Evidence of meeting #14 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 gba.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Marilyn Gladu
We will go over to my Conservative colleagues. Mrs. Vecchio, you have seven minutes.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
The part I was here for was very interesting. You made a comment about making it mandatory. I am going back to what Anita started speaking about as well.
The AG came out indicating that making it mandatory would probably be the best way of making this work for the cause, yet when Status of Women was here, it was saying it wasn't enough. I understand the leadership is there as well, but we all need to be accountable.
What would you suggest, other than the PMO? Can you give us some more insight as to how we can make this work?
Associate Professor, Adult Education, University of Regina and President Elect, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), As an Individual
First of all, the supports and resources have to be put in place. There have to be accountability mechanisms in place. Status of Women has to have more power or resources in order to oversee the process. It has to be a process where there isn't a different GBA, or whatever it is called, for each department. That is also problematic.
Before it can become mandatory, if it should, there are a whole bunch of supports, resources, and pieces that need to be put in place.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Do you believe that the current resources, tools, and guides provided by Status of Women to these departments are good enough? How should they be improved?
Associate Professor, Adult Education, University of Regina and President Elect, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), As an Individual
I think I spoke to some of that in terms of the lack of follow-up and the way training is currently done in a technical, rational approach. I think there are a whole bunch of things that need to be done in terms of the resources as they exist now. It is also problematic because it is not just Status of Women that is producing resources.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Absolutely. That's fine.
As you were all speaking, one thing I have noticed is that women are all very different. As you indicated, women versus women, women versus men—not “versus”, of course; that is not what I am trying to imply here.... What are some of the challenges you have? What are some of those things?
How can you look at that data when.... Speaking for myself, a young woman, 45, from rural Ontario, how do you compare me with somebody who is living downtown in B.C. and has never lived on a farm? How do you find...? How would you be able to use that kind of information and get details, when you are dealing with two very different upbringings, or a new immigrant to Canada? How are you going to sit there and be able to recognize...? How can we get the proper tools to make sure that we are evaluating this efficiently and properly?
Professor, School of Public Policy, Simon Fraser University, As an Individual
There are three issues here. One is what data is available: looking at how data is being collected in this country at all the different levels, and making sure there is enough data to be able to do those disaggregations beyond just sex and gender; and looking at the relationship between other kinds of factors.
The other thing, frankly, that needs to be done is looking at the tools and guidelines that are there, to see that they explicitly get analysts to think about making those kinds of comparisons.
Third, I would say that, although I am a big fan of quantitative data and statistics, because I know they move people, we really need to make an explicit role here for qualitative research and civil society engagement. That is where you are going to get other kinds of valuable evidence and knowledge in order to inform that kind of work.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Absolutely.
Are there any comments from the ladies who are with us via teleconference?
As an Individual
I would just like to suggest that one research area that could be supported and needs more money is to get that qualitative research that will give some direction to larger research. It will give you information that you maybe haven't been able to get from that woman in rural Ontario or in downtown B.C.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Yes, absolutely. Thank you very much.
Do you think this is the type of information that we should be putting on things like censuses, or doing specific StatsCan information on?
Professor, School of Public Policy, Simon Fraser University, As an Individual
That would be a dream.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Well, no, I just need your real opinions, although a dream is fantastic.
Do you have other ideas on how we can get this going, other than just through StatsCan?
Associate Professor, Adult Education, University of Regina and President Elect, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), As an Individual
Status of Women Canada used to fund research. One of the things I'm saying is that this research funding should be reinstated. It's valuable. The study we did with women on social assistance was only done because of that.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Okay. Fantastic.
What human, financial, and other resources are required for conducting complete GBA? What are the challenges in gaining access to the necessary resources for properly conducting a GBA? Please be frank and point forward on this one.
Professor, School of Public Policy, Simon Fraser University, As an Individual
Without knowing what the existing budget is, that's kind of a theoretical question, but I think any of us would probably say that Status as a federal department has been woefully under-resourced. It's been set up to fail. It cannot do the work you're asking it to do with the resources it has. It's a structural failure.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
So you're saying more funding to create a bigger resource is exactly what we need, then. It's about dollars.
Professor, School of Public Policy, Simon Fraser University, As an Individual
Not only within Status, but within each of the federal departments as well.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Okay.
When we're looking at spending money, I recognize you're saying that we don't know exactly, so this may not be what you would be able to speak on, but do you have a ballpark on what we would need to do? There are about 113 agencies we'd be looking at. What kind of dollar figure would we be looking at, not only for the increase with Status of Women but for those departments as well?
Professor, School of Public Policy, Simon Fraser University, As an Individual
I'm a researcher, so I don't think I could answer that without researching it more.
As an Individual
I can't give a dollar figure, but we might want to think about the levels of expertise that we need to pay for to get this done. That might be one way of going about it, because if you get people who don't have a lot of experience, it won't work.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Fantastic.
Looking at the fact that this is quite a diverse panel as well—as I said, I missed the first few minutes—is there a scenario that's working internationally that you would suggest we look at as a role model? Is there a country that is doing it well that we should be studying and asking how we can take what they're doing and template it for Canada?
Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Political Science, Radboud University, As an Individual
If I can jump in here, I think within the European Union there was a high point in gender mainstreaming. It's now falling off the agenda. Certainly the Scandinavian countries do provide examples of very well-conceptualized policies, but there are always implementation problems. You always have resistance to this policy. It's almost a stereotype to say, but I do think looking at Scandinavian countries is possibly helpful.
There are probably pockets within Canada of agencies that do it quite well. Your three scholars speaking here probably have more expertise, but I would say that looking for departments who do it particularly well would be a good place to start.
Conservative