Evidence of meeting #106 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was data.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
I have no statistical data on that.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
I have no data on that.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Do men who say that they're not informed still say that they vote anyway? Is that data available to us?
Survey Manager, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
It was asked of people who did not vote. This was given as one of the reasons they did not vote. It was only asked of the population who did not vote in the last federal election.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Salaberry—Suroît, QC
Have you done any studies to compare Canada's situation to that in other countries? I know that the survey is conducted only domestically, in Canada, but have you done any comparative analyses?
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
We have not done any international analyses, but I know that Statistics Canada is often asked to provide data in the context of the G7. We don't have the data on hand, but Statistics Canada provides data to facilitate the comparison with other countries, when data is collected in its surveys.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Salaberry—Suroît, QC
Okay.
Do you have data on francophone women and anglophone women who go into politics?
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Yes, we can provide you with that information.
Questions on official languages are different. For instance, there are questions on what the most spoken language is, the language spoken at home and the ability to conduct a conversation.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Salaberry—Suroît, QC
Okay.
Those questions do not focus on finding out whether women are getting involved in politics, but whether they speak French or English. Is that right?
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Everything we have provided today can be looked at according to the ability to conduct a conversation in English or in French, or the mother tongue.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Salaberry—Suroît, QC
Okay.
A lot has been said about reasons why women abstain from voting, but what makes women vote? What motivates them to vote?
Survey Manager, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
There is no information on that.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Salaberry—Suroît, QC
Okay.
In the table, the first information square provides the percentage of women who are senior government officials or legislators. Are there any questions on the number of women who run for a second term as officials or legislators?
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
No, I am sorry.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Salaberry—Suroît, QC
Okay.
Are there other questions that provide details on women's involvement in administration? Are they attracted to any particular positions?
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Based on the census, I think we can have a more in-depth analysis. However, that is not our area of expertise, but we can see what is available.
Are you interested in any specific questions?
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Salaberry—Suroît, QC
I am really interested in the positions.
Do any particular positions attract women more in administration?
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Are you talking about administration in the health and education fields, and so on?
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Salaberry—Suroît, QC
We could be talking about certain areas of activity, but also within boards of directors. I am thinking of various positions, such as chair, vice-chair or any other position.
Assistant Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
We are actually focusing specifically on women in leadership positions. We try to cross-reference against data on the administrative field. We cannot give an exact answer to that question right now, but we hope to be able to do so soon. It may not be this year.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
I'm going to have to cut it down because we do have to start on our next panel. There is a list, and I have nine down here. The clerk looks forward to working with you because I know there have been a lot of asks. We can look at this data, aggregate it, and check everything out.
I would like to thank Statistics Canada for coming today. We look forward to working with you and getting all of your information.
We will suspend for about a few minutes as we change our panels. Thank you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
This is the 106th meeting of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
I would like to welcome the Office of the Co-ordinator of Status of Women as we study barriers facing women in politics.
Nancy Gardiner, Justine Akman, Selena Beattie, Riri Shen, and Joshua Bath, thank you very much for joining us today.
I am going to pass the floor over to Ms. Akman for her opening statement.