Honourable senators, I rise today in support of Bill S-209. I would like to begin by thanking Senator McCallum for sponsoring this bill.

In particular, I want to acknowledge that Senator McCallum has taken action to address the current gap in the government’s implementation of gender-based analysis plus, or GBA+, in legislation and government policies and programs.

GBA+ is an analytical tool that considers multiple factors related to identity, gender and individual experience. Because gender is intersectional, GBA+ helps ensure that policies, programs and legislation include consideration of different lived experiences and realities. In turn, this helps us develop programs and policies that are more inclusive, accessible and effective.

During Senator McCallum’s speech, she referenced her experience as a First Nations woman. She provided examples of the specific disproportionate impact government policy can have on Indigenous women.

She also spoke to the need to entrench in law the requirement that future legislation considers potential impacts on Indigenous women. As legislators in an institution meant to represent the voices of minorities, and given the paternalistic and often antagonistic nature of the relationship between Canadian law and Indigenous women, Bill S-209 is relevant to how we do our work in this chamber.

Given the significance of GBA+, the government must mandate, through statute, a policy that requires GBA+ to be implemented across government departments. Without GBA+, women and girls are significantly impacted by policies in ways the government does not and often cannot foresee. Unintended consequences are a part of making law.

Moreover, in the absence of a statutory mandate, future governments are also free to do away with the GBA+ process altogether. Currently, GBA+ is implemented inconsistently and incompletely across government departments, and there is no uniform requirement that government departments specifically consider the gendered impacts of legislation or policy.

In 2015, the government renewed its commitment to GBA+, including mandating the then-Minister of Status of Women to ensure that government policy, legislation and regulations are sensitive to different impacts decisions can have on people of all gender identities and expressions.

Despite this, GBA+ is not yet being implemented the same across all levels of government. In 2009 and 2015, the Auditor General highlighted how GBA+ has been applied inconsistently. Again, despite the government’s commitment to GBA+, there is still no government-wide policy requiring departments and agencies to perform it. In 2016, a report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women confirmed that, despite the federal government’s commitment to implementing GBA+, it is not yet being fulfilled.

A 2018 internal survey conducted by Status of Women Canada, measuring how GBA+ is implemented, found fewer than half of departments and agencies have a GBA+ plan. Most departments said they lacked the internal mechanisms to create one and implement it.

While some departments, such as the Department of Justice Canada and Global Affairs Canada, have implemented key elements of GBA+, other departments have no GBA+ framework at all. For departments that have implemented some elements of GBA+, the analyses are not always complete and the quality is inconsistent.

Additionally, in centralizing the responsibility for GBA+ in Women and Gender Equality Canada, or WAGE, through Bill S-209, we would standardize the GBA+ process and create an oversight mechanism to evaluate how GBA+ is or is not carried out. For example, government departments are expected to conduct gender-based analyses when submitting memoranda to cabinet or Treasury Board. But oversight and tracking of departments’ GBA+ responsibilities is lacking. Further, even in these contexts, departments need only conduct GBA+ if they preliminarily identify GBA+ issues that arise. So if you don’t see them and if you don’t have the skill to identify them, then you don’t pay any attention to them.

While departments are required to provide evidence to support their conclusions that GBA+ issues do not arise, there is currently no mechanism to make this justification available to the public. The proposed legislation would mandate that GBA+ considerations are not dismissed before an actual analysis takes place and that the results of analyses are made available to the Canadian public.

In terms of legislation, only government bills are currently required to include a GBA+ analysis. However, this is still not done consistently due to the lack of a uniform process and a lack of law. If GBA+ issues are raised in relation to legislation, the government is free to ignore them and move the legislation forward without non-government parliamentarians or the public being made aware of the issues that arose or the justifications for ignoring them.

Bill S-209 creates much-needed transparency in the GBA+ process by requiring all analyses to be made public. As we know, transparency in government processes is essential to maintaining trust in the system and assuring Canadians that their government is committed to understanding the differential impact legislation can have on individuals and groups of individuals.

Bill S-209 would make GBA+ a statutory requirement for every future piece of legislation, including private members’ bills. If legislation is amended, Bill S-209 would require additional analyses to ensure the legislation remains compliant with GBA+. Honourable senators, Bill S-209 would create a yardstick against which the practical effects of legislation on women and gender-diverse people can be assessed more accurately and efficiently. It would also create a record of the considerations that arise in GBA+ analyses, which will be useful for future governments seeking to learn from past experience to make better laws and policies.

We know this government has put gender equality at the forefront of its mandate. However, it is clear that without statutorily mandated GBA+, Canadian women, girls and non-binary individuals will continue to experience gendered inequalities. Bill S-209 creates a tool for all Canadians to hold decision makers accountable to our constitutional promise of gender equality, and I am honoured to speak in support of this bill. Thank you. Meegwetch.