Status of Women Committee on Feb. 25th, 2020

[Nancy Gardiner]

There was a lot of work, actually, to come to decide on those six pillars. It wasn't just our department. We worked very closely with the Department of Finance, as well as with Global Affairs. Looking at all of the aspects that had to be covered, the six pillars actually bucket very nicely a lot of the elements that fall within. There were many other pieces that were looked at in the development of the pillars.

[Lisa Smylie]

When we developed the gender results framework, we did a really comprehensive scan of what was going on in Canada and where we were seeing gaps in gender equality. We also worked with international partners and took a look at international models and frameworks and distilled all of that down to these six themes.

In terms of what would be left out, when I look at the six pillars at this point, I don't know that there's anything that couldn't be fit under those six pillars. As far as our understanding of gender equality in Canada right now goes, it's pretty comprehensive.

[Jag Sahota, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

You also spoke about including boys and men in programs, and looking at that. Are there any specific programs that are under way or that you're looking at, at this point?

[Kim Gauvin]

Recently, in the context of the strategy that's being worked on, we looked at a few projects to support work that's going on in that area. There are a number of projects that really look at supporting men who are currently advocates for women's issues, that look at sexism in the workplace and how men could be disrupters, and that look at working with youth—boys—to help them to see the issues from various perspectives.

[Jag Sahota, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

You also spoke about the gender-based analysis. You said something about the department having legislative responsibilities to lead and promote the application of GBA+ in all government activities.

Could you lay out what those activities are and how you would go about ensuring that everybody's on board on that?

[Nancy Gardiner]

We are the department that leads on the gender-based analysis. We are the centre of expertise around information and knowledge for GBA+ for all departments.

Every department now, though, also has their own gender-based analysis unit within the department to allow them to do analysis on any of the policies that departments will be putting in place, such as memorandums to cabinet or Treasury Board submissions. There's a gender-based analysis aspect to those documents, and they're required.

We provide expertise and guidance to departments that are maybe having a bit of a challenge related to research, data or statistics. For any of that type of analysis, our team will actually work with departments to help provide them with that bit of expertise that they may need.

There's more work to be done in this area for sure, such as looking at how to be a bit bolder and how to ensure that all aspects of government programming does look at that gender-based analysis plus. The plus is very important, as we talked about earlier.

Kim talked about programming, which is grants and contributions. When you're actually putting grants and contributions in place, how do you actually look at that through a GBA+ lens? Right now we're working on what that means and how we expand that to many aspects of government work. I would say there's been huge progress in the work that departments do around the GBA+.

[Danielle Bélanger]

I would add that one important part is also legislative.

In 2018, a new piece of legislation was passed, the Canadian Gender Budgeting Act. That's really around looking at the actual funding, the money that goes behind a lot of our different initiatives.

When we look at models internationally, it's important to also look at how GBA+ is hard-wired in a lot of the work that the Government of Canada is doing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Excellent. Thank you so much.

Your time is over. We're going to turn the floor over to Anju Dhillon.

Anju, you have five minutes.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to my colleague Sonia for giving me her time.

Thank you to all of you for being here this morning.

I'd like to talk about leadership and democratic participation. Would you please tell me where you got all these statistics?

[Lisa Smylie]

The majority of our statistics come from databases held by Statistics Canada. They compile quite a number of data sources, such as labour force participation and tax holdings. They bring that all together. That's where we get our data.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Would you be able to get a breakdown of the women who are part of these percentages?

For example, with respect to 48% of employment, 10% of C-suite executives, 53% of GIC appointments and 25% of corporate board membership, can you give us a breakdown of how many are visible minorities, indigenous, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community?

[Lisa Smylie]

I'd have to look into what data is available to disaggregate by. The difficulty with data is that sometimes when you drill down into certain groups they're so small that numbers can't be released. I'd have to go back and verify what we can and cannot provide.

One thing you mentioned, GIC appointments, is the one source of data that StatsCan does not provide. That data is provided by the Privy Council Office. I'd have to go back to them to ask what data is available beyond disaggregating by gender.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

I went on the website, and as of July 18, 2019, it said 53% were identified as women. That's 1,280 appointments made. Out of those appointments, only 150 are visible minorities, only 115 are indigenous and 38 are people with disabilities. Can you please explain how we can improve these statistics, how people who are marginalized, people of colour, can be better included in such positions or other senior positions?

[Nancy Gardiner]

In terms of the work we do, I'll go back to the gender-based analysis piece. In all of those elements, we look at not only gender but all of the intersectional pieces. We are working with other departments as well in terms of programming that they have specifically for LGBTQ2 communities, for indigenous folks, persons with disabilities, and looking at visible minorities as well.

We have programming within Women and Gender Equality Canada specifically looking at leadership and other projects that may look at all of those aspects, not only the gender piece, as I said, but the intersectionality to those programs.

Kim, is there any programming or projects that you want to highlight?

[Kim Gauvin]

I can speak to it generally.

When we're looking at funding projects, we use the GBA+. In terms of identity factors, that's something that is considered throughout.

In looking at addressing leadership, we've supported a number of projects. In terms of trying to support women who are under-represented, a number of projects have done research.

Typically, of course, our projects involve the affected women. That's one of the key things in terms of how we address these issues, to make sure everyone has a seat at the table to be able to put forward what the actual barriers are so there is a clear understanding not just of a dominant perspective, but of all the different perspectives that come forward.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Can you please tell us what the barriers are to having more women of colour, indigenous, and those with disabilities? What are the barriers such that, of these 1,280 appointments, maybe 640 cannot be from these marginalized communities?

[Lisa Smylie]

The barriers are so complex, and perhaps different for each of those groups. While we don't like to think about it, some of those barriers are unconscious or conscious bias, so we have to shift the culture, shift cultural attitudes towards certain groups.

We also need to create more inviting spaces for certain groups, for example, for indigenous peoples. Part of not only getting indigenous peoples into leadership positions but keeping them there is creating spaces that speak to their cultural traditions.

It's a question, then, of changing attitudes, creating spaces and, going back to education, of making sure that the education environment is also inviting and speaks to the realities of specific groups; for example, when we're teaching certain subjects in schools, making sure that we're including either literature or examples in math that speak to different groups, so that people can see themselves in the educational system.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

This is where the clerk is going to kill me, because I'm going to start screwing around with things. We have only about eight minutes left. If I followed the five and five route, we would be discounting one of the groups. What I would like to propose is that we give three minutes to each side—three minutes for Raquel and three minutes to Salma—so that they both get to ask additional questions.

Is everybody okay with that?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Raquel, you're popping in at three minutes.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

I want to ask about the $66 million in grants and contributions. How is this money distributed regionally?

I also want to mention that I noticed you had four regional offices. The Edmonton one would also service Manitoba, I imagine. Manitoba makes up 4% of the population. How much grant funding goes to Manitoba?

[Nancy Gardiner]

We don't have that level of specificity here, but we can get back to you on some of it.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

I would appreciate that.

[Nancy Gardiner]

Our programs are not distributed by region or by province.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

What's the need?