FEWO Committee Report

The Honourable Hedy Fry, P.C., M.P.

Chair

House of Commons Standing Committee

  on the Status of Women

House of Commons

Ottawa, Ontario

K1A 0A6

Dear Colleague:

On behalf of the Government of Canada, it gives me great pleasure to respond to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women (FEWO) report, entitled Towards Gender Responsive Budgeting: Rising to the Challenge of Achieving Gender Equality, which was tabled in the House of Commons on February 26, 2009.

The Committee should be commended for its comprehensive work on the issue of gender-responsive budgeting. The Government recognizes the importance of gender‑based analysis in the development and assessment of policies and programs and accepts the intent of the Committee report as to the enhancement of gender-based analysis implementation in Government and to increasing the integration of gender-based analysis within the budget process. While no single model has emerged globally as the one defining approach for gender responsive budgeting, various approaches and tools are constantly evolving. One consistent element however is the use of gender-based analysis.  As an analytical approach gender-based analysis takes into account the socio‑economic situation of women and men in the diverse population groups in order to determine differential impacts, thus informing the decision-making process. This is also known as intersectionality. The optimal direction increasingly adopted by countries and organizations is the mainstreaming approach which sees the development and application of tools, including training in gender-based analysis as a fundamental concept, and the use of gender disaggregated data. This is congruent with Canada’s position.

This Government’s approach to the Federal Budget is that it is part of the policy planning and development cycle, informed by the application and implementation of gender-based analysis by all government departments and agencies. It also builds on activities already undertaken by the central agencies and Status of Women Canada pursuant to previous Standing Committee reports on gender-based analysis and will be further enhancing its efforts with the information and advice of the Standing Committee report and the response to the Report of the Auditor General.

One of the Committee’s recommendations was that the Office of the Auditor General conduct an audit on the implementation of gender-based analysis across Government from April 1, 2000 to March 31, 2008 and this was tabled in the House on May 12, 2009. The Government is ready to act on the findings in the audit and recognizes the importance of gender‑based analysis in policy and program formulation and assessment. We have, and will continue to, implement gender-based analysis frameworks and continue to enhance the practice across the Government, with the central agencies continued support for the work of Status of Women Canada and other departments/agencies in implementing gender-based analysis.

Due to the large number of recommendations, the fact that the report speaks to both the practice of, and frameworks for, gender-based analysis and that these are inter‑connected, as well as to gender-responsive budgets, we have addressed the recommendations thematically based on common elements and objectives such as: governance, research, infrastructure, integrating gender-based analysis in the budget process and the extension of its application and, accountability. Presenting such a thematic response also respects the complexity and inter‑connectedness of the recommendations and of the actions being taken.

The Committee’s report addresses the governance and management of gender‑based analysis and gender equality as they relate to interdepartmental committees and a working group on gender equality indicators; the establishment of an advisory panel of experts; training of members of Parliamentary Standing Committees and of Cabinet members. 

Our Government has already taken significant steps towards enhancing the implementation of gender-based analysis and will continue to do so. This Government’s commitment to gender‑based analysis is deemed a shared responsibility between Status of Women Canada playing a capacity-building role and individual departments responsible for implementing gender-based analysis of their respective initiatives. The various committees chaired by Status of Women Canada have participation by the central agencies and departments to ensure broader participation of relevant players and ensure the sharing of knowledge and tools required for advancing the practice of gender-based analysis in a comprehensive way. The gender-based analysis training created by Status of Women Canada was delivered to the Standing Committee on Status of Women, the Parliamentary Library Research Branch, and the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer and could be provided to other committees and Cabinet members in order to sensitize them to the importance of gender-based analysis and its consistent application. 

The Committee report addresses elements related to gender research and data collection activities including the involvement of civil society in the gender equality indicators project; funding for independent policy research on women’s issues; funding for gender responsive budgeting projects; statistical training workshops with Statistics Canada; and, the use of available statistical resources by the Department of Finance.

Our Government will continue to build on the work it has been carrying out regarding research and data collection, a key element to detecting differential impacts of policies and programs on women and men. SWC and Statistics Canada will continue working together on the creation and use of sound data and statistics related to gender issues. The availability of relevant data is an on-going pre‑occupation not only for gender responsive budgets, but for the practice of gender‑based analysis in general and this continued effort will assist in more comprehensively informing the Federal Budget.

Infrastructure elements such as the establishment of gender-based analysis units in the central agencies in order to improve their technical capacity to conduct gender-based analysis constitute the third theme raised in the Committee’s report. The Government will continue to build on the organizational elements and capacity building initiatives already begun which would fulfill the same purpose as having individual gender-based analysis units. The central agencies’ function is to provide feedback to, and challenge proposals from, government departments against a range of considerations, of which gender issues and gender-based analysis are only one. Capacity-building and organizational elements related to gender-based analysis and gender issues, such as training, ensure that important considerations and their impacts are incorporated in the challenge function of the central agencies rather than creating separate gender-based analysis units. 

The central agencies have also appointed gender-based analysis champions and have incorporated the Status of Women Canada gender-based analysis training in their departmental curriculum in order to strengthen their capacity. The most sustainable organizational approach to gender-based analysis is the one that fits its culture the best, and this may not necessarily be a specialized gender-based analysis unit.   

Regarding the increased integration of gender-based analysis in budget processes and the extension of the application of gender-based analysis, gender considerations are currently integrated into all aspects of the budget process. Broad pre-budget consultations are undertaken on an annual basis by the Government to understand the perspectives of stakeholders, including gender perspectives. In the development of policies and the decision-making process, gender is one of the assessment lenses used. Departments and agencies are required to include gender-based analysis in the development of new spending measures, as is the Department of Finance for new tax measures, where appropriate. Central agencies perform a challenge function to ensure that Ministers have comprehensive analysis, including gender considerations, on which to base their decisions. Focusing gender-based analysis on new policies that directly affect men and women is a cost-effective way of ensuring gender-responsive budgeting. Our Government will continue to ensure that gender considerations are integrated in all aspects of the budgetary process, as it has been doing since 2006, and will continue to look for ways to improve the quality and effectiveness of gender-based analysis. Non‑governmental organizations can apply for project funding under the Women’s Program for projects related to gender-responsive budgeting, conditional upon meeting eligibility criteria, such as the requirement that projects demonstrate a direct impact on women.

Accountability, both domestically and internationally, to ensure that departments and agencies, as well as senior officials, are held responsible for the practice and implementation of gender-based analysis and the results can be reported on is the last theme found in the report. It relates to senior officials being held accountable for gender‑based analysis by tying its implementation to their performance assessments and performance pay; conformity to international commitments; reporting on gender-based analysis practices through current government accountability mechanisms including the use of audits; creating new oversight entities and legislation; and, a commitment to gender equality in the next Speech from the Throne.

This Government has accomplished much regarding accountability and will continue to do so, building on past activities using existing government accountability mechanisms and commitments made in response to the Report of the Auditor General to further entrench the practice of gender-based analysis in government. While gender issues are an important consideration in the development of policy initiatives, there are a number of considerations that must be taken into account for which senior government officials are held responsible, and it would not be effective to hold them accountable for their implementation of gender-based analysis in particular. However, as a policy consideration in the policy development cycle, gender-based analysis is integrated into the work of policy analysts and senior personnel.    

Since 2005, the Government of Canada has been working on the integration of gender‑based analysis in such instruments of authority as Treasury Board submissions, to which a requirement for gender-based analysis was added in 2007, and the Management, Resources and Results Structure (MRRS), a common government-wide approach to the collection, management and reporting of financial and non-financial performance information by departments. It provides a basis on which Parliament can review relevant federal programs, including assessing whether they are consistent with achieving gender equality goals and whether they are achieving the intended results. There is now a complete inventory of all government programs which can be searched to identify programs by subject, including those explicitly identifying gender issues. In 2009 the Privy Council Office developed a template to guide departments on how and when gender-based analysis should be considered throughout each step of the policy and program process. The Department of Finance ensures that gender-based analysis is applied in the Budget process where appropriate and where data exists for both measures it develops and measures proposed by other departments. Status of Women Canada, with support from the Treasury Board Secretariat and the Privy Council Office, has committed to assessing the performance of gender‑based analysis across the federal government and the effectiveness of gender-based analysis practices on a yearly basis. All of these combined elements will further integrate the practice of gender-based analysis with regard to gender-responsive budgets and policy and program development in the government.

The Committee recommended the appointment of a Commissioner of Gender Equality which the Government does not support. While the Government agrees with the Committee’s objective of increased accountability it also believes that building further upon accountability measures already undertaken would eliminate the need for new oversight structures, such as a Commissioner of Gender Equality or implementing gender equality legislation. With the Federal Budget contextualized within the policy and planning cycle, Status of Women Canada playing a capacity building role, departments implementing gender-based analysis and the central agencies playing an accountability role and all these elements being strengthened by the recommendations in the Report of the Auditor General a similar degree of accountability will exist.

I would like to thank the Committee members again for the work they have done on gender-responsive budgeting and on their commitment to gender equality. I look forward to working with the Committee and my colleagues on our continuing efforts towards gender equality and enhancing women’s participation in Canadian society.

Sincerely,

The Honourable Helena Guergis, P.C., M.P.