Status of Women Committee on Feb. 23rd, 2016

[Meena Ballantyne, Head of Agency, Status of Women Canada]

Are you talking about the It Starts With One program?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

This was a mentorship program...?

I'm sorry, I'm not briefed on that particular program, but we can bring more information back about that particular program. I'm not familiar with that specific program, but what I can tell you is that mentorship plays an important role.

Generically we're interested in programs that support women through the role of mentors. I've spoken extensively in media and in various speaking engagements about the value that mentorship played in my life. As I moved forward in my career, the need for mentors in different places at different stages transitioned. In terms of Status of Women work, we recognize that as mentors—as I mentioned earlier, whether it's in the STEM area, or whether it's in the academic area, or whether it's in the entrepreneur area—we need other women who have succeeded, who have a vision of what life might be like at the next stage, and who can help guide us in that journey.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Excellent.

Now we'll move, for five more minutes, to Ms. Vandenbeld.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you very much, Minister, for coming here today.

I think we're fortunate to have a minister with the background that you have on the ground, especially in terms of your experience with some of the most vulnerable women in our society through public health and through the shelter system. You would be in a good position to see the different impacts that legislation, regulations, taxation policy, and other government policies have on women and men.

I'd like to go back to the Auditor General's report. You said in your remarks that you agree that there hasn't been enough implementation in terms of gender-based analysis. We all know that when a particular law is put forward, it can have a different impact on women than it does on men.

Could you talk a bit about some of your plans in terms of a strategy on gender-based analysis?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Absolutely. I'm very grateful for the government's leadership on this issue in terms of highlighting the need for gender-based analysis to be applied in a more rigorous way from the mandate letter on. It made receiving the Auditor General's remarks that much easier, because we have a plan and an idea about how important this is. I'm committed to ensuring the federal departments are conducting the GBA that's been required of them for the past 20 years.

This isn't a new requirement or even a new concept, which is one of the things I found rather surprising when I started. It has been on the books for a long time.

I've been mandated to ensure that government policy, legislation, and regulations are sensitive to the different impacts, as you said. We've made some progress. There are some departments that are doing great work, some that are coming on board with new enthusiasm, and some where gender has not traditionally even been considered, such as security or science.

We're going to work closely with the Privy Council Office, my ministerial colleagues, and my parliamentary colleagues to ensure GBA is applied to government proposals before they arrive for decision-making. I would also encourage you to work through your channels to encourage your parliamentary colleagues to consider the impacts of gender in their private members' bills, and we can assist in that regard. We'll be working with the PCO and the Treasury Board to improve monitoring and reporting on GBA, because who's watching and how are we determining that it's happening is a big component. We'll provide advice, tools, and training for a wide range of sectors to ensure gender is meaningfully considered in Government of Canada initiatives.

The other thing that you can do on a personal note is take the GBA Plus online course on our website. It doesn't take very long, and it gives you an insight into your own comfort level, knowledge, and expertise around not just gender but other issues of diversity.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

You mentioned that some departments are actually doing much better in this area. Are there examples of departments that have practices that could be shared between departments across government so that those best practices can also be spread between departments?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Well, there are a number of departments. For example, the immigration department is mandated to do GBA, so I must say that their GBA is extremely thorough. I didn't realize they were mandated until I saw the fantastic memorandum to cabinet they produced for a particular issue. I went back to my officials, raving about the thorough job, and found out that in fact it is a requirement.

There are other departments. Recently we've had Public Safety really step up their game and do a really thorough job in some of the work they're doing. We're very excited about new partners coming on board, such as the defence department, which is looking at some of their work through a gender lens.

I think there's a new enthusiasm for GBA. I'm really hoping that we can continue to keep the ball rolling. I know that with all your work we will be able to do that, especially if you encourage your colleagues to consider it as well.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

You mentioned that we're going to be active at the CSW, the UN Commission on the Status of Women. I know that a lot of countries around the world, through UN Women and others, are starting to do gender-based analysis.

Canada was always a leader in terms of helping a lot of other countries take this on. Is that something we'll be promoting at CSW and other international forums?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Absolutely, yes. It's something that we think is of value to all women across the world, right? I mean, if we don't consider how policy impacts women, we're missing out on 50% of the population that we're expected to serve. We'll definitely be working with other countries, whether it's to share tools, to share ideas, or to encourage people to consider GBA in the work they're doing in their countries.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

That's fantastic.

Am I out of time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

You're out of time.

Actually, we're out of time, because the minister has been gracious enough to give us an hour.

I appreciate it very much and I appreciate your great answers to the questions.

Here's what I would suggest to the members. The estimates were sent out late yesterday, I think, so you may not have had a chance to look at them. We didn't want to rush through those estimates of what the Status of Women committee will have from a supplementary budget point of view. We will arrange a time for the minister to come back, and we can ask questions about the estimates at that time.

Thank you again for coming, Minister. I will invite you to depart so that we can finish the last part of our meeting.

I'm hoping that you can all stay for a few extra minutes to see if there's anything we want to add to the list of things this committee would like to look at. We'll go in camera for that portion.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

I would just like to add that you had asked for some data, so the department has provided you with some data that they've collated for you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Yes. Did everybody get this? All right.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Madam Chair, may I ask why we're going in camera?

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Oh. Well, it's just because we did the last time. We don't have to if the committee wants to be.... You're fine?

Okay. We'll stay public, then. Great. I'm all about openness and transparency.

All right. Basically, from the the last time, the clerk put together the list from the various items that were suggested. If you remember, what we said we were going to do in the second part of this meeting was that the steering committee was going to take a look at all of those items and make sure the wording was good and clear so that we could send it out to the members, who would be able to vote their priorities and return it to the clerk so that we could get that all together. Then, at the next meeting, we would know the prioritized list of things we want to work on.

Ms. Damoff.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Are we going to come up with the list and distribute it, and then everybody will vote on it and send it to the clerk? Is that what—

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Yes, that was the suggestion from the last meeting. We made lists as we listened to Ms. Ballantyne and her folks. Afterwards, we had some discussion about what we might want to work on. As we were going, we took notes of anything that was talked about there.

I thought there might be other things today after the minister was here. We've jotted down a few things, as well as questions that were asked. Then the steering committee would look at that complete list just to make sure that when we wrote it down, we captured it correctly and clearly, so that when it goes out to you, if you get a list of 20 ideas, you'll each have a good chance to state what your priorities are. Then we would take those all back together and put them together.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Okay. I'd hoped that we could narrow it down a bit, and that rather than 20 topics going out to everybody, we could come up with maybe four or five.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Do you mean with the steering committee, or with the committee of the whole?

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

We can do it with all of us.

My only concern is that with 20 topics, you end up with everything getting one vote and you really aren't any further ahead. I'm not quite sure how we're going to vote for it or what the process will be.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Usually you do a Pareto vote. For example, I'm not sure how many we would have, but if we had 20, each person would prioritize seven out of the group. When they come back, you basically get a distribution with the one that has the most votes at the top one on the list, but you see the rank order of what the team feels. Obviously some things would only get one vote if only one person supported it.

If there's an opposite suggestion, I'm open to it.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

I think that to keep us organized at the end, it would help if the committee voted on a single work plan that we could discuss after we narrowed it down to a smaller feasible work plan. That is maybe a job for the steering committee or maybe we could have that debate here, but I'm a little uncomfortable with having 20 different items on a list, and when I pick my three, they may get lost.

I think we could have that discussion and reach a work plan together as a group.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

All right.

Are you comfortable for the steering committee to take a look and try to narrow it down?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

If it comes back to the committee for approval in the end, then that's the ordinary course of events, is it not?

Maybe the clerk could educate us on this point.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

All of the steering committee's decisions come back to the committee of the whole for consideration. My suggestion would be that we adjourn the meeting and that the steering committee get together and talk about items.