case of human trafficking.

So we will be made informed, if you will, of these initiatives but not necessarily about specific project funding, these being their direct responsibilities.

[Linda Savoie]

I'd add that within the federal family the information is often shared through interdepartmental working groups. A number of the subject matters that you've mentioned just now have some interdepartmental working groups that specifically focus on that given issue. For instance, there is one of these working groups on forced marriage. There's one on human trafficking.

[A voice]

That's right.

[Linda Savoie]

Those become a place for the exchange of knowledge and information and ensuring complementarity of effort. We tend to take an issue-based approach, get the players around the table who should be discussing the issue, and share knowledge then.

I hope that is somewhat helpful.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, do I have more time or...?

Thank you very much for that.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Ms. Savoie, Mr. Sansfaçon, Madam Lapointe, thank you very much for having taken part in this meeting and for having answered our questions.

I would now like the attention of all the members of the committee, as we will be voting on items 1 and 5 under the heading “Office of the Co-ordinator, Status of Women”, and there is something important that must be understood about those items. Since the fiscal year begins April 1 and the budget is voted on in the month of June, there are always provisional votes that are adopted so that the government machine can function. That is why following the meeting we just held, we are going to vote on vote number 1 under the heading “Office of the Co-ordinator, Status of Women”, minus the amount granted in Interim Supply.

OFFICE OF THE CO-ORDINATOR, STATUS OF WOMEN

Vote 1 — Operating expenditures and the payment to each member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada who is a Minister without Portfolio or a Minister of State........... $9,370,497

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Shall vote 1 carry?

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

I'm sorry, but where are you getting this?

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

What has happened is that we've just heard the officials and the minister on the main estimates, so I'm asking for the vote.

Ms. Truppe, there is no document properly speaking; we are simply going to vote on the amounts allocated to the Office of the Co-ordinator of the Status of Women.

Maybe I can give you the information just briefly. We've just studied the budget of the main estimates, and usually as a protocol we would vote on those credits. Okay?

Shall vote 1 under the heading “Office of the Co-ordinator, Status of Women”, less the amount granted in Interim Supply, carry? I would like you to express yourselves clearly.

(Vote 1 carries)

Vote 5 — Grants listed in the Estimates and Contributions......... $19,033,333

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Shall vote 5 under the heading “Office of the Co-ordinator, Status of Women”, less the amount granted in Interim Supply carry?

(Vote 5 carries)

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

The vote is clear. Thank you.

Shall the chair report the main estimates 2014-2015 to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

That is crystal clear.

Our next meeting will take place on Wednesday, April 30, 2014, in room 228 of the Promenade building. We will then continue our study on the economic leadership and prosperity of Canadian women.

The committee is adjourned.