Status of Women committee  Can I just add to that?

Status of Women committee  Checklists can be important. I agree with you, they shouldn't be an end unto themselves. Sometimes they can be very helpful in terms of making sure you go through all the issues. Our job is doing good policy analysis and making sure good policy analysis takes place. That means looking at things like risks, benefits, and consequences.

Status of Women committee  Certainly in the last two years there has been a lot of progress made in the fact that we have champions in the central agencies, in the fact that we have an interdepartmental committee that looks at this question in terms of how we can advance efforts across government, in the fact that you have in departments various approaches and various models for ensuring that gender-based analysis takes place.

Status of Women committee  I think again it's part of the challenge function of PCO officers. PCO officers are the primary contact with departments who are the lead on policy development initiatives coming to cabinet. PCO officers ask the questions. They ask for gender-based analysis. It's also incumbent on PCO to ensure that an interdepartmental process take place on an initiative coming forward to cabinet.

Status of Women committee  No, I think Mr. Wild has covered that off.

Status of Women committee  In terms of budgeting issues, I think you should actually direct your question to the finance department. I think you are meeting with finance department officials next week. In terms of PCO, we have worked with Status of Women Canada, and certainly it's the tool that Status of Women Canada has provided us in terms of our training tool, which looks at the policy proposal from the beginning to the end.

Status of Women committee  Yes. I'll try to be brief. I can assure you in terms of the role of the champion that it doesn't just reside with one person. It should, in fact, live beyond one person or live beyond the champion. I think it's the role of policy advice, and I would say the same thing as Mr. Wild, that essentially you want to embed it in your organization so that it becomes part of a very robust dynamic challenge function that PCO should be playing and asking tough questions, along with Status of Women Canada.

Status of Women committee  I outlined some of the considerations in my opening comments. I think it goes to the heart of the policy-making process in terms of trying to analyze an issue that comes forward, trying to define the problem clearly. Are the goals and objectives clear? Are the results clear in terms of what the initiative is intended to accomplish and how that might be measured?

Status of Women committee  Most initiatives are developed in departments' strategic policy shops. So you already have individuals who have policy expertise and policy capacity working on particular initiatives. Our objective is, hopefully, to always try to work as far back as we can with the departments, so that you have enough time built in to ensure that you can actually have the necessary due diligence done on an initiative.

Status of Women committee  Yes, it is, and as I say, a lot of it is working closely with all the central agencies and also with a broader interdepartmental community, to make sure any implications for other departments are also taken into account.

Status of Women committee  If I can just speak from the policy point of view, our role is to ensure that implications are assessed for any initiative coming forward, and that includes gender-based analysis. That includes asking the questions about the implications. If there is a differential impact, what is the impact?

Status of Women committee  On the memorandum to cabinet, our role is to ensure that we and the department provide the kind of analysis and the information it needs. It's noted to ministers if in fact there are information gaps or data gaps in terms of what's coming forward. And sometimes you deal with incomplete information just in terms of the data that may be available and it's not always perfect in terms of what we and departments are able to provide to ministers in terms of the implications on issues.

Status of Women committee  May I just comment for PCO as well? Our focus is on the policy officers who actually do work on the front line with departments in terms of developing policy. That would include directors of operations. I think the role of champion at PCO, as in the case of Treasury Board, is a senior-level public servant in the Privy Council Office.

Status of Women committee  No. I think Status of Women Canada is a leader, and I know you've had representatives from Status of Women appear before you in terms of the extent to which they do look at the international perspective. I think that certainly helps inform their approach. The training we receive at PCO is in fact coordinated and provided for us by Status of Women Canada.

Status of Women committee  Ultimately cabinet and the government are the decision-makers. As I say, our job is to put information in front of them and to make sure they have what they need to make decisions. They do that on the basis of a variety of considerations and issues they have to take into account in the broad policy process.