Thank you very much. I promise that I practised my speech and timed it, and it was just five minutes exactly. But one never knows what happens when you're live.
I would like to thank all the members of the committee for the opportunity to appear today.
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the implementation of gender-based analysis at Employment and Social Development Canada as well as the recent report of the Auditor General on government-wide implementation of gender-based analysis.
To set the stage, the GBA framework has been used by policy-makers at ESDC since 1995 to take into consideration gender issues, with the intention of ensuring that social, economic, and gender differences are identified and that these are addressed throughout the development and implementation of policies and programs.
ESDC is a department that delivers programs that touch Canadians directly throughout their lives. For us, gender-based analysis is an important tool in understanding the impact of our programs on people. It provides a structured approach to assess whether proposed policies and programs will further the overall commitment to achieve fairness and equity for all Canadians, particularly with respect to gender considerations. As a department that delivers programs that touch individuals, ESDC is very much focused on issues related to gender equity.
I would like to outline a little the way ESDC conducts our GBA, give you an example of policy design that specifically responded to gender issues, and indicate how the department will be moving forward on the broad continued implementation of the framework.
ESDC has put in place a gender-based analysis policy, has established a community of practice and a centre of expertise to support the inclusion of adequate GBA+ in the policy development process.
The centre provides tools to conduct the analysis, including a list of key questions and checklists. We provide a training manual on GBA+ and a guide to developing the analysis. The centre organizes GBA+ awareness activities throughout the department. GBA is also considered as part of regular program evaluation and in the research that the department conducts on such issues as the Canadian labour market, skills and training, labour force participation rates across varied populations, and service delivery, just to name a few of the areas of research.
Program and policy areas are accountable for ensuring that GBA+ considerations have been integrated into and are fully addressed within their mandates as part of the development and implementation of their initiatives.
I would like to give you an example of how GBA was used to advance policy development on a specific program.
In 2010 the department was developing an aboriginal skills and employment training strategy. We worked closely with federal colleagues at INAC as well as with the Native Women's Association of Canada in order to focus on ensuring that the strategy could address, among other things, the economic development challenges faced by aboriginal women.
As a result of these engagements, requirements to monitor outcomes for women were integrated into the plan, and specific gender reporting was put in place. This has allowed projects to tailor specific streams to address participation rates of aboriginal women in key fields such as oil and gas, shipbuilding, and mining, fields in which participation rates for aboriginal women are much higher than they are for the general population and stand at 27%.
I think that is a demonstration of how gender-based analysis has factored into policy development.
More recently, GBA+ was used to understand how gender affects the incidence of low income in senior populations. The analysis showed that low-income seniors are disproportionately female, single, and living in large urban areas. Recently, budget 2016 announced increases to the guaranteed income supplement for single seniors. That is aimed specifically at people in low income, obviously, many of whom are women who live alone. The analysis found that more than two-thirds of those who will benefit from this increase are women.
Some barriers to full implementation remain, as we have seen from the report of the Auditor General. In the case of ESDC, tight timelines are often an issue that we grapple with as we're developing and implementing initiatives. However, we remain committed to following the guidelines, and policy-makers in the department continue to learn and develop best practices to fully implement the policy in the context of our programs, our legislation, and our service delivery processes.
On a go-forward basis, as part of our efforts to strengthen our function, last August we presented a plan to our corporate management committee to promote a deeper awareness of the policy, to ensure that roles and responsibilities were clear, to require mandatory GBA+ training for analysts, to update guides and manuals, and to establish a network across the department.
Since that time, we have made progress. The GBA+ network was established and, between October 2015 and March 2016, 23 employees completed the GBA+ training on the SWC website.
To sum up, I think the report of the Auditor General offers us an opportunity to consider how we can strengthen our processes, and it has also given us an opportunity to reconfirm areas in which we're strong in the use of the policy. We look forward to working with Status of Women Canada, the PCO, and Treasury Board to broaden the use of GBA and deepen our understanding of its impact on our programs and policies.
I'd be pleased to answer any questions.
Merci.
