Public Accounts committee  That's why we have the action plan right now. This is really the road going forward, without making it a mandatory provision, but making sure that departments are doing good public policy by having the right tools, the right frameworks, the accountability cycle at the end--

Public Accounts committee  We very much have a capacity-building role. We have had that role since 2000. Basically within the departments we try to increase both the individual capacity to be able to do the practice and also the capacity at the organizational level. It has been demonstrated internationally

Public Accounts committee  I'll start with the champion question. This is not necessarily a question of the right or wrong model. It's really the best fit, what fits within an organization's culture. In some departments, a champion works. In other departments, a champion would not necessarily bring the re

Public Accounts committee  I think the timing issue is an interesting one, because we have, through our own experience, noticed that it takes about 18 months for a department to actually start picking up on what it requires to do the analysis and what kinds of organizational elements it needs. It is a bit

Public Accounts committee  Best practices results are basically the objective of this action plan that we've tabled with the committee. You will see that we are using an approach of self-assessment and identification of initiatives, because we do need to see the evidence. That is one way that we will be ab

Public Accounts committee  You obviously know about the matrimonial property legislation coming out from the Department of Indian Affairs. There, an extensive GBA was done in terms of the impact it would have on women. Obviously that legislation in particular will help women, even in looking at situations

Public Accounts committee  Yes. We know, for example, that the Canadian experience class category that came out from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration did do a good GBA and looked at the impacts of some of the things they were considering originally. With this new category that came out, by lo

Public Accounts committee  I need to think. It's obvious that right now, with the support we are having from the central agencies, things are moving in the right direction, as we've never had it before. The challenge function is obviously something that could be added in the realm of accountability, and it