Status of Women Committee on May 24th, 2018

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

A report tabled by the Our Turn organization showed that many universities have policies in place to fight sexual assaults on campus, but that some of them, such as Concordia, have significant gaps. Some universities, despite adopting a policy, seem to work against the victims, in a way. In certain cases they even may blame them.

Could the federal government clamp down on those universities?

[Nancy Gardiner]

As I said, the focus of this work, with the money that was allotted through the budget, is to develop a strategy and a framework that would respond to the needs of students on campus and to allow organizations, universities, and college campuses to have the tools that they need to be able to respond to some of the issues that they have been presented.

We're familiar with the work that has been done by Our Turn. There has been a lot of great work by that organization as well as others, including the provinces, that outline some of the things that need to be put in place. It's not a holistic framework that we would like to see across the country. We wouldn't work independently to have that completed; we would work with our partners to allow us to do that.

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

Earlier I discussed the funding needed by women's community organizations in order to operate. These organizations have to face many administrative difficulties. Women's groups say that it is not easy to obtain funding because they must, among other things, bid on calls for tender.

The core funding is used to hire personnel, pay the rent, do renovations, help alleviate the shortage of spaces in shelters to reduce wait times, and so on. We met with representatives of the CALACS La Vigie, which is in Sallaberry-de-Valleyfield, in the Montérégie area. In an area that encompasses five RCMs, that organization is the only one that provides help to women who are victims of violence or sexual assault. At this time, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, all of the women who turn to this organization are faced with six-month wait times, because there are only four women who provide this service.

Would it be possible to guarantee that these groups would no longer have to bid on calls for tender in order to be able to fulfil their basic mission?

[Nancy Gardiner]

I completely appreciate where you're coming from in terms of having worked with not-for-profit organizations on the ground for many, many years, and I definitely have heard the issues around the administrative burden that organizations sometimes face when they are applying for projects within federal, provincial, and territorial governments.

The goal that we have now is to make that process as simple as possible, while maintaining the integrity and the controls that need to be put in place. Realistically, we want to make it simple for those organizations to not waste the very limited resources that they have to work with the women on the ground, who need their help, but rather to focus really on that work and not on the administration.

The streamlining of the process, the application itself, and enabling them to not have to submit an application that's going to be 30 pages long, but a simple—

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

My question is about the basic mission, and not necessarily about funding for projects.

Could these organizations be given funding to accomplish their basic mission, without having to submit bids?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have about 15 seconds.

[Nancy Gardiner]

The question raised earlier is basically around that. Is this funding related to the sustainability and capacity of those organizations? Yes, that's the type of funding that will be available to them, through a process. There will be a process where they actually submit an application but we're hoping it will be a very streamlined application.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Excellent. Thank you very much.

We're now going to move on to Eva Nassif, for your seven minutes.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank the witnesses who have come to talk to us about the work they do.

From one year to the next, we see that there is an increase in grants and contributions related to the activities of Status of Women Canada. Does this cover the increase in the operational costs of Status of Women Canada, or does it allow Status of Women Canada to fund more projects?

Is the increase due to an increase in expenses, or will it be used to fund more projects?

[Nancy Gardiner]

The additional support money that was provided through budget 2018 is essentially a doubling of the amount available in grants and contributions dollars to organizations. We have approximately $20 million now. The budget announced $100 million over five years to enable us to provide that support to organizations. There is a small operating cost that the agency takes to allow us to continue our operations but the vast majority of that money would go to the organizations. Essentially it would enable us to potentially double the number of organizations that could access funding.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you.

I'd like us to discuss the increase in operational expenses as compared to the ones from last year. There should be an announcement that Status of Women Canada will become a full-fledged department.

In light of the government's commitment to this, can you tell us how this change will affect Status of Women Canada's ability to fulfil its mandate? May we expect a more diversified portfolio of projects?

[Nancy Gardiner]

It's a very exciting time for Status of Women Canada. I have not been with SWC very long but I would have to say that our ability to become a full department provides us with the stability and the support we need to operate as a full department. Having staff available to work with organizations that require support, having a full minister and a full deputy minister, and playing that interlocutor role with other departments, all are quite critical. I think that really puts Status of Women Canada in a good position to continue working on the ground with organizations that need our support.

At this point, we feel very strongly that this is a very positive opportunity for Status of Women Canada.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

We see an increase in the number of positions. They will increase from 99 to 214 in 2019-20. The number of employees will more than double.

[Anik Lapointe, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director, Corporate Services, Office of the Co-ordinator, Status of Women]

Yes.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

In the 2018 budget allocations, an amount of $1.9 million is earmarked for a national conversation on gender equality with young Canadians.

Can you tell the committee how this will be done? I'd like you to tell us about the objective of this conversation and how this project will be managed nationally.

[Nancy Gardiner]

There are a couple of points in your question.

You are correct in terms of the additional resources for Status of Women. It will increase the capacity of the organization to enable us, as I said earlier, to work with organizations and to provide the support that's required to other departments. Having more resources going to organizations also requires resources with Status of Women to support them on the ground. We would like to play a role of enabling and working with organizations to allow them to connect with other partners, to connect with other funding sources. For us to be able to do that requires additional resources, so we're happy about that.

With regard to the consultation processes you mentioned, we talked about men and boys earlier, and we talked about GBA+. We're also talking about the youth round table as well. It's another engagement process that will enable us to bring young people together. Work is under way to finalize details of what that would look like. The goal is to bring young people from across the country together to understand some of the issues they've been dealing with, to allow them to discuss amongst themselves how the work that we do could help advance the work they see as important for status of women and for gender equality.

As I said, the details of that exact project and that round table are in the works, in terms of being finalized and developed.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

You want to involve all of the educational systems of the provinces and territories. So this approach could be national, and could include the provinces, since education, that of boys and young men in this case, is provided in schools. Since we are talking about an area of provincial jurisdiction, there will surely be discussions with the provinces and territories, correct?

[Nancy Gardiner]

As the minister said, there's a forum of ministers for Status of Women. She met with them in October of last year, and she will be meeting in October of this coming year as well.

We're working closely in partnership with the provinces and territories on issues that impact both of us. Not at the political level but at the bureaucratic level, there are also working groups that enable us to advance some of those working projects, including things like funding for organizations. It's an issue that the provinces face as well. As you mentioned, some of the things we are talking about impact younger folks who are in the school systems.

Really, it's a requirement to work together with the provinces and territories, because there is some really keen interest in both parties to partner on a lot of these pieces of work.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have about ten seconds.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

I sincerely thank you for the work that you do.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

Now we're going to move on to round two. We are starting off with our five-minute round.

We'll go to Rachel Harder, for five minutes.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

The current government has been criticized by the Parliamentary Budget Officer with regard to a slush fund it has created. It's a slush fund of $7 billion that the Liberals want us to approve in vote 40.

Now, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has raised some concerns with this, because it removes power from the elected House. Normally something like this spending would go through full scrutiny. As parliamentarians, we would have an opportunity to speak to it and to understand exactly where that spending is going. Measures would be put in place in order to measure whether or not the intended purposes are being met.

However, because the $7 billion is simply being put aside in this nice little pot full of cash for this government to use however and whenever they want, it could be used for, let's say, a limo ride or an India trip or a private island vacation. These are things we've seen before, so we could certainly see more of them in the future.

Accountability is an essential thing. I'm wondering if you can help me understand vote 40 and make sense of it. Your department is being allocated $24 million for the 2018-19 fiscal year. I'm wondering if you can tell me what specific programs are being funded.

[Anik Lapointe]

We have $10 million for the enhancement of the women's program to support a strong sustainable women's movement. We have $5.5 million to expand the gender-based violence program under the strategy to prevent and address gender-based violence. We have $500,000 to establish a national framework to address gender-based violence at post-secondary institutions. We have $1.9 million to lead a national conversation on gender equality with young Canadians and to host a round table on gender-based analysis plus. There is $855,000 to develop an engagement strategy for men and boys that promotes gender equality. Finally, we have $5 million to implement an evidence-based policy approach to advancing gender equality, guided by the gender results framework.

We cannot spend the money on other things than that.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

. To my colleague's point earlier, are there metrics being put in place in terms of whether or not these goals or objectives are being met, and if so, what are those metrics?

[Anik Lapointe]

These amounts have to go through the Treasury Board approval process and with each Treasury Board submission there is an annex for the gender results and a commitment from the deputy minister to achieve the results that are set.