Status of Women Committee on Nov. 28th, 2016

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Okay.

[Justine Akman]

We are committed to working with the department officials to raise the issue.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

All right, that's excellent.

Over to you, Ms. Vecchio, for the rest.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Thank you very much.

I want to go back to the $27,000. Going back to the Supplementary Estimates (B), there is $27,000 allocated for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development to support the businesswomen's trade missions. Can you provide any examples of successful transactions and successful missions we have gone on and give us any measurements from those?

[Justine Akman]

There is a program run out of Global Affairs Canada called the “business women in international trade”, BWIT, program. My understanding is that there is information, including success stories, on their website that you can research. There has not actually been a formal evaluation of the program, but they have been in touch with many of the different people who have participated in their trade missions and they have had very positive feedback.

Our own agency was involved in a trade mission to Brazil a couple of years ago, and there was an example of BlackBerry. A woman from BlackBerrry went on that trade mission and was very excited about the new contacts she had made, but when you're talking about Brazil, these are long-term business prospects and they take a lot of work to actually come to fruition.

I know that there was one example just provided to me recently by Global Affairs of an executive vice-president of PONO Consultants International from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where she participated in one of these trade missions, I believe it was to Texas, and made some concrete contacts and follow-ups from that trade mission.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

It's very important to have measurables when we're spending this money. Will you be looking at having a measurement system or reporting system done after trade missions in the future, or is this something you don't do very often? Are we looking at mandating or putting in, implementing, any measurements and reports that will happen following trade missions?

[Justine Akman]

We'd like to get back to you with the specifics on that question. Most government programs are evaluated at various times, so it would be best to get back to you because it isn't a program run by Status of Women.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Okay, that's awesome.

I'm reading the question directly. Thank you very much, analysts, very well done. It says here, the 2016–17 report on plans and priorities explains that an expected result of the agency’s work should be “Celebration and commemoration events/activities aimed at advancing equality for women and girls are held in Canada.” The performance indicator to measure success is that there be 10 “SWC-led celebration and commemoration events/activities held in Canada.”

Can you provide some examples of these events or activities, including a description of the scale and cost for each one?

[Justine Akman]

If it's okay, Madam Chair, I would like to call Nanci-Jean Waugh, director general of communications, Status of Women, to answer this question.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

That would be awesome. Could you add to that, because we talked a lot about making sure that men and boys are part of the reality as well, so could you also share how men and boys are also part of that discussion?

[Nanci-Jean Waugh, Director General, Communications and Public Affairs, Status of Women Canada]

Thank you very much.

First, all the commemorative events that we have in the program we develop for all Canadians, so there is always something for all age groups and for men and boys.

Many of you have participated in some of the events we've done over the last year, for example, International Women's Day. I know you've either been at events or you have been quite actively involved in the social media campaigns, one of which is happening now: Actions Matter. Just to give you a bit of a result on that one, we trended for I think most of the day on Friday and a little on Saturday, so it's one that has completely resonated.

When we're planning events, we always try to ensure that they're open to all Canadians, as well as involving men and boys in the planning of the events, either in the speaking roles or in some of the activities going out.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

I'm going to continue. It says here, federal government officials and key stakeholders have increased knowledge of gender-based analysis plus, and that this indicator focuses on the increased knowledge among officials following GBA+ training and events.

Has SWC also measured the proportion of federal government officials with research, policy, program, or customer service responsibilities who have taken GBA+ training? If so, what are the statistics in that regard?

[Justine Akman]

We don't keep statistics on the overall proportion of all public servants who have taken the training, but we have been able to monitor the percentage increase, which is increasing at such an exponential rate right now that we can hardly keep track of it. I think that in the future we could endeavour to collect some more accurate data about what proportion of public servants in general have taken the training.

[Vaughn Charlton]

We could probably tell you by department, but we would have to come back to you on it. We're not allowed to keep specific information because of the Privacy Act, and in part because it's a web-based course, but we could probably give you the percentage of a department's employees who have taken the training.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

We have talked a lot about the federal departments since we've been doing GBA+. Since it's become a focus of this government, have you found any departments that are failing and have not held the torch for Status of Women on GBA+? Has it been surprising that any of them haven't picked up the phone, or they're not looking at any submissions, or would you say every department is actively part of the GBA?

[Vaughn Charlton]

There are definitely departments where it's been done longer and where that awareness, especially in the social departments or justice or health, is maybe a bit more obvious and people have been doing it longer. There are departments that are newer to it, so they struggle with the basic understanding of how it relates to them. I can't think off the top of my head of any department that doesn't want to work with us. We're very popular all of a sudden.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

All right, we like that.

Ms. Malcolmson, you have seven minutes.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thanks, Chair.

Amnesty International was quite critical of the government around not having used GBA on its Site C dam approval process, but I'm also hearing that your department is being consulted in advance of its decision-making. I'm hoping that you can let us know whether Status of Women was consulted around GBA on either of those resource decisions, the Site C dam or the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

[Justine Akman]

We consulted on various initiatives, including ones in the realm of natural resources, but I'm not in a position to comment on cabinet confidence-related issues.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

I'm talking about the pre-cabinet part. Are you being consulted on those projects, which doesn't go to what happens in cabinet discussions? Are you engaged at a staff level?

[Vaughn Charlton]

It may be a clarification of our role. We would not be in a position to do a GBA of a pipeline proposal because we don't have that internal expertise. However, I think what we are good at is being technical experts on what those underlying questions are that may not be obvious, but that you need to ask. We're simply not able to provide specific advice on a specific proposal in many cases. We are consulted frequently by departments, including Natural Resources Canada, on the types of questions that we would want them to be asking in relation to a specific proposal. We may not actually see that proposal specifically, but we can help them to identify some of the questions that need to be asked. I can definitely say that we're frequently consulted on that type of project.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

But you can't say whether it was those specific projects?

[Vaughn Charlton]

To be honest, we may not even be aware of which specific project it is. There are certain rules that govern some of these documents. Again, our technical advice would be on, if you were undertaking that type of a project, how would you do a GBA, and I can definitely tell you that we are consulted.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

To try to make it more general, let's say there was a federal approval coming on a major new hydro dam or on a pipeline, both of which would involve significant construction. Are you getting asked, generally, about those kinds of projects?

[Justine Akman]

Yes, we are.