I don't have any thing else.
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.
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.
5:05 p.m.
Associate Professor, Adult Education, University of Regina and President Elect, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), As an Individual
I don't have any thing else.
5:05 p.m.
As an Individual
I was saying it has to be an effort that's based on the different paths that orientation needs in each and every department, because those are the basic tools you need. It's not one-size-fits-all. I think that's important. You need the leadership, and you need training, but it's design training to be very specific. The people build their capacity and their comfort levels because that's important.
5:05 p.m.
Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Political Science, Radboud University, As an Individual
I agree with what the other speakers are saying. I did mention in my contribution that setting up gender leads, and then putting them in strategic places through a department, is of one of the ways you can have a phased-in stage before it is completely mandatory. You regularize contact between experts and people doing normal implementation.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Marilyn Gladu
Very good.
We have time for one more round of questions from each party, so we'll start with Ms. Damoff.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
We've covered so much with all of you.
I only have a few minutes, so I want to go back to reporting. We get the Auditor General's report, who has come back and said that it's not being done well, except by the immigration department. We've also had departments come in and say that things are going great. I'm not saying they aren't doing some good things, but there seem to be inconsistencies. In terms of reporting, I had mentioned going to committee, but are there some effective ways to ensure there's consistent reporting done by the department, so that we can make comparisons?
Dr. Hankivsy.
5:05 p.m.
Professor, School of Public Policy, Simon Fraser University, As an Individual
I think there are some resources one can look at as inspiration for the Canadian context. The UN has a swap system that is a basis for all UN agencies to report on how they're advancing gender equality. It's a fairly new mechanism, but it's done wonders in allowing comparisons to be made across different agencies as to how well they're doing. Looking at something like that as a model to tailor for the Canadian context has some potential.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Does anyone else have any suggestions?
I'm going to share my time with Ms. Vandenbeld.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
I want to follow up on Mr. Damoff's question about reporting to Parliament and doing it in the way that we do the estimates, where each of the line committees for the departments would have to review the gender-based analysis that a department has done.
Dr. Rowan-Campbell, one of the things you suggested in the 2005 report was that there be an officer of Parliament specifically for GBA. Is that something that anybody on the panel wants to comment on?
I'll start with you, Dorienne, or anybody else who wants to comment on the usefulness of that kind of model.
5:10 p.m.
As an Individual
I still think it would be useful, because you would have to have someone who has competence in the area, which would help to guide quite a lot of what goes on. I would also have to be someone who would structure the way responses would be made, and who would have oversight, and who would be able to work in partnership with the committee. That's important. I think something like that is needed.
5:10 p.m.
Associate Professor, Adult Education, University of Regina and President Elect, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), As an Individual
I concur, and I don't know the language. Part of it is not understanding the language of officer and ombudsmen, and how those differ in practice. Yes, some kind of oversight would be helpful.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Dr. Cavaghan, in your upcoming publication you compare a successful case of gender mainstreaming with one where gender mainstreaming had less success. What were the main differences in the two cases that led one to be successful and one to fail?
5:10 p.m.
Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Political Science, Radboud University, As an Individual
You could see specific mechanisms through which gender mainstreaming was circumvented. But in terms of the characteristics of the subdepartments within DG Research, it was noticeable that the successful department was already used to trying to corral and administer policy aims that might compete. They were firmly fixed with a complex policy agenda, whereas the subdepartment, which strongly contested and resisted gender mainstreaming, was used to having a narrow focus and had difficulty coping with any kind of internal conflict or learning. They'd had a stable aim with their policy for the best part of 20 years. When you looked at implementation documents that had been created explaining how gender was relevant within that subdepartment, management produced documents explicitly undermining those, saying that gender was not relevant and that their mainstream aims were what was relevant.
I think this is one of the reasons why I emphasized resistance as a problem in gender mainstreaming. You do have politicians and civil servants who want to undermine policy and will take actions to do so.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
One of the things that came up when we had someone from Immigration here was the need for champions and capacity within the department to be able to implement GBA.
Would any of you like to comment on how you ensure that you do have the capacity and champions within each department? If we were to mandate it, how do you make sure that follow-up happens, as well?
5:10 p.m.
Professor, School of Public Policy, Simon Fraser University, As an Individual
It's about resources, really. Resources, the time to do the work well, and also making sure that the people who are appointed to those focal points, the champions, actually know what they're doing. It should not a case that somebody is appointed who hasn't had the proper background, training, or ongoing support.
5:10 p.m.
A voice
I think—
5:10 p.m.
Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Political Science, Radboud University, As an Individual
I was going to say that I think it's also important to ensure—and this point was made by one of the experts you have in the room with you now—that doing gender mainstreaming well isn't a career killer. Within particular parts of the European Commission, it is. People will do gender mainstreaming for a couple of years, and then say, “I've cost myself enough credibility here. I'm moving on to something else.”
As one of your contributors in the room said, if you're involved in gender mainstreaming you have to make sure that it's high status, that it's going to get you somewhere, and that it's going to be recognized as a positive-expertise valuable change.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Marilyn Gladu
Excellent.
That's your time.
We're going over to Mr. Kmiec for seven minutes.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
