Status of Women Committee on Dec. 7th, 2023

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I wanted to ask about seniors, specifically senior women. We know that seniors were impacted by the pandemic and it was important to continue supporting the work of our organizations supporting them. Can you talk about the department's ongoing efforts to help senior women?

[Frances McRae]

Certainly, we're seeing that senior women need support in a number of areas. Entrepreneurship is one example. We see a lot more women wanting to continue to work and contribute to the economy as they move out of their perhaps permanent jobs.

We can give you some examples of some of the work we do with senior women. I would just say that we also see challenges with senior gender-diverse people in areas where, for example, they do not feel comfortable in care homes. We see specific challenges around older women on gender-based violence as well. Financial abuse is one of those areas that we see quite significantly, not just with intimate partners but certainly with family members.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

About an hour ago, I learned that Minister Saks has announced $500,000 for Queen's University to support the development of online training modules for educators on gender-based violence and prevention. Can you provide an update to this committee on the work your department is doing specifically on GBV prevention with the provinces and territories, especially with the Province of Ontario?

[Frances McRae]

The work that Minister Saks is announcing is work that we do closely with the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada. They are partners with us in a range of areas around public health related to gender-based violence.

When we talk about the Province of Ontario, the minister was mentioning that we made the announcement with the Government of Ontario a few weeks ago. They have now made some announcements themselves about where those funds they have been allocated are going.

We look forward to making sure that the publication of those action plans shows transparently where the funds are going, and the minister did talk about reporting back in on impacts, which is something that's very important to all of us as stewards of public funds.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have two minutes.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

I also wondered if you can talk about the five pillars of a plan to end gender-based violence. My colleague Mr. Serré talked about one pillar. Can you talk about the other four pillars and how they set a foundation for the provinces as a guide to implement the plan?

[Frances McRae]

I'm just taking out our handy booklet on the pillars. It's important to note that these pillars were developed with the provinces and territories. We did not develop these on our own.

Pillar one is support for victims, survivors and their families. What we've provided the provinces and territories with are just examples of areas where they could act, and it's really important that they speak to their own communities about what's needed.

The second pillar is prevention. Those are certainly population-specific issues. We talked about men and boys being one of them. Training and guidance for professionals is really critical in terms of trauma-informed approaches.

Pillar three is a responsive justice system. This is one where we work closely with our colleagues at Justice, but also, they work with provincial justice departments. It really is a full justice system that we need to be looking at.

The fourth pillar is implementing indigenous-led approaches. This was something that was very important to all ministers around the table when we discussed it. We recognize that indigenous people have to be leading their own solutions, and those solutions are actually quite different depending on what part of the country you're in and depending on what your specific situation is, even among the rights holder groups. There are different approaches for different places.

The fifth pillar is social infrastructure and the enabling environment. We talked a bit about that earlier.

Those are the key areas that are the foundation, and we look forward to publishing the action plans.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you. That's perfect. We really appreciate that.

I have a couple of questions that came from here. We will be ending very early. We've lost one of our members. I'm going to ask a couple of questions.

Ms. McRae, I know that you and I have discussed this before when we looked at gender-based analysis, because we know how important gender-based analysis is in order to create equity for people. Regardless of whether you're living in the north, the south, the east or the west of this country or whether you're Black, racialized, indigenous or white—whatever you may be—gender-based analysis is really important.

According to the Auditor General's report, only 40% of the budget actually had a gender-based analysis applied to it. I do not believe that is any of the intentions of this department, because I know the tools and resources are there, but we have departments that are not implementing GBA+ on their actual budgetary items. Can you comment on that, please?

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair. Shouldn't we be having the Bloc or the NDP for the last two minutes and a half?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

No. For the round, it goes five minutes and five minutes, two and a half and two and a half, and then five and five. In the first round it's six, six, six, six, six and six. We have already finished the full round, so I am taking advantage of that in being able to ask a question that Ms. McRae and I have actually discussed.

Are you asking that I don't get the response? I'm sorry....

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

I was just asking.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Frances, can I get a response, please?

[Frances McRae]

I would say that with the Canadian Gender Budgeting Act, which has been in force only since 2018, there has been significant change in terms of the department's GBA requirements in its proposals. I would say, though, that Women and Gender Equality Canada does not participate directly in the budget process. We work with our colleagues at the Department of Finance, and in fact, their capabilities, their confidence and the rigour that they are expecting are increasing. We will expect to see a higher threshold that is enforced more by the central agencies than by us, but we are certainly hearing that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I really appreciate that.

Bonita, you have a question.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Can we send a letter from this committee that says that we would like to see more take-up of GBA by all departments for budgets?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

That is something that can absolutely be discussed. I was just going to ask for some documents. Let's see what we can do there, Bonita, for sure.

Bonita, you had a request for documents right in the middle. Do you remember what that was? Can you remind them?

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

It was about the formulas for the distribution by province and territory.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you.

I think the “pre” criteria and the “post” criteria are what you were asking for. That would be wonderful.

One other thing is that if you could provide the gender-based analysis that you provide to other departments, just so we can make sure.... My greatest concern is.... I know you're not trying to make it a check box. I know that it needs to be much deeper. When these departments are looking at that, can we just see what they're advised and those types of tools? Could you table that as well?

Are there any further questions or comments from the committee?

[Some hon. members]

No.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Seeing none, thank you very much to Frances and to Alia. Thank you so much for being here to support our committee.

Today's meeting is adjourned. I'll see you Monday.