FEWO Committee Report

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CHAPTER SIX: ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS FOR
GENDER-BASED ANALYSIS

A. Ensuring Federal Accountability

Calls for an accountability mechanism to ensure that gender is considered in the development of all programs, policies and laws throughout all government departments came from several sources. Commentators during the GBA hearings and witnesses appearing during the Committee’s roundtable hearings said that effective GBA needs effective ways of reporting results. The federal government has an obligation to conduct GBA and to answer to Canadians for its actions.

This conclusion was also reached by the Coordinator of Status of Women Canada in her presentation before this Committee on 10 February 2005. At that time, she suggested that, while there had been an increased awareness of the need for gender-based analysis among government departments over the past five years, there was now a need for stronger accountability mechanisms to ensure that all departments implement gender-based analysis.¹⁶

Such an accountability mechanism would not be without precedent in Canada. In the areas of official languages, multiculturalism, and employment equity, Canada has legislation which requires federal departments to support identified groups and to report to Parliament on activities in support of those groups. The federal government has also developed accountability mechanisms around issues such as sustainable development, requiring departments to submit sustainable development plans every three years and establishing the position of Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development within the Office of the Auditor General. In contrast, federal departments are not required by legislation to indicate what measures they are taking to work toward gender equality.

B. Federal Policies and Their Accountability Mechanisms

Over time, Canada has developed a number of instruments to ensure that policy goals which lie outside the individual mandates of government departments receive the necessary support from many or all departments. As the table below indicates, these enforcement and accountability mechanisms vary widely.

Policy goal	Legislation	Enforcement and Accountability Mechanisms
Support to official languages	Official Languages Act	The Privy Council Office plays a coordinating role in implementing the official languages program. All federal government departments and agencies subject to the Public Service Employment Act are required to prepare an annual report of their performance with respect to official languages. The Public Service Human Resources Management Agency of Canada conducts audits, including visits to offices and points of service that must serve the public in both official languages, telephone surveys and interviews with employees. It reports on these audits to the Commissioner of Official Languages Designated institutions are required to develop an action plan for the implementation of section 41 of the Official Languages Act, which must reflect the particular needs of the official language minority communities. The ministers responsible for these institutions then forward these action plans to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, who submits an annual report to Parliament. With a budget of $5.5 million per year over five years (1999-2004), the Official Language Communities Program (IOLCP) acts as a financial lever to change the organizational culture of federal institutions with a view to encouraging them to take the needs of the official language communities into account in their departmental programs and initiatives. The Commissioner of Official Languages submits an annual report to Parliament. She may also submit a special report to Parliament on any question within her jurisdiction. She can review any regulations and directives made under the Official Languages Act and any other regulation or directive that affects or may affect the use of the official languages, investigate any complaint indicating that the status of an official language has not been recognized, and apply to the courts for a remedy or appear in proceedings in the Federal Court following a complaint against a federal institution. A Committee of Deputy Ministers on the Official Languages, supported by the Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat of the Privy Council Office, analyzes all memoranda to Cabinet and draft policies in light of their impact on the official languages and the development of the official language minority communities.
Employment Equity	Employment Equity Act ensures that federally regulated employers provide equal opportunities for employment to four designated groups: women; Aboriginal peoples; persons with disabilities; and members of visible minority groups.	Each employer (i.e. government department/agency or federally regulated private sector employers and Crown corporations) must analyze its workforce; prepare an employment equity plan that specifies the positive policies in terms of hiring, training, promotion and retention of persons in designated groups, and the measures to be taken to eliminate employment barriers; and prepare an annual report on the state of employment equity. Every year, the President of the Treasury Board must lay before each House of Parliament a report in respect of the state of employment equity in the portions of the public service covered by the Act. The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act. The CHRC conducts audits to determine whether employers meet the statutory requirements of the Act. If the employer is in compliance, a compliance report will be written and the audit will be closed. Conversely, the employer is required to propose specific undertakings to address any areas of non-compliance, and submit them to the compliance review officer for approval. The Act allows for progressive enforcement action when employers fail to cooperate, ultimately leading to a tribunal order registered with the Federal Court, thus giving it the force of a court order.
Multiculturalism	Multiculturalism Act	The Multiculturalism Act enshrines in law the responsibility of federal institutions to reflect the multicultural reality; gives the Multiculturalism Minister special coordinating and advocacy roles; provides a legislative basis for multiculturalism programs; and obliges the Minister to table an annual report on the implementation of the Act’s provisions by the government and other federal agencies. The federal policy with regard to multiculturalism is persuasive rather than regulatory, however the Minister of State responsible for Multiculturalism must table in Parliament an annual report on the operation of the Canadian Multiculturalism Act based on information obtained from questionnaires sent to all federal departments and agencies.
Sustainable Development	Changes to the Auditor General Act	Amendments to the Auditor General Act, which came into force in December 1995, required federal departments and certain agencies to prepare sustainable development strategies and action plans. The amendments also established the position of Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development and require the Auditor General to receive petitions from the public on sustainable development matters and to forward them to the appropriate minister for response. The Commissioner, on behalf of the Auditor General, monitors these strategies, action plans, and petitions and reports annually to Parliament in a “Green” report on the extent to which departments have met the objectives of their sustainable development strategies and implemented their action plans, and on the status of petitions received. Departments/agency strategies are updated at least once every three years.
Gender Equality		Status of Women Canada has no legislative mandate. While gender-based analysis reflects the direction of legislation such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Human Rights Act, the mandate of SWC does not flow directly from these documents. Although there is a federal policy requiring departments to conduct gender-based analysis (GBA), departments are not required to develop GBA action plans or to report to Parliament on their GBA activities.

C. Assessing Accountability Mechanisms

To assess the mechanisms outlined above and their effectiveness in advancing identified policy goals, the Committee invited key witnesses to discuss the mechanisms in the implementation of employment equity and official languages. The Canadian Human Rights Commission spoke about the role it played in ensuring that departments and agencies were complying with the targets and strategies they had identified to develop more representative work forces. The Treasury Board Secretariat, Public Service Human Resources Management Agency of Canada and the Privy Council Office were invited to discuss mechanisms they use in the implementation of the Official Languages Act and the Employment Equity Act.

When the Employment Equity Act was designed and subsequently implemented by Parliament in 1986, there was no audit process. In the 1990s, Parliament decided it would be appropriate to ensure that an organization such as ours is required to undergo an audit. In my opinion, that is absolutely critical, because as long as there was no auditing going on, very little progress was made. Since there have been regular audits, we see that there is progress as soon as we go into an organization to begin an audit.

Ms. Mary Gusella (Chief Commissioner, Canadian Human Rights Commission)

Although many witnesses spoke about the need to ensure that accountability measures were implemented to expand the use of gender-based analysis throughout the federal government, it is difficult for the Committee to recommend which model of enforcement and accountability would best promote the goal of gender equality across all government departments. While there was a large degree of consensus on the need for accountability measures, witnesses cautioned the committee to consider carefully what they wanted departments to report — for example, would it be sufficient to report on the government processes involved in doing GBA, or would it be more important to report on progress toward certain equality targets?

The Committee has determined that a dual approach is required which addresses both the process and the outcome of gender-based analysis. It calls on all central agencies and federal departments to develop accountability mechanisms to ensure a higher level of implementation of gender-based analysis. Gender equality targets can be set, in a consultative manner, and communicated widely to all government departments in the next five-year plan (2005-2010) on gender equality.

¹⁶	FEWO, Evidence, Florence Ievers, 10 February 2005, 1530.