Status of Women Committee on Nov. 28th, 2016

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Are you saying then that there's a GBA framework that is being used on the ground with our military men and women?

[Vaughn Charlton]

In my understanding, the intent of the directive is to integrate gender considerations into operational planning. The idea is that, if an operation is being planned, they will be looking at the gender considerations on the ground and I've heard the chief of the defence staff say that it was his experience in Afghanistan that really led him to the conclusion that this is something that needs to be done. I believe, in his view, they could have been a lot more effective, if they had been engaging women in a different way or had thought about those things instead of having to react to them on the ground.

It's quite an amazing directive. If they're able to pull it off, I think that we would be international leaders in this, in terms of using this as a way of being operationally effective and that's his language on it.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

What's the dollar amount being given to be able to pull that off on the ground?

[Vaughn Charlton]

We don't have that information.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Would there be money that's coming from the department to support that effort though?

[Vaughn Charlton]

From us...? We would be offering in-kind support, so I've certainly been engaged in a lot of training, but they want to develop their own gender-based analysis training. They're using our course as that awareness piece, knowing that in an operational environment, they're going to need to do something that's more tailored, but they're using our online course right now as a way to raise that awareness. As you've seen, it's 18,000 members and that rises every day. It's probably 20,000 today.

[Justine Akman]

We're doing security cluster training and they are also involved in that, so they will be investing in that training themselves.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

There's money going out to individual organizations. My colleague mentioned earlier that Equal Voice is receiving some money from the department. There are other organizations that are receiving money from the department. I'm wondering if you can just explain for me what accountability mechanism you use with regard to that funding going out and making sure that it's being used in the way that it was designated.

[Lucie Desforges]

Each proposal is assessed on its own merit against a series of criteria that, of course, will vary depending on the call for proposals, but in each case, we ensure that it's a good investment for Canada, in terms of the results that will be coming out. For each project, we ensure that the performance will be measured and we're also piloting a project in which we're trying to look at all the results of a series of projects, so that we can consolidate the learning, the performance, and communicate that outside.

Definitely, there is a component of performance measurement for all our projects. We work with the proponents and the organizations that are funded to give them, I would say, support in that respect because that's not their bread and butter, so we make sure that it is a robust process.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

All right, that's your time. I'm sorry.

Now we're going to go to Ms. Ludwig for five minutes.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you.

Has any previous government integrated GBA to the extent, in action, that our current government has?

[Justine Akman]

I don't think any of us has been here since the beginning of GBA, but what I can say is that there has been a very large shift. It is a big ship to turn, but in the past year and a half, there has been a very concerted effort by departments to do GBA in a very different way. The new template for memoranda to cabinet asks for GBA to be done in a more extensive manner than it ever has before, so that in itself is a giant leap forward.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you.

Canada is certainly leading by example and that's a very important international message to be sending because there are a lot of eyes looking right now at Canada. Are there other countries that you've looked at as examples of good practices, in terms of the GBA implementation?

[Justine Akman]

Yes, we have done fairly extensive international comparisons. For example, last year as a follow-up to the Auditor General's report on gender-based analysis, we did that. Also, I was in Europe last year and had an opportunity to speak to other countries that we tend to look up to for their gender mainstreaming or gender-based analysis, but my personal resounding conclusion, from the analysis that we've done, is that we are, in fact, quite far ahead of most other countries on this.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you.

On that—I want to keep on this theme here—how is the Status of Women communicating that message, and in what ways can we as a committee help you to communicate that message on the work that is being done and the outcomes of the actions?

[Justine Akman]

If you recall, part of the action plan on gender-based analysis that came out of the Auditor General's report indicated a few different actions, one of which was monitoring and reporting.

We've started this process with the deputy minister survey we mentioned to you, to get at least a starting point on that. We are also monitoring very closely our own involvement in the gender-based analysis process and doing best practices, and we will be coming forward with some proposals about how we can actually report out on this going forward. There's a wide variety of ways we could go about that. We do it in that context.

Then, of course, when we head down to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women every March in New York, we speak to other countries about what we're doing on GBA, and we speak to our federal-provincial colleagues as well. In that context, one of the action items that came out of our last FPT meeting was to continue sharing best practices on GBA.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you.

We're looking at it now in terms of the federal government, but in terms of trying to encourage business to take on and identify the value of GBA, can you help frame up how GBA makes good business sense, so that we could also sell that message to business?

[Justine Akman]

Do we have a bullet point on it?

Feel free to jump in on that one.

[Vaughn Charlton]

I was going to say that I think there are two dimensions to it.

One is that if you believe in diversity and people thinking in different ways as adding to the conversation, then one would see how that would be effective.

Where I think we have more room to grow is on the innovation side. We tend to look at the sciences and innovation strategies, and diversifying them and looking at the people working in them. There's some really interesting work out there that I think we could be leveraging more, to try to do GBA within the actual work itself instead of looking at the people doing the work. Diversity is important.

For example, there's an amazing project out of Stanford University called “gendered innovations”. Dr. Londa Schiebinger has really looked at very specific engineering, math, science, and technology questions and infused gender and has found scientific solutions to things, through thinking about gendered questions, that have helped both men and women when it pertains to....

I'm sorry I can't go into more specifics, but that's where I think there is tremendous potential.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you.

There was actually an interview recently. I don't know if she's the president of Apple or the president of Microsoft. She's the first female president of that tech company. One of the things that came out, which I thought was really resounding, in the interview was her approach to the business model, which is quite different. She focuses on the people and does that investment. She has the conversations and really listens. She believes that, on the stock market, the company has been consistently rising because she's focusing on a very different style of business that we could all learn from, regardless of our gender.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Well said, but that's the end of your time.

Now we're going to Ms. Vecchio, for five minutes.

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

Thanks very much.

I just wanted to look at two of the programs that we have done before. One was introduced, I think, in 2014, and another in 2015. Could you tell me if the GBA+ idea was looked at when these programs were being created—I recognize it was from the previous government—and if you saw results from those?

The first one I'm going to talk about is the action plan for women entrepreneurs. It was the “Just One Pledge” campaign. Were there any measurables from that you could talk about, something you saw and the promotions of that? As well, is this program something we're going to continue to support? Having women entrepreneurs, we recognize, is a huge thing, and it's great for the economy and continued economic growth. That's one thing.

Also, there was the women on boards program—that was in 2014—that was delivered from the Status of Women committee as well, working towards having 30% by 2019, with gender equality in the future following that.

Perhaps you could just talk a little bit about those two programs, what they looked like, whether they got to their targets and goals, and whether we're going to continue with those sorts of programs, as well.

[Justine Akman]

I may invite my colleague, Nanci-Jean Waugh, up again, but I'll do my best to at least start an answer.

In terms of entrepreneurs, there were three parts to that programming. There were trade missions. There was the “It Starts With One” campaign, which was a mentoring campaign. Then there was an online platform, which we are still working on.

The Status of Women and the minister are looking at entrepreneurship and women in business in a new light, and with new government priorities related to innovation, to procurement, supplier diversity, etc. We're still very much in the assessment phase of where we'll be going with all of that work. We are working very closely with economic departments, including Global Affairs, International Trade, and Innovation, Science and Economic Development, on the concept of women entrepreneurships, and more holistically in terms of women's contribution to the economy and helping women both join the middle class, and of course stay and contribute in the middle class and in leadership positions.

There was a business case done for the women on boards program, and maybe this is where I'll ask Nanci-Jean to talk about the past of that program.

As you're aware, this government has made commitments related to women in leadership for the GIC appointments it's doing. Also, our women's program, which Lucie heads up, has a focus on leadership right now. That would definitely help support increasing the number of women in leadership positions across the country.

Nanci-Jean, I don't know if you want to add anything on the women on boards initiative that happened under the previous government.

[Nanci-Jean Waugh]

I have nothing on women on boards, but going back to the mentorship and the “It Starts With One” program, which you asked about, the previous minister of Status of Women introduced that project in the late spring of 2015. Then, there was an election. It is still on our radar, and something we're going to be looking at again in conjunction with where we're going on the women entrepreneurship file.

We do hear that the mentoring, sponsoring, and championing of women are very important to women. It will continue to be something we'll look at quite closely in the context of the women entrepreneurship file.

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

Excellent.

I spoke the other day on Bill C-25, which is the corporations act. They are changing a variety of things like that.

When developing this sort of legislation that has to do with women on boards, was Status of Women part of that preamble so this legislation could be created? It really does have the GBA+ portion that needs to be looked at, so I am wondering if you were incorporated in those discussions on that legislation. It does include women on boards as a big part of it.