Question Period Note: Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus)

What is the government doing to improve the implementation of GBA Plus?

• It is essential that Canadians in every region of the country see themselves reflected in the Government’s priorities and our work.
• As such, the Government remains committed to ensuring that public policies are reflective of diverse needs and developed through an intersectional lens, by applying Gender-based Analysis Plus in decision-making.
• Women and Gender Equality Canada will continue to support federal departments and agencies in reinforcing GBA Plus to advance gender equality and greater inclusion for Canadians in all their diversity. This includes:
o Refining and improving the approach to GBA Plus, working with central agencies, so that the lived experiences of all Canadians are better considered and addressed.
o Supporting the application of GBA Plus as a mandatory part of key government decisions and their implementation.
o Providing its expertise as a federal authority under Canada’s Impact Assessment Act and helping ensure that GBA Plus requirements are considered in all aspects of the process.
o Working with federal partners to strengthen their capacity to apply GBA Plus by developing tools and training for the public service.

Investment
No funding information.

Results
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Project examples
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BACKGROUND:

• Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) is an analytical tool used to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs and other initiatives. GBA Plus is a process for understanding who is impacted by the issue or opportunity being addressed by the initiative and how, identifying how the initiative could be tailored to meet diverse needs of the people most impacted, and anticipating and mitigating any barriers to accessing or benefitting from the initiative. GBA Plus is an intersectional analysis that goes beyond biological (sex) and socio-cultural (gender) differences to consider other factors, such as age, disability, education, ethnicity, economic status, geography, language, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

• As a centre of expertise, WAGE Canada strives to:
o Increase awareness, and understanding of GBA Plus;
o Enhance capacity and expertise for GBA Plus across federal government;
o Foster collaboration between a broad range of actors to capture new knowledge and share best practices; and
o Act as a hub for GBA Plus knowledge and expertise.

Strengthening GBA Plus

• GBA Plus is the result of a sustained commitment over more than 25 years. It has evolved over time and is guided by a process of continuous improvement. Changes have been informed by a wide range of evidence and inputs.

• 2021 mandate letter commitments direct you to lead the evaluation process of GBA Plus with the goal of enhancing the framing and parameters of this analytical tool, with particular attention to intersectional analysis, so that it better reflects the lived experiences of all people in Canada.
o The Ministers of Housing, Diversity and Inclusion; Crown-Indigenous Relations; Rural Economic Development; Tourism and the Associate Minister of Finance; Employment, Workforce Development, Disability and Inclusion; and the President of the Treasury Board have been mandated to support this work and will be critical partners in advancing the plan.

• To advance work on this mandate letter commitment, WAGE has begun engaging with relevant federal partners to plan for an engagement process with a range of internal and external stakeholders, that will begin in the Fall of 2022. The objective of this process is to provide opportunities for meaningful participation of diverse people, including civil society organizations and equity experts, in strengthening the framing and parameters of GBA Plus so that it better reflects the lived experiences of all people in Canada.

• Other recent inputs to strengthen GBA Plus include Senator Mary Jane McCallum’s (ISG) introduction of Bill S-218 in November 2021. The Bill proposes to include a provision in the Department for Women and Gender Equality Act to require the Minister for WAGE to examine every Government Bill introduced in either Houses of Parliament and to table a statement that sets out potential effects of the Bill on women, particularly Indigenous women. As of August 2022, Bill S-218 is in Second Reading.

Gender Budgeting

• The Canadian Gender Budgeting Act came into force in December 2018, enshrining gender budgeting in the federal government’s budgetary and financial management process. The Act has three key requirements:
1. Reporting on new budget measures: The Minister of Finance must table, before each House of Parliament, on any of the first 30 days on which that House is sitting after the day on which a budget plan is tabled in Parliament, a report on the impacts in terms of gender and diversity of all new budget measures described in the plan, if an assessment of the impacts is not included in the budget plan or any related documents that the Minister has made public.
2. Analysis of tax expenditures: The Minister of Finance must annually make available to the public analysis of impacts in terms of gender and diversity of the tax expenditures, such as tax exemptions, deductions or credits that the Minister considers appropriate.
3. Analysis – programs: The President of the Treasury Board must annually make available to the public analysis of impacts in terms of gender and diversity of the existing Government of Canada expenditure programs that the President, in consultation with the Minister of Finance, considers appropriate.

• Similar to recent budgets and fiscal updates, Budget 2022 includes a gender budget statement and the publication of more than 200 GBA Plus summaries of budget measures. Because the statement and analysis are made public, they serve to induce gender and equality-oriented accountability across departments and agencies. Publication of GBA Plus has been in place since 2019 and since that time, there has been marked improvement in the application of GBA Plus to budget proposals.
o Most (78%) GBA Plus were initiated early or mid-stage of the initiative, which is indicative of the continuous efforts to better integrate GBA Plus earlier and throughout the budget process.
o The GBA Plus of Budget 2022 includes reports of 12% of budget measures where a potential barrier to access or participation for a specific group was identified. Of these, the vast majority (85%) included steps to reduce barriers or facilitate access and participation.

GBA Plus as part of the implementation of the Impact Assessment Act

• WAGE supports the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and partner departments on the implementation of the 2019 Impact Assessment Act. This legislation requires that proponents of major initiatives, including resource projects, apply GBA Plus to project planning and implementation to assess potential project impacts on different groups of people.
• Through this legislation, WAGE is working to ensure that the negative impacts of projects are mitigated, including those related to gender-based violence, and that the benefits of these projects are felt equally among different groups of people.
Both Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations Canada are important partners in the implementation of this legislation and in the application of GBA Plus from an Indigenous perspective.

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