Status of Women Committee on April 28th, 2014

[Linda Savoie, Acting Head of Agency, Status of Women Canada]

I'll start and I may let my colleague speak a little on another aspect of this.

Of course, being small, we tend to draw from the expertise of the larger departments that have the depth of knowledge on any given issue. For instance, we're very focused on entrepreneurship right now and we have the luxury of having some very solid colleagues within the federal family. We have departments like Industry Canada, for instance, that have a depth of knowledge that we could never aspire to, that are always willing to share their experience and their tools and their knowledge with us. We have an excellent working relationship with a number of departments that provide some expert subject-matter knowledge to us and we use that same network to share information about project proposals when we're developing a theme for calls for proposals, for instance. We consult with them to make sure we take into consideration the type of knowledge they have acquired over time.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

Thank you. Because we do always have a shortage of time, may I just break in for a second?

Can you go across the government, then, and compile a report for us that specifically identifies which programs and in what areas there are specific program or funding expenditures for women? Can we ask for that?

For example, I know that in Employment Canada they have so many programs specifically targeted towards women. Also, as you said, Industry Canada probably has a number, and Health has a number, and Public Safety probably has a number for victims and to support women in situations of violence. Can you capture that for us, please?

[Linda Savoie]

We do not typically do that, and I'm not sure about the level of resources that would be required for that. Typically the way our structure works is that each department is responsible for examining itself with regard to gender diversity to make sure its programs hit the mark. So instead of our department compiling...we tend to be its conscience.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

I understand that, but as a standing committee member, I'm often asked to speak to the public. If I say that our program funding for women is $43 million, that is obviously not real, because in all these other departments across Canada, the Canadian government also has many other programs as well as funding targeted towards women.

I know this request is a little unusual, and perhaps that's something you could take back to your department and provide to us, because I think that would be very interesting for all of our colleagues and in fact for all of the women across Canada.

[Linda Savoie]

So you're talking about women-specific programs across the federal family—

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

Exactly.

[Linda Savoie]

—under the economic pillar?

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

Well, no, I mean everything. We talked a lot about violence against women. I think you need to explore the public safety and crime prevention programs and all of those sorts of things. I was sitting on that standing committee as well, and we provide a number of programs and services specifically for women there.

I think my point has been made, so thank you very much for that.

I was just curious, because I didn't know if you captured that information and why you wouldn't. Why wouldn't we be capturing that information? If we're going to say we support women's programs and funding, we need to be capturing that across the spectrum, particularly in these key target areas that we have identified such as violence, health, business and entrepreneurship, and jobs and skills training, which we're also looking for.

Can you share with us, then—because we haven't talked about it for a while—how the implementation of gender-based analysis is going and what is happening in that whole area right now?

[Daniel Sansfaçon, Director General, Policy and External Relations, Status of Women Canada]

Thank you for the question. I would say that, in fact, this is not unrelated to your previous question about women-specific funding across the federal government. In fact, just let me give you a tiny example where it might be a bit difficult to do exactly this, which would be addressing violence.

For example, you mentioned Public Safety's national crime prevention strategy. They will obviously fund projects that intervene with girls as well as boys, men as well as women, so it would be very difficult in many regards to try to distinguish where the specific funding goes, whether it's actually specific to women or not.

That said, in regard to the gender-based analysis across the federal government, as you will remember, there was a 2009 action plan. Status of Women Canada fundamentally plays a capacity-building role. We are knowledge brokers. We help departments develop the capacity. It's fair to say that over the years of implementing this action plan we've seen good and positive results across the board, whether it be in the health sector, for example, or more recently in the science and technology sectors.

Clearly, gradually through the various initiatives undertaken by Status of Women Canada we do see successes being achieved across the federal government.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

So are you saying then that in fact there have been huge strides taken, however, we don't capture it in quite that way, and therefore we don't have the information or statistics on many of these different areas?

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

I will let you answer briefly, Mr. Sansfaçon.

[Daniel Sansfaçon]

Departments do submit their annual reports as part of the action plan to Status of Women Canada, but it is fair to say that there is no requirement, as it were, to capture information across the federal government on the implementation of gender-based analysis. But we do work very closely with departments to provide the expertise, support, and tools that will help them implement gender-based analysis.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very munch.

Concerning Ms. Young's request, Mr. Sansfaçon has clearly explained the difficulty of separating out all of the programs that affect the status of women. A document was also referred to. We will see if that is possible. Perhaps certain initiatives could be listed, depending on available resources.

Thank you.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

So my time is up then?

Thank you very much for that, I appreciate it.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Ms. Ashton, you have the floor for seven minutes.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Thank you very much, and thank you for joining us today.

I want to follow up on our question to the minister about the obvious failure rate of Status of Women to support indigenous women's organizations in terms of funding. In mentioning two out of 62 organizations in the case of the 2012 call for proposals, that's a 3% success rate. I'm not sure any organization would call that doing enough. I'm alarmed that the minister seemed to coast over it.

With a 3% success rate when working with a vulnerable population, indigenous women, in the area of violence where we know they're disproportionately impacted, I'm wondering if Status of Women is doing anything. I remember a few weeks ago there was talk around outreach and communication with applicants, but clearly there's obviously more to be done specifically around criteria and applications.

Is the full gamut being explored here and what is Status of Women doing to increase what is a failure, at 3%, to support the most vulnerable women in Canada when it comes to ending the violence that they face?

[Linda Savoie]

Thank you for that question.

That call for proposals with the low number of indigenous projects that was approved was an anomaly. Year over year we tend to invest at least 15% of our funds in aboriginal projects and if you look at the long-term trends...because as I mentioned at my last appearance, we don't tend to work call by call. We look at the trends over two years, three years, and even longer to identify some issues and challenges that need to be addressed. So that being said, this was an anomaly but it's a serious anomaly and we're taking it seriously.

Yes, we are looking at issues such as the criteria. The very early discussions we've had with aboriginal groups that were not successful and those that have been successful are showing us certain trends. First-time applicants, whether aboriginal or non-aboriginal, are not as successful as applicants who are coming to us for a second or a third attempt.

What we are going to be determining now is whether we had more new applicants in that aboriginal group that was unsuccessful in that specific call. So there are trends and we're keeping a close eye on it. We take it seriously. I'm confident that when we're looking at this over the last two or three violence calls and the next violence calls, we will be correcting this, because I have every indication that the minister is also taking this very seriously.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

We certainly hope so, and we look forward to watching how this progresses.

I want to quickly touch on a stated priority by the minister in her speech on the issue of early and forced marriage. It's our understanding that Canada's financial commitment.... There has been a lot of rhetoric at the international level. In terms of putting money where our mouth is, as a country, it's our understanding that money has been directed—in terms of international players—to UNICEF, rather than UNFPA.

One of the questions is whether this is because UNFPA invests its funds into reproductive services, including access to abortion, which is a very much-needed service for girls and young women who are forced into marriage, and obviously forced to become pregnant.

I'm wondering if you could speak to why Canada's money is going to UNICEF rather than UNFPA. If it's not possible to share that answer right now, would it be possible to provide that answer in writing?

[Linda Savoie]

I can give you an answer right away. It's not an issue that I could speak to because we are not a player in terms of international funding. The relevant department would probably be DFATD, Foreign Affairs.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

I appreciate that. It's a sign of, perhaps, the disconnect, that the minister considers this an important issue, yet it's not her department that's actually funding solutions on the ground.

Quickly turning to gender-based analysis, the 2014-15 report on plans and priorities for the Status of Women states:

SWC leads in building capacity across government for the integration of Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+), an analytical approach used to assess the potential impacts of policies, programs or legislation on diverse groups of women and men.

I'm wondering what the results have been of this plan. Will we find the same priorities in this new plan in regard to the implementation of GBA? What level of funding has been invested in each priority area to date?

If we don't have enough time to get to these three questions, would it be possible to answer whatever remains in writing?

[Daniel Sansfaçon]

As I mentioned earlier, Status of Women Canada provides support to departments. It provides support, in particular, by engaging senior management. For example, we make presentations at management tables across departments and in the past year in particular, we have, for example, organized a boot camp for various departments involved in specific sectors, as well as organized specific events in the science and technology sector in November 2013.

These are examples of the progress that is being made across federal departments in implementing gender-based analysis. With regard to your question about the level of investments, did you mean within Status of Women Canada?

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

I'm guessing these boot camps and these kinds of events require funding. I'm wondering what kind of funding is being put toward realizing the commitment to GBA+.

[Daniel Sansfaçon]

Within Status of Women Canada, relative to our budget in this directorate, it's approximately 4.5 FTEs and about $400,000 that we invest of our proper funds to support the implementation of gender-based analysis federally.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

To follow up on that, could you share with us how many departments took part in your events that you organized, and what are the gaps that remain in implementing this level of analysis?

[Daniel Sansfaçon]

I don't have the exact number of departments that did attend. I think it was 12 or 13 that attended the boot camp. I forget, again, the specific number of departments that attended the science and technology event in November, but I could certainly provide this information.