FEWO Committee Meeting

     I'll call the meeting to order. Welcome.

    It's my pleasure to bring to you the results of our subcommittee meeting. The clerk is going to help me as we walk through the various motions.

    The discussion we had at our subcommittee is that we really would like to have a piece of work, a report to the House by the end of this session. In order to do that, we don't feel we can get there with the violence study, so we would like to switch gears and focus on the gender-based analysis study.

    In order to do that, because we previously made a motion to do the violence study first and then do GBA, I would be looking for a motion to revoke the motion agreed to on March 10, instructing the committee to study violence against young women and girls in Canada first, followed by the study on gender-based analysis.

    I'll be looking for that motion first, and then a motion to commence the study on gender-based analysis.

    Oh, I can do this all at once. I can walk you through the whole thing that we're proposing, and then we can have some discussion on it. Then we can pass the whole thing in one fell swoop.

    When we looked at the gender-based analysis, there were a number of witnesses who were suggested by everyone. The subcommittee went through everything and tried to figure out the calendar. We can actually have five meetings in order to be able to present a report to the House by June 16.

    In terms of the witnesses, we had more witnesses than we could actually fit into those meetings, so we had some discussion about what we should do.

    The first meeting would be a two-hour meeting with Status of Women Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which were suggested witnesses.

    The second meeting would be divided into two parts. The Auditor General would sit through the whole two-hour meeting, and Employment and Social Development Canada and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, that were involved in the 2009 audit, would have five-minute presentations, with written briefs before the meeting. In the second hour of that meeting, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and Natural Resources Canada would make five-minute presentations with written briefs beforehand. They are the ones that promised to implement GBA in the 2010 to 2012 time frame.

    The third meeting would be departments and agencies. The first hour would be the Privy Council Office and Treasury Board. They were respondents to the Auditor General. The second hour would be the Department of Finance, Public Works and Government Services, and Statistics Canada.

    In the fourth meeting we would bring in academic experts. There would be one of the former chairs of the Expert Panel on Accountability Mechanisms for Gender Equality; Kathleen Lahey, a professor at Queen's University in the institute of women's studies; a representative from Carleton University's centre for women in politics who is a GBA expert; and possibly a fourth that the analyst will come up with. That two-hour session would be on academics and experts.

    The final meeting would bring in examples of successes in GBA implementation from other jurisdictions, including the province of Quebec, and there are several examples there, and the Government of New Zealand, which in New York presented quite a success story on their implementation, and possibly a fourth.

    That would be the five meetings that are recommended, after which time we as a committee would sit and give direction to the analysts on what to write in the report. The report would be drafted and reviewed by the committee, such that we could present it to the House on June 16. If the House rises early, the discussion was that we may have to add an additional meeting in order to get our act together early to be able to submit before the House adjourns.

    Ms. Ludwig.

    I just want to clarify. You mentioned that on May 17 it would be examples from other jurisdictions, but we talked about GBA best practices. Is that right?

     Yes. Success stories is what they were calling it. GBA success stories.

    Okay. I don't think I've talked about this already, but if I already have talked about it, I'll say it twice.

    We want to make sure that the evidence and documentation received from the committee from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada on the previous meeting can be included and taken into consideration in the study of gender-based analysis that is in our motion today.

    Could I have a motion to do all that I have just said?

    I so move.

    So moved by Ms. Damoff.

    I don't think we need a seconder, but we have discussion.

    Did you include in there as well, Madam Chair, that the 12th is the last day for submissions?

    No, I did not talk about that. Very good.

    Ms. Malcolmson.

    Madam Chair, I had one other point. We also referenced asking to have a press release submitted.

    That's part of the same one I'm going to read. Very good.

    Okay.

     The motion is that the committee set a deadline of May 12, 2016, to receive written briefs from members of the public on the study of gender-based analysis, and that the committee issue a press release to let people know that they're able to submit a brief up to 500 words and 10 pages, and that we continue our study on violence against young women and girls in Canada in the fall.

    The motion, then, to represent everything I've said, is made by Ms. Damoff.

    Is there any discussion? No. I love this committee.

    We need to vote.

    (Motion agreed to)

    The Chair: Excellent.

     What that means is that next week, on Tuesday, we will have Justice Canada, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, the Public Health Agency, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada coming and they will still be talking to us about the violence against women issue.

    Then on Thursday next week, we will have Public Safety Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police coming to talk to us on violence against women and young girls.

    Is there other committee business?

    Ms. Vecchio.

    I have a quick question.

    Rachael and I were just wanting to confirm. Is it because we already allotted time for these organizations to come in and you just can't cancel?

    Yes. We had already scheduled them to come in. We don't think they have enough time to prepare to talk about gender-based analysis. That's why we said that we don't really want to waste the time. We'll hear the witnesses and move along on the topic.

     Then on May 31, we will have an opportunity to take the list of witnesses on violence against women that came forward, which is 101, like Dalmatians. We will be able to put together a work plan for the fall, so that when we come back in the fall, we'll already be set up with witnesses to hear on violence against women.

    I think we're starting to hit the ground running.

    Ms. Harder.

    If I could just ask another procedural question, you went through the list of the different witnesses who will be coming. Will we be given a work plan for this study?

    Yes.

    A work plan will be drafted by the analyst and sent out to everyone on the committee. You can look at that and see if there's anything we need to talk about.

    I'm not sure what else we were to do. I thought you would take a lot longer than that to talk about this.

    Seeing there's no other committee business, the meeting is adjourned.