:
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all the committee members for inviting me to discuss the main estimates for the status of women program. I'm very happy to be here.
I trust you all celebrated International Women's Week last week and International Women's Day. I hope you had a good one.
Before I proceed, I would like to introduce my officials from the department who are here today. I'm joined today by Suzanne Clément, the head of agency at Status of Women Canada; Linda Savoie, who is our director general of the women's program; and Johanne Tremblay, who is our chief financial officer. I want to thank them for joining us at the committee and making time to be here with us.
In addition to discussing the main estimates, Madam Chair, I'd like to update you—because it's been a little while since I've had a chance to see all of you—on some of our current work and also highlight some of our recent achievements, particularly in the areas of recognizing the International Day of the Girl, which all political parties were involved in; gender-based analysis, which we've been working on with other government departments; and supporting grassroots projects through our women's program.
[Translation]
First, let me congratulate the committee for undertaking its current study on improving the economic prospects for Canadian girls. It is an important issue and I look forward to your report.
[English]
The main estimates, of course, for Status of Women Canada, you know from the report, will be $29.4 million for the 2012-2013 fiscal year, and of this amount $18.9 million will be allocated for grants and contributions under the women's program. As you know, our government support for community-based women's projects has almost doubled since we took office, and it's at its highest level ever.
Status of Women Canada's work remains focused on three priority areas: increasing women's economic security and prosperity; encouraging women's leadership and democratic participation; and of course ending violence against women and girls. With these priorities, Status of Women Canada is acting in a very targeted and efficient way. Our government is committed to responding to the needs of Canadians in a prudent and also fiscally responsible way.
As you know, internationally the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women is Status of Women Canada's primary focus. Last year I, along with Plan Canada, led the call for an international day of the girl to help raise awareness of girls' rights and to focus attention on the fact—of course, which we all know—that girls' rights are human rights. I was pleased that the House of Commons unanimously supported having Canada lead this international campaign, and I thank all political parties and members here for their support of this initiative.
After much hard work, the resolution designating the International Day of the Girl was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 19 of last year. Canada will celebrate the first International Day of the Girl Child on October 11 this year, 2012. So 10-11-12—mark it in your calendars—will be the first of many days to come where we can focus on the issues that uniquely affect girls.
I've recently returned from this year's meeting at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and I recount to you that everyone is very excited about celebrating this day. I was very proud that Canada was recognized as the leader in this initiative, and also inspired to hear what other countries were planning on doing for their day of celebration to highlight challenges in their own countries that girls face when it comes to human rights. This day is being seen around the world as an opportunity to highlight the positive contributions and leadership roles girls play in their communities, and of course to bring to light some of these most challenging issues.
Girls have plans. We heard from girls who are going to use this day as a way to raise awareness about their right to an education, access to health care, and their fight to stop.... Some of the very difficult challenges they face are in harmful cultural practices, such as honour-motivated violence, female genital mutilation, and forced marriages.
Status of Women Canada, as you know, plays a lead role in the implementation of gender-based analysis across government, otherwise known as GBA to many members on this committee. As you know, this is a tool that assists us in systematically integrating gender considerations—that is, of course, the unique attributes of men and women and how their circumstances may differ—into the decision-making process of government, and it helps us develop better policies.
As an example, officials from Status of Women Canada, at my request, recently met with the commissioner of the RCMP to offer our assistance, advice, and encouragement to conduct a gender-based analysis of its policies to support the RCMP in finding solutions to the issue of sexual harassment. Of course an essential element of conducting gender-based analysis is the availability of reliable information.
[Translation]
To meet this objective, 18 federal organizations were engaged to support the release of the sixth edition of Statistics Canada's Women in Canada, copies of which I am pleased to table with you today.
[English]
We're happy to be sharing that with you today. This is the work that Status of Women Canada did with Statistics Canada in compiling some excellent gender-based statistical information that can be used, of course, not only by the government but by NGOs and provincial, territorial, and municipal governments to understand better the situation of women across the country and to help them develop more responsive policies and programs. We'll be sharing a copy of that with all of you today.
The women's program continues to play a critical role in supporting the work of Canadian organizations at the local, regional, and national level to tackle the challenging issues of violence, economic security, and of course democratic participation. Through Status of Women Canada, we have supported now 500 new projects since 2007, again in three priority areas: improving women's economic security and prosperity, ending violence against women and girls, and advancing women in leadership roles and decision-making.
These projects invest where the need is greatest and where there is clear potential for making a difference in the lives of women and girls. Through targeted calls for proposals, Status of Women Canada has been able to support new organizations and expand its reach across the country.
This targeted approach has also provided Status of Women Canada with flexibility, which is key in responding to new and emerging issues facing Canadian women and girls. For instance, last fall we issued two new calls for proposals. One involved the engagement of young people, in particular students and student groups, to prevent violence against women on university and college campuses. This was a very innovative idea because we turned to students themselves and student organizations to ask them what they thought would work to address the issue of safety on campuses.
Just last week we were also able to announce the results of another call for proposals that we did last year that supports the advancement of women and girls living in rural and remote areas and small urban centres. We were able to announce 48 projects that will support the economic security and safety of women and girls in rural and remote communities. We believe, of course, that women's safety goes hand in hand with their economic security.
These projects are as diverse as the communities they will serve and the women and girls who live in them as well. A one-size-fits-all solution does not work, given the many different realities of rural, remote, and northern communities. For example, there is a local project in British Columbia that's going to develop a community response plan for support services, and to make their support services more accessible to women, while at the same time working on issues of violence.
[Translation]
In a project in Quebec, young women will work with stakeholders to develop a new economic plan that addresses the barriers they face. In Nova Scotia, Aboriginal women will be linked through a community plan that shares knowledge and helps address violence against women.
[English]
These projects also reflect Canada's theme for this year's International Women's Week, which is “Strong Women, Strong Canada--Women in Rural, Remote and Northern Communities: Key to Canada's Economic Prosperity”. This theme, of course, reminds us that Canada is a very vast country where nearly one in five women lives outside of large urban centres. We also brought along, to share with you—if you haven't received it yet—a compilation of all of the work we've done in regard to women and girls in rural and remote and northern communities, which outlines some of the projects that are happening across the country. We'll make sure we share that with you as well.
We do hope that this theme inspires Canadians to celebrate the unique lives of the more than three million women who live in over 5,000 rural, remote, and northern communities across this country. Together, all of these efforts provide women and girls with the knowledge, the skills, and the tools and resources that can and do facilitate their full participation in the economic, social, and democratic life of Canada.
I should also add that by using targeted calls for proposals it has allowed us more flexibility and it has responded directly to the government's objective of streamlining our practices and addressing some of the long-standing concerns about reducing the administrative burden that NGOs and community organizations had. We've had very good response about using these kinds of targeted calls for proposals from groups themselves.
Of course violence against women is an issue that cuts across communities, regions, provinces, and territories. Aboriginal women and girls are particularly vulnerable. The Government of Canada is committed to addressing this serious issue and is working with organizations across Canada toward this common goal.
Since 2007 the women's program alone—
:
We were there with a delegation. The theme this year was a spotlight on women and girls in rural and remote northern communities and the challenges they face. We thought it was an excellent theme for Canada as well, so we chose it as our own theme for International Women's Week in Canada.
I mentioned in my opening remarks that there are three million Canadian women living in about 5,000 rural and remote communities. They experience a different reality from women who live in cities. They're more isolated and they have less access to services. Because of that they can sometimes experience more difficulty in getting the support they need, especially when it comes to economic security, and physical safety, of course, if they're experiencing violence.
It was a good opportunity to highlight what we can do in Canada. I was really glad that this was the theme. It gave us an opportunity at Status of Women Canada, through the women's program, to make connections with groups across the country that we hadn't made connections with before.
We put out a targeted call for proposals, and we had almost 250 responses from groups in small towns that have never really contacted us before. Now we have a connection with them. If we can't help them, we can get them the information that may help them. I think it was a win-win situation all around.
Of course at the UN a lot of countries were focused on the issue of poverty that women are facing in third world countries. As I said, here in Canada we're dealing more with issues of isolation that women face in rural and remote communities.
It was a good meeting for Canada, and we participated in a number of different round tables while we were there. I co-chaired a round table with some organizations that are doing work to involve men and boys in a dialogue to end violence against women and girls. That was very fruitful.
Beyond that, of course, we had bilateral meetings with some ministers from other countries to discuss some of the initiatives they're working on and share some of the things Canada is working on.
I think it is a very healthy dialogue that Status of Women Canada has begun with organizations and groups across the country over the last year or so. We worked with the White Ribbon Campaign and the Public Health Agency of Canada, and funded a brief that the White Ribbon Campaign put out for us, because we asked them about this. They do work all over the world now, on ending violence against women by including men in the dialogue.
Their brief is really interesting, and I encourage people to read it. Basically, they say we can't move forward without including men and boys, because they are the perpetrators of violence against women and girls and they have to be part of the solution. We believe this is key to the next step in the conversation. I think this was fairly well received. There are a lot of organizations that want to do more work to include men and boys. I think education is a big part of it. We've seen the school system really embrace issues of anti-bullying and harassment, and some of those go hand-in-hand with these kinds of issues of respect and dignity and equality. I think that's just the next step: talking to young people about healthy relationships and equality and respect.
One project we funded this year was called “Be More Than a Bystander”, with the B.C. Lions and EVA B.C., which is Ending Violence Association of British Columbia. It's a groundbreaking idea: they have men as role models—of course they're iconic football players—doing public awareness campaigns, TV ads, YouTube videos, and speaking to young boys in school, in front of the girls, of course, because they're in schools, about respecting girls and women.
The idea is that we find men—and there are many, many men who are great role models—to speak about this issue and talk to boys about respect for women and healthy relationships. Their message about “Be More Than a Bystander” is that if you see something like this happen, speak up, and that it's not uncool to talk about this kind of stuff when you're a young boy or young man. We think that's a great project, and we'd like to see more of them. We put the message out there to organizations that we'd like to see greater participation and a healthier dialogue with men and boys.
A lot of men I talk to want to get involved. In Alberta, we have the mayors of both Calgary and Edmonton throw breakfasts called “Breakfast With the Boys”. All the top business leaders and political leaders in the community get together and have a breakfast. It's just the boys, and all the money goes toward the women's shelters. It's a huge fundraiser. They've been doing this for years. They just applaud this kind of idea and say that we need to do more of this, that many need to get more involved and step up.
I think it's a great initiative, and I think more schools are interested in doing this kind of programming. Of course the provinces are starting to talk about this too, so I think it's all positive.
:
I was almost done with page 7 of my presentation, and one of the points I wanted to make was that in fulfilling our obligation under the departmental action plan of gender-based analysis, Suzanne had mentioned we have worked directly with 15 federal organizations so far over the past two years, those who are asked to implement in a phased-in approach the different elements of the action plan. In addition to that, we've been continuing to support a wide range of organizations. In fact, we've worked with almost 30 additional organizations that asked for our support in moving forward with gender-based analysis.
I wanted to stress, in more practical terms, how GBA can inform the work of your committee, because I had mentioned earlier in my presentation that in order to do proper GBA it's critical to look at how gender intersects with other factors, which we know as intersectional analysis.
In the context of your current study, your committee is focusing on gender and age to look at the situation of girls. But you will no doubt look at other intersecting factors—for example, whether a girl is based in the south or in the north or has aboriginal identity, ethnicity, etc. Other important additional factors to consider may be family situation and income with the understanding that girls' economic security will be tied to the income of their families.
The diagram on slide 8 shows the different intersecting factors that will interact with gender to inform a meaningful gender-based analysis.
[Translation]
Slide 9 is another example of how we can use the gender-based analysis to contribute to developing policies or programs that take into consideration the reality that girls are facing.
You received a copy of the “Women in Canada” report that has useful data on girls and education. The data can help shed some light on factors that can compromise girls' security in the future.
For example, the performance of girls and boys in school and the courses they take can influence the choices they will be making all through school. Ultimately, those choices will determine their career paths and their incomes in the future. For example, even if girls and boys perform equally well in math when they are young, we know that, when they reach 15 years of age or so, boys start to differentiate themselves from girls in that subject. So the course choices of girls and boys at the post-secondary level might partly explain that difference.
We see that, over the years, girls will continue to study and form the majority in areas recognized as being traditionally female, such as teaching and nursing. They make choices that can lead them to careers where their incomes will be lower compared to some professions where men are in a majority.
I wanted to use that example to show you how the gender-based analysis does not only look at gender, but also at the interaction between gender and age. So the relationship between being a girl and other factors can help us better understand future opportunities for girls from an economic perspective.
I am now going to move on to slide 10.
[English]
I will now conclude my presentation by saying a few words about our international role, which is mainly one of strategic advice and support based on domestic expertise.
I want to stress that we work in partnership with key federal departments responsible for international affairs to help advance overall government priorities on the international stage; deliver on international treaty obligations and voluntary commitments; develop strategic relationships with key Canadian partner countries and international organizations; and, importantly, learn from international experiences and expertise.
You heard in the presentation earlier that Status of Women Canada was co-leading with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada on preparations for the annual session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. It is the premier international forum for highlighting our achievements in advancing gender equality. The meeting ended last week. In my next slide I will talk very briefly about that, because the minister alluded to it in her presentation.
The International Day of the Girl Child is one of the key accomplishments we can celebrate this year. Under the leadership of Minister Ambrose, and with the unanimous consent of the House, we were able to bring this to the United Nations with the success we note today. It will allow us to raise awareness and foster action on the realities of girls, looking at the specific barriers they may face in their future success.
[Translation]
I am now going to give the floor to Nanci-Jean.
For Status of Women Canada, the international and national days of commemoration are important levers we have to increase awareness of the significant events and milestones for women in Canada, and on the last page we have a number of them.
One we'll be celebrating this year, which will be of interest to the committee, is the first International Day of the Girl, on October 11. We're in a period now for developing materials and trying to increase the awareness across Canada. Minister Ambrose, when she was in New York, was also talking about the International Day of the Girl to increase awareness of this day at the international level as well. But we also have other commemorative dates that assist in terms of commemorating and have a component that could relate to girls. There's International Women's Day on March 8, which we have just had, and we see a number of events that take place across Canada from the government side, from provincial governments, from the private sector as well as public non-governmental organizations, that do take International Women's Day but also use it to promote activities that relate to girls.
The number of those activities has increased over the course of the last number of years. I had, during International Women's Week, a list of probably over 500 I know of that took place across Canada, but there were probably more that we were not able to document.
The International Day of the Girl this year will take place in October, which is in the context of women's history month. It will be also in the same month as Persons Day, which is October 18, which is also the period when we have the Governor General's awards in which five women are nominated by organizations or individuals from across Canada for an award in commemoration of the Persons case.
There was also put in place a number of years ago a youth award where youth, girls under the age of 25, are eligible to be nominated for an award to commemorate their work but also to encourage them to continue with their work towards equality for girls and for women.
The last one of the year is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
Each commemorative date creates unique opportunities for stakeholders to reflect on the particular date, identify issues and concerns that require action, review progress that has been achieved, and identify areas where further work is required.
I think I will leave it at that point.