Evidence of meeting #90 for Status of Women in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A video is available from Parliament.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
Do you mean between now and the end of the year?
December 7th, 2023 / 12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
We're still spending money on professional services, which we get from both internal and external firms.
For example, we pay for professional services like Pay Centre services.
Another example would be the Department of Justice, to which we would pay legal fees.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
It can also include firms outside of government. Is that right?
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
It's possible.
For example, if the minister does an event, we need to go to external firms for interpretation services—
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
So you don't use internal resources for that, you use external resources. Is that right?
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Ms. McRae, can you tell me how many people the department has hired since 2015?
I don't need an exact number, just an approximate one.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
We can get you that information.
People definitely come and go, so we'd have to take into account the number of people who have come and gone.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
You can just give us an approximate number. You're a deputy minister, so you're used to dealing with these kinds of numbers. You see them every day.
How much would you say the number has gone up by?
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
Are you asking how much it has increased by since 2015?
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
We became a department in 2018. The number of employees went up significantly then.
In 2015, there were 70 of us. Now, we're at almost 400.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
That's getting to be a lot of people.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
How do you justify going from 70 employees to nearly 400?
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
We've been asked to do a lot more things in connection with the funding voted by Parliament and work on gender-based violence. We set up a new secretariat—
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Lastly, Ms. McRae, do you have room to do—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Mrs. Vien, your time is up.
Thank you.
I am now going to pass it over to Lisa.
Lisa, you have the floor for five minutes.
Liberal
Lisa Hepfner Liberal Hamilton Mountain, ON
Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Frances and Alia, for being here with us today.
I just want to clarify off the top that we have not actually seen cuts to funding for women's shelters. It was pandemic funding that was disbursed. When that ended, we started a national action plan, which is now rolling out across the country.
Can you clarify that on the record?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy, Department for Women and Gender Equality
That is correct.
Liberal
Lisa Hepfner Liberal Hamilton Mountain, ON
Thank you.
Further, my colleague Ms. Zarrillo asked about the formula for funding through the national action plan. I think there is a formula that you can share with the committee. I believe it's that the provinces get a base funding of $2 million; territories get a base funding of $4 million, and then it's calculated based on population.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
Yes. The formula is the one that is typically used for transfer payments to provinces and territories, and that is government-wide.
Liberal
Lisa Hepfner Liberal Hamilton Mountain, ON
Thank you. I just think it's helpful for the committee to clarify that there is a formula that people can look at.
We were talking earlier in the committee about GBA+ analysis. Would you just get to the basics of what this means, what it does, why it's important for departments to follow this process and how we're doing in terms of compliance among departments?
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
GBA is something Canada has been doing for about 25 or 30 years now. We have worked very hard with government departments. Our role as convenor, capacity builder and knowledge broker is really where it comes in. Gender-based analysis is everyone's job to do.
I would use the words of the Auditor General, Ms. Hogan. When asked where the key accountability is, she says it belongs with every minister and every department. That is fundamentally our approach. When we talk about what it is, it's considering the various factors we need to keep in mind, as we're designing programs or policies, to ensure there are no barriers to access.
There are many people—we've talked about it here at this committee—who face additional barriers. We don't want our government programs and services to be inaccessible to anyone, so we have to take special measures to do that. That's what departments and agencies are required to do. They're required to do it for memoranda to cabinet, for Treasury Board submissions, increasingly for budget proposals and, of course, the Canadian Gender Budgeting Act. They put a fair bit of pressure on organizations to come forward with that information.
In terms of compliance, we have been playing a role as an aggregator of information. We have now taken our implementation survey that we sent to organizations and have revised it with information and input from the Auditor General and from various committees and stakeholders. That implementation survey is now out in the field with our colleagues. We expect to be able to publish it in the coming months, once we have responses in.