Status of Women committee  Thank you.

Status of Women committee  If I may add quickly to that, under the gender equality duty, it is possible for individuals to seek judicial review if they believe the gender equality duty hasn't been complied with. We've produced a tool kit for individuals to use at the local level to try to enforce the gender duty.

Status of Women committee  Yes. The main thing I would hope you would do is look at some of the work that's going on internationally, where I think there are some very successful examples of gender budgeting that you can simply adapt to the Canadian context. I know that Diane Elson, if she'd been able to be here with me today, would have said it's the triangle of having progressive elected politicians, effective government institutions and trained officials who understand gender analysis, and active and informed NGOs.

Status of Women committee  It's 24 billion pounds sterling.

Status of Women committee  I will send it.

Status of Women committee  One thing we did find was that we enacted a sort of gender equality duty in Northern Ireland alone a few years earlier than the one we've just enacted in the U.K. One of the things we did there was focus too much on process. Every government body had to submit its gender equality scheme to the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Status of Women committee  Could I just add a similar point to support Marilyn's point about funding the government machine? Status of Women Canada has a lot of this expertise embedded within the government, but I understand that cuts have made it very difficult. Funding cuts in Status of Women Canada have made it very hard for them to do the excellent work they have been doing for a number of years.

Status of Women committee  I'll just say quickly yes. I know you heard from Debbie Budlender previously, and one of the key elements of gender budgeting for Debbie, I know, is the use of active and informed NGOs. And I would say you have the expertise already in your country of women's organizations that have done a lot of research on this.

Status of Women committee  Yes, certainly. This is something we've identified as a key cause and consequence of women's inequality generally--but specifically their poverty--for a whole range of reasons. For example, for a labour market that is heavily gendered, as our labour market is--and most are across the world--women are kept out of male-dominated segments of the labour market by sexual harassment and by violence generally.

Status of Women committee  There are many things we would like to see—we have a long shopping list. Looking at economic support, I would say that within the U.K. we have a system of child care tax credits where parents, particularly mothers, are able to get a tax credit to enable them to return to the labour market and pay for child care.

Status of Women committee  No. It would mean organizations fulfilling a public function. So it could, for example, cover utilities companies.

Status of Women committee  Yes, it does. Any organization fulfilling a public service, carrying out a public service--

Status of Women committee  There's a lot to cover here in the short time we have. If I could start off with the gender equality duty, the new law, I agree, is perhaps the most important. The idea of the new law is to make it compulsory for all public bodies—not just government departments but local government, public bodies, and anyone who is performing a public service—to promote gender equality in the provision of those services and in the design and development of their policies.

Status of Women committee  Hello.

Status of Women committee  Let me focus quickly, then, on what we believe needs to be done. I've said something about the gender equality duty. I'd also like to say that we believe that the capacity of government officials to undertake gender analysis with the policies they are developing is still very limited.