First of all, with respect to the Department of Finance, when they were talking to me, they were sure they were doing a gender-based analysis budget. They were convinced and the Minister of Finance remains convinced. He realized (a) that they talk more about equity than gender-based analysis--that's what they realized--and (b) that to do a gender-based analysis budget.... When we give them our recommendation, they choose--don't forget that they choose. We have to do the work ourselves before it gets to Finance, because they can't do the work for us and we don't want them to.
In the federal government.... It's big and it's heavy, so to implement it is a challenge, as you realize when you're talking to other departments. Everybody has to understand the same thing. Even if we do have the how-tos, the procedures have to be the same in order to have accountability afterwards. I can't tell you the statistics, but the results of the accountability, the questions, and the evaluation of what everybody's doing, have to be on the same base.
So yes, this is a challenge. That's why I'm asking, how can we go further? As far as I'm concerned, a bill is as far as we can go, and then with the equality measure going with it, while we'll try to continue to convince, I think this is the maximum we can do. Let's see what comes up in our consultation analysis, but if it's positive, it could be a big plus.
As far as consultation for the plan goes, what we said to the Coalition for Women's Equality, and we'll work with them and with you, is that we would like to be able to put together experts--I'm not excluding women's groups; on the contrary--like Dr. Rankin, like other people who come from different groups, who come with their different experiences, and ask them to put together a paper on the how-tos, and then consult with women's groups and parliamentarians so that they're part of it. So when we come up with the 2005 policy, for example, we will all be part of it. It's really all of us, and I would say all of them and all of us parliamentarians--all parties, all equal--because this is something that we women have to push.
So this is the how-to.
Florence.