Status of Women Committee on Nov. 28th, 2016

[Justine Akman]

We were involved in the corporations act work.

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

Yes, Bill C-25.

[Justine Akman]

We were very much at the time....

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

You were involved in that.

[Justine Akman]

Yes.

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

I'm looking...because part of the information was very similar to the 2014 plan, which was women on boards. I see a lot of duplication from that, from looking at the bill compared with the work that was done by the Status of Women minister as well as the committee back in 2014.

That's why I wanted to see that, initially, you were part of those discussions, since the women on boards was part of that as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That's your time.

We're going to Mr. Fraser for the last five minutes.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Thanks very much.

It's really fascinating. I think we could always spend more time than we have with you whenever the department comes in.

One of the things the minister mentioned in her remarks was the fact that some of the monies outlined in the supplements was going, I think, to research. I think she mentioned that there were some papers that have been commissioned.

Could you briefly mention what the areas of research were, or the biggest areas of future research for Status of Women?

[Justine Akman]

The papers were related directly to the minister's mandate letter item to develop a federal strategy on gender-based violence. They were examining different aspects of the gaps in data and research that are available, and knowledge transfer, in relation to this specific issue.

As I mentioned earlier, we're still doing “Women in Canada”, and the Status of Women will continue to do so. There are new chapters coming out each year. We're still in fairly early stages of developing new research priorities going forward, but they would fall under the three areas of leadership, violence, and women in the economy.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

While we're still on the research piece, our next study is going to involve, in broad terms, empowering women in the Canadian economy.

Are there certain areas that are a priority from the department's perspective, that you could use more information on, to make a bigger difference in the lives of Canadians?

[Justine Akman]

That's a great question, and it's one that I'd love to give some thought to and get back to you with a considered answer.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

I'd love to hear your opinion at some later date, if you'd like time to ruminate.

Just very quickly, before I pass on my remaining time to my colleague, Ms. Nassif.... Actually, I think that catches everything.

If you want to take the rest of the time, Eva, feel free.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you for coming and sharing with us your great work at Status of Women Canada.

In a follow-up to my colleague's previous question on administering and implementing GBA, in your opinion, what is the biggest barrier to ensuring that GBA is done adequately?

[Vaughn Charlton]

I still think they are the same barriers that have been identified previously. It's really about having competencies.

It's different for different departments. In some cases, there is just not an awareness of what this is or what you're supposed to do. In other cases, they're aware of what they're supposed to do, but they don't have access to the data or the research they need that is gender disaggregated.

You can never discount the power of leadership, and not just at the political level but within departments. That takes having people in senior leadership positions who really understand what this is for and why they're doing it and buying into it.

I think that probably those three things together are some of the challenges, but they are things I think we can make progress on.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Can somebody else add to that?

[Justine Akman]

It's very much a process about the memorandum to cabinet proposals that we're seeing. They're getting better and better all the time, but we're going to be working more and more with departments on mitigation strategies.

Once again, if they have good research available to them—and there are gaps, and I just thought of one, women in trades probably would be an area—then what are they going to do with that information? We are working with departments and pushing them in that direction, as much as possible.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

On July 1, 2016, it was announced that Status of Women Canada would provide support for advocacy work, which was something that had been removed by the previous government back in 2006. Can you explain to the committee, please, what this means for organizations that do this type of work?

[Lucie Desforges]

Thank you.

You're quite correct that in July the minister did announce that activities that pertain to advocacy would be eligible for funding under the women's program. The reason for that, as the government presented it, was a strong belief that dialogue between decision-makers and the community organizations is very positive in improving and informing decision-making. That was the rationale behind it.

What this means concretely for the women's funding program is that if there are activities that are directly related to advocacy, they can now be part of the project, and they can be funded and supported by the women's program. We've seen several projects that now include advocacy-related activities as part of the overall proposal.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Excellent.

I think we can fit in a three-minute round with our NDP friends before we go to the vote on the supplementary estimates.

Ms. Malcolmson.

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

Thanks, Chair.

To the witnesses, we heard from DAWN, the DisAbled Women's Network, that they were not eligible for any of the Status of Women funding because the funding model was described in a community by community way, as opposed to something that a national organization like theirs could apply for.

Is that true, and has Status of Women been able to remedy that situation, so they can have access to funding?

[Lucie Desforges]

I believe the funding call for proposals that Ms. Brayton, from DAWN, was referring to is our call for proposals that is currently open. That proposal is designed to bring together women leaders who are associated with local and regional projects.

We've just recently met with the leader of DAWN, and we're exploring options whereby they could partner with other groups to make sure they can be supported through this call for proposals. There are several avenues that we're considering. It's our view that they are certainly not excluded from this call for proposals, and we're waiting to hear back from them very shortly, so that we can give them some advice on designing a proposal that is eligible.

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

Because disabled women have experienced gender-based violence at three times the rate of others, this is of great importance.

Have there been calls for proposals on violence against women over the last year, since this new government took control?

[Lucie Desforges]

I believe so, but Pascale can probably provide more details.

[Pascale Robichaud]

We have started the calls for proposals since the government was put in place. We had a call in the spring, and we have a call right now. They're both for leadership, but leadership that could address violence against women, depending on the type of subject you want to discuss in terms of the leaders, what barriers you want to remove. There were some on housing, there were some on violence, and there were some on the economic side. We do look at that.

We also receive proposals in a continuous fashion, and we can also entertain proposals for violence against women and girls.

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

So any organization could apply.