Gender Equality in Canada - Mainstreaming, Governance and Budgeting

134 Pages·2018·6.723 MB·English

by  coll.

Gender Equality in Canada
MainstrEaMinG, GovErnanCE and BudGEtinG
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Gender Equality
in Canada
MAINSTREAMING, GOVERNANCE
AND BUDGETING
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The
opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official
views of OECD member countries.
This document, as well as any data and any map included herein, are without prejudice
to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international
frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
Please cite this publication as:
OECD (2018), Gender Equality in Canada: Mainstreaming, Governance and Budgeting, OECD Publishing,
Paris.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264301108-en
ISBN 978-92-64-30109-2 (print)
ISBN 978-92-64-30110-8 (PDF)
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© OECD 2018
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FOREWORD │ 3

Foreword
There is growing awareness in the global community that gender equality is a cornerstone
of inclusive growth. Canada scores well on several metrics of gender equality. Over the
past three years, the Canadian government has invested in strengthening the federal
governance framework for gender equality by developing institutions, policies, tools and
accountability structures to promote gender equality and gender mainstreaming. Canada
is now one the few OECD countries where gender analysis is mainstreamed within
routine Cabinet policy processes, in accordance with the 2015 OECD Recommendation
on Gender Equality in Public Life (2015 Recommendation) and the 2013 OECD
Recommendation of the Council on Gender Equality in Education, Employment and
Entrepreneurship.
This OECD Review assesses the policy and institutional framework for delivering gender
equality results for Canadians from a whole-of-government perspective, including the
systems in place for mainstreaming gender considerations into the policy and decision-
making cycles and the budget. It considers the scope for further action with reference to
the 2015 Recommendation, and proposes a number of measures to expand gender
mainstreaming, strengthen the governance framework for gender equality and advance
gender budgeting in Canada. It is designed to assist the Government of Canada in
charting a course for achieving better outcomes in gender equality.
The OECD’s strong focus on gender equality, in collaboration with other international
organisations, has been crucial for raising the profile of the gender agenda internationally.
The 2015 Recommendation proposes concrete measures that countries can implement to
advance mainstreaming and implementation of gender equality. In this context, the
OECD's work on gender budgeting provides insights into how this tool can be best
implemented to help deliver gender equality results.
GENDER EQUALITY IN CANADA © OECD 2018

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS │ 5

Acknowledgements
This OECD Review is published by the Public Governance Directorate of the OECD
under the guidance of Marcos Bonturi, Director for Public Governance, and overall
supervision of Jon Blondal, Head of the Budgeting and Public Expenditures Division, and
Martin Forst, Head of the Governance Reviews and Partnerships Division.
The Review was overseen by Tatyana Teplova, Senior Counsellor for Gender and
Inclusiveness, and Ronnie Downes, Deputy Head of the Budgeting and Public
Expenditures Division. It was primarily authored by Pinar Guven (Policy Analyst, Gender
Mainstreaming) and Scherie Nicol (Policy Analyst, Gender Budgeting). The authors
would like to thank Ronnie Downes and Elena Gentili who made significant
contributions. It also benefited from the counsel of Elisabet Borrás Carbajo from the
Ministry of Finance and Public Administration in Spain, and peer discussions at the
OECD's 2018 Public Governance Committee Meeting.
The authors appreciate the views of experts at the Government of Canada including
Justine Akman, Jean Lamirande, Alison McDermott, and Julia Smith. The authors also
appreciate the considerable guidance of Michelle d'Auray, Ambassador and Permanent
Representative to the OECD, Canada. The authors would like to thank Alba Bosch, Amy
Coetzee, Andrew Davies, Gamze Igrioglu and Andrea Uhrhammer from the OECD
Secretariat for their contributions. The authors also appreciate the suggestions and
recommendations of experts at the OECD from the Economics Department and the
Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, in particular Monika Queisser,
Senior Counsellor and Head of Social Policy Division. Benjamin Jouannes and Lyora
Raab provided logistical support, and Bonifacio Agapin, Amelia Godber and Roxana
Glavanov provided publication support.
GENDER EQUALITY IN CANADA © OECD 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS │ 7

Table of contents
Foreword ................................................................................................................................................ 3
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ 5
Abbreviations and acronyms .............................................................................................................. 11
Executive summary ............................................................................................................................. 13
Summary of recommendations .......................................................................................................... 15
Notes .................................................................................................................................................. 19
Chapter 1. Gender equality in Canada: the state of play ................................................................ 21
1.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 22
1.2. Gender equality: policy achievements, impacts and challenges ................................................. 22
1.2.1. Gender equality in leadership ............................................................................................... 22
1.2.2. Gender equality in the labour market ................................................................................... 23
1.2.3. Women in education ............................................................................................................. 25
1.2.4. Gender-based violence ......................................................................................................... 26
1.2.5. Indigenous women ............................................................................................................... 26
1.3. Government action in relation to gender equality: a historical context ...................................... 26
1.4. The arrival of a “feminist government” in 2015 ......................................................................... 27
1.4.1. A government reflective of gender equality and diversity ................................................... 28
1.5. Sustaining the momentum on gender equality ............................................................................ 30
1.5.1. The role of gender equality strategies at federal and sub-national levels ............................. 32
Notes .................................................................................................................................................. 37
References .......................................................................................................................................... 38
Chapter 2. Canada’s institutional approach to gender equality ..................................................... 45
2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 46
2.2. Federal roles and responsibilities to improve gender equality outcomes ................................... 49
2.2.1. Status of Women Canada (SWC) ......................................................................................... 49
2.2.2. The Cabinet and the Minister of Status of Women .............................................................. 54
2.2.3. Centre of Government .......................................................................................................... 56
2.2.4. Department of Justice ........................................................................................................... 56
2.2.5. Federal departments ............................................................................................................. 57
2.2.6. Statistics Canada .................................................................................................................. 59
2.3. A whole-of-state aspiration for the governance of gender equality ............................................ 59
2.4. Federal, Provincial and Territorial (FPT) collaboration ............................................................. 61
References .......................................................................................................................................... 63
GENDER EQUALITY IN CANADA © OECD 2018
8 │ TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 3. Delivering gender equality through government policy ............................................... 69
3.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 70
3.2. GBA+ as a tool to mainstream gender considerations in policy development ........................... 70
3.2.1. Strengths and weaknesses in the existing application of GBA+ .......................................... 71
3.2.2. Linkages between GBA+ and Cabinet processes ................................................................. 73
3.3. Integrating a gender dimension into the results and delivery approach ...................................... 74
3.3.1. The results and delivery approach ........................................................................................ 74
3.3.2. Setting overarching government priorities ........................................................................... 74
3.3.3. Departmental performance reporting ................................................................................... 76
3.3.4. Integrating a gender lens into the results and delivery approach ......................................... 78
3.3.5. Enhancing the integration of gender into results and delivery ............................................. 79
3.4. Evaluation ................................................................................................................................... 80
3.4.1. Background .......................................................................................................................... 80
3.4.2. Integration of a gender perspective into evaluation ............................................................. 81
3.4.3. Enhancing the integration of gender equality into evaluation .............................................. 81
3.5. Spending reviews ........................................................................................................................ 82
3.5.1. Background .......................................................................................................................... 82
3.5.2. Integrating a gender perspective into spending reviews ....................................................... 82
3.5.3. Enhancing the integration of gender into spending reviews ................................................ 83
References .......................................................................................................................................... 84
Chapter 4. Transparency, citizen consultation and accountability ................................................ 89
4.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 90
4.2. Openness and transparency ......................................................................................................... 90
4.2.1. Transparency ........................................................................................................................ 90
4.2.2. Citizen consultation .............................................................................................................. 91
4.3. Accountability for gender equality through the parliament and the supreme audit institution ... 95
4.3.1. The Parliament of Canada .................................................................................................... 95
4.3.2. Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) ................................................................. 99
Notes ................................................................................................................................................ 102
References ........................................................................................................................................ 103
Chapter 5. Advancing gender budgeting in Canada ...................................................................... 109
5.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 110
5.2. Implementation of gender budgeting in Canada ....................................................................... 110
5.2.1. Gender budgeting developments so far .............................................................................. 110
5.2.2. Embedding GBA+ approaches across the full budgeting and policy cycle ....................... 114
5.2.3. Parliamentary scrutiny of gender budgeting ...................................................................... 116
5.2.4. Developing an effective and sustainable approach to gender budgeting ............................ 119
5.2.5. Subnational gender budgeting developments ..................................................................... 123
Notes ................................................................................................................................................ 125

Tables
Table 5.1. Gender information presented as part of the budget across OECD countries .................... 112

Figures
GENDER EQUALITY IN CANADA © OECD 2018