Status of Women Committee on March 23rd, 2017

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

My next question has to do with the $6.2 million that was put towards an increase in research and evaluation. What exactly is going to be researched and evaluated with this money? That's the first question.

Next, is there any intent with regard to this to delve further into violence against women and girls in particular, into the root causes, and into how we can thwart that?

[Meena Ballantyne]

I'd like my colleague Justine to answer that.

[Justine Akman]

We are in the process right now of defining our future and multi-year research program that we'll be conducting using the budget 2016 money. In the past year, we used it to support our engagement strategy on a gender-based violence strategy. We're in that process right now. We are talking to experts, academics, and Canadians about what will be in that research strategy. It certainly will not be finalized until we've consulted quite widely on it.

In terms of violence against women and girls, absolutely, that would certainly be one of the themes. This is the first time in many years that Status of Women has had a significant research budget, so we're starting from scratch. We are very excited to do so, as are all of our stakeholders. On the violence front, we've already had a two-day panel of academics and experts in the field of violence against women and girls, who came together to talk to us about the research gaps in this area. We did that as part of our engagement last year.

I anticipate that the research strategy would reflect all the priorities of Status of Women, such as leadership and women in the economy, but very much in terms of violence as well, to support the ongoing federal strategy.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

Last, very quickly, will all of the research done within the department be made public?

[Justine Akman]

Yes, absolutely.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Okay. Thank you.

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

I have a quick question on this. With Bill C-24 not being passed yet in the House of Commons, are all ministerial budgets increased without the votes from Parliament?

[Meena Ballantyne]

I'm not sure. Was it Bill C-24?

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

It's to make all ministers of equal status. Has that bill had a royal recommendation?

[Justine Akman]

I think we'd have to get back to you on that one.

[Meena Ballantyne]

Yes, I'm not sure.

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

I know that it was at first or second reading in the House of Commons, to make all ministers equivalent. Therefore, I was wondering if the ministerial budgets are passed without the consent of Parliament. That's one of my concerns.

[Anik Lapointe]

To get an increase on any type of budget for the organization, yes, we need the consent of Parliament. That's through the main estimates process. To make a minister a full minister, it doesn't come with a budget. There's a budget increase that is provided by Treasury Board. If the department can't fund within its own reference levels, we need to request the money through the finance department and then through the main estimates process.

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

I know that we did main estimates this week, so it was voted upon, but one of the greatest concerns we had is that the actual legislation to make the ministers of equivalent value has yet to be passed. It's kind of the cart before the horse. That's why I'm asking for more on specifically that question. I didn't know what the true protocol was for ministerial budgeting when it has not yet passed through the House of Commons in terms of the change of a person's portfolio.

[Meena Ballantyne]

We'll take a look and get back to you because I'm not sure. As Anik said, it's usually through the main estimates, and this is the process coming through this committee on the status of women, but I'm not sure about that other bill so we'll look into it and get back to you.

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

Yes, I think Bill C-24 had more to do with CBSA. I have Bill C-22, Bill C-23, and Bill C-24 on my brain, but it is another one.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Now we'll go to Ms. Malcolmson for seven minutes.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to the Status of Women panel.

We had witness testimony a couple of weeks ago by Kate McInturff from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. She talked about different ways of categorizing voluntary versus involuntary work, and we were looking at the Statistics Canada table that lists caring for children as a voluntary reason for a woman taking part-time work. The witness said her information was that last year more than 700,000 women in Canada were working part time for what they called involuntary reasons, and 275,000 of them cited the lack of access to child care as a reason. They considered that to be involuntary. If there had been child care, then they would have been able to work full time. Because they didn't have access to universal child care, they had to work part time, and as we know, this has compounding effects on a woman's place in the economy.

I'd like to hear whether the department, along with Statistics Canada, is reconsidering that approach so we can get good data on the reasons women get pushed into part-time and precarious work.

[Justine Akman]

It would be helpful if we could get the exact name of the data and the study you are referencing in your question.

Statistics Canada does a lot of work. We're working with them right now on questions related to gender-based violence, for example. They do a lot of work to field those kinds of questions and in how they are defined in the various surveys and data collection tools they develop.

You have raised a good point. Of course, Status of Women considers child care a critical tool to address the wage gap. This government has just invested fairly heavily in child care. We understand in our analysis that more women would likely enter the workforce if they had more choice around child care, so your line of questioning is very much in line with the kind of analysis and policy advice that Status of Women provides to various federal departments, but on this precise question on a data collection tool of Statistics Canada, it's certainly something we could come back to that department on and have a discussion about.

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

Thank you. That committee testimony was on March 7, 2017.

A related question is about the data collected about unpaid work done by women. This was a real focus of the testimony at the United Nations last week, which had that very strong focus on economic justice for women. The latest census did not include questions about the unpaid work of women, despite calls by women's organizations to have that information collected, and because women perform the vast majority of unpaid work, we know that as a government, as a country, we need that data to make good decisions.

Can you tell me what the plans are that Status of Women might have with Statistics Canada to correct those gaps in data collection so that we can make more well informed decisions?

[Meena Ballantyne]

You probably know we work with Stats Canada, and we have a publication called “Women in Canada”, which has various chapters that come out over a period of years. I don't know the latest chapter that has just come out. We have 20 departments that fund this along with us, and we pick various chapters. We have worked on unpaid work. I don't have the latest information, but for example, “The Girl Child” was a chapter that just came out in February, and “Women and paid work” came out in March. I don't see unpaid work on this list, but I know that we are talking to them about it.

This tool, the “Women in Canada” publication, is apparently the most widely accessed Stats Canada publication and a lot of people across Canada and even the world use it as a source of information for gender disaggregated data, and it is very useful.

We will look into this unpaid work issue with StatsCan.

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

Thanks.

In both of those areas—unpaid and precarious work, and access to child care—given that people are accessing the document, we want to make sure StatsCan is actually asking the questions relevant to the issues that face women today.

Turning to a different area, on the national inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women and girls, we know that the minister is, within her mandate letter, responsible for tracking progress on the inquiry. We've been hearing quite a bit from concerned women's organizations and human rights organizations. Particularly, they've been asking for the legal path document that's been promised to be released in order to address some of the confusion around the inquiry process. They're asking for clarity also about what happens with family members with missing loved ones who want to speak to the inquiry.

Can you talk with us a little bit about the oversight process and what you're doing to address some of those constituent concerns? I know this is an independent inquiry, but ultimately it is the government, so we're looking for leadership here.

[Meena Ballantyne]

As you said, it is an independent inquiry. The government has basically turned it over to the commissioners to conduct this inquiry in the way they see appropriate. In terms of tracking what the inquiry is doing, we work together with the three departments at various levels—the working level, the deputy level, and then the ministerial level. We're just sorting out right now how to get progress reports without undermining the independence of the inquiry. We're not getting reports on this document you're talking about that people are trying to get. We're getting overall information in terms of whether they're on track to produce that interim report they've been asked to produce by the end of this year, with the final report next year, and how the information flow—basically it's our colleagues at INAC who are providing them with all the information—is going along.

We have the mechanisms in place to track progress while respecting the independence of the inquiry and not getting into the details of some of the issues they're looking at.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you.

Now we'll go to Ms. Vandenbeld, for seven minutes.

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

Thank you very much.

This is the first budget that has a full gender statement, which is the first step for GBA+ analysis, on every aspect of the budget.

I know that going through that process actually highlighted the need for disaggregated data on gender, and of course on the intersectional identities. Can you talk a little bit about some of the challenges and difficulties in being able to do a full gender-based analysis on every aspect of the budget and the need for more disaggregated data in order to do that?