Status of Women Committee on Feb. 27th, 2020

[Nancy Gardiner]

Yes, I know that.

I think when we did the men and boys strategy, 11 round tables took place. It wasn't specifically focused on young men. People from all segments of society were part of those round tables. As the minister spoke about earlier, various issues were raised, not only impacting women, but for young men, senior men. Some of the issues that impact them from gender-based analysis plus were spoken about through those round tables, but these specific projects were not focused on senior men.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

Culturally I can speak from my past experience meeting some of the stakeholders that sometimes in certain cultures it's still male dominated.

[Nancy Gardiner]

Yes.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

Very often, that has created...I don't know how to say it. I wouldn't say it was abuse, but a kind of authority over the women in their family.

That's why I want to ask if any culturally sensitive elements are included.

[Nancy Gardiner]

We supported a number of projects that related not only to leadership, economic empowerment and violence that does focus on looking at some of the imbalances created in society and making sure we're addressing those imbalances in the projects we support. We have many specific examples of increasing capacity of organizations to support women to help them build their empowerment, or to address some of the imbalances in society related to...maybe inequities is the right word.

We can talk about that a little as well. Karen has given me a look.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you again for understanding the way I behave.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

So I don't have any more time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have 30 seconds left.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Gudie, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Gudie Hutchings, Liberal, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Madam Chair, I still think we need to get you a bigger pen. We will work on that.

Thank you for being here, ladies, and thank you again for the work you do.

Rural is a passion for me, and I know our programs are reaching out in the small rural communities. I also know that in small rural communities the contribution of a small amount can do so much.

I remember in a meeting with one of my status of women's groups, it was a small amount of money—I think it was $15,000 or $20,000—and the chair of the board actually cried. I think we need to focus on that going forward, that it's not all about the million-dollar projects. It's the small numbers on the ground that really make a difference. So thanks for doing that, and keep doing that when you review all the applications that come in.

I want to get back to the GBA+. Can you tell me how you see that's going to be applied and developed when you look at applications, when you look at funding going forward?

[Nancy Gardiner]

I will start, and I'm going to ask Suzanne to add a little.

The minister mentioned earlier, and I think we mentioned the last time we were here that the role and the use of GBA+ has expanded so much over the last number of years. We are now required in terms of cabinet submissions as well as Treasury Board submissions to have a gender-based analysis as part of the actual submission.

Gender budgeting, obviously, is another important aspect that has happened over the last couple of years as well. The last budget had a gender chapter specifically looking at all the initiatives that were part of that budget. A gender-based analysis was done on every initiative that was part of the budget so I think we have definitely moved forward in our analysis.

The intersectionality piece has been mentioned quite a bit in this committee, looking at the rural, indigenous, visible minorities, persons with disabilities. All aspects of a program have to be taken into account when you're developing a program now.

We have expanded in the work we have done for sure. Can we do more? Absolutely.

I will turn it over to Suzanne because as we're developing our federal gender equality plan, the gender-based analysis is a big part of that.

[Suzanne Cooper, Director, Strategic Policy, Policy and External Relations Directorate, Department for Women and Gender Equality]

Thanks.

One of the things we're working on, and the minister has been mandated to do, is to develop a federal plan on gender equality. The purpose of that plan is to have a whole-of-government approach to how we're going to reach the objectives laid out in the general results framework, which Lisa talked to you about on Tuesday.

As part of that, we're also looking to strengthen GBA+. As Nancy said, we have made a lot of progress, but we know, for example, through surveys with other departments that it's not necessarily evenly applied, that there are some challenges related to data, which we talked about on Tuesday as well.

We're working toward how we can fill in those gaps to make sure we definitely have the intersectional analysis we need for the policy and program cycles.

[Gudie Hutchings, Liberal, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Speaking of data, how do we make sure that we are collecting the proper data across all government departments and that they are finalized, but also that we get that data that's so important to the decision that you and the department need to make?

[Lisa Smylie, Director General, Communications and Public Affairs Branch, Research, Results and Delivery Branch, Department for Women and Gender Equality]

Over the past few years we've invested tens of millions of dollars in getting new data. With budget 2016 we invested $1.5 million per year to get the data needed for GBA+. With our GBV strategy we invested over $30 million in data, and then with budget 2018, another $5 million in data.

How do we ensure that it's the right data? We develop our data plans, our surveys, in collaboration with community-based organizations, survivors, academics. We bring together expertise to make sure that we're identifying the data gaps and that we're investing our money in the right kinds of data that people need.

[Gudie Hutchings, Liberal, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Great.

Am I correct in assuming that prior to 2015, there was very little data being collected?

[Lisa Smylie]

In terms of data on a whole related to gender, there were pockets of data.

What I can say is, prior to 2015 there was no focus to...research team at Status of Women to shepherd this data collection.

[Gudie Hutchings, Liberal, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Okay, great.

Thank you for your work.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I'm looking at the time and recognizing that there are a few questions and we do have to get to committee business.

We're at 12:21 with nine minutes left. I'm taking up all of the time right now. I'm going to reduce the time to three minutes, three minutes, one minute, one minute. That provides everybody the equal amount of time.

Raquel, are you ready to take the floor, you and Alice?

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

I am.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Okay, it's three minutes in total.

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

Thank you.

I don't think you were here the last time, Suzanne.

[Suzanne Cooper]

No, I wasn't.

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

It's great to meet you.

I want to follow up on the questions that I asked the committee the last time, just a little more in depth.

As you know, I'm a member of Parliament from Manitoba. Suzanne, just to loop you in, as you know, Manitoba has the highest percentage of violence against women. We also have one of the highest indigenous populations, mostly young, one of the fastest-growing populations in Manitoba. We have the highest child apprehension rate. I think it's over 12,000, which is the highest in the world. We're facing significant issues in our female population in Manitoba.

I had asked last time of the department, of the $66 million in grants and contributions, how much is provided to Manitoba. I know we have only 4% of the population, which is really like $2.64 million. Given that we have higher needs, I just wanted to see if you have any more information.

If you don't have the exact number, that's fine, but can you provide for me, so I can let my constituents know, what some of the programs are that your department makes available to women in Manitoba?

[Nancy Gardiner]

Thank you for the question.

We are looking at figuring out, making sure that we're going to come back in terms of the amount of resources that are going to Manitoba in all of the areas.

We've definitely seen, at our quick glance, that there are projects in Manitoba in all of the work that we're doing. There are projects in the women's program, projects for GBV, as well as LGBTQ2.

We can come back with the exact numbers and dollar figures that would be given to you in terms of that. Is that okay?