Question Period Note: GBA+ and the GBA+ Action Plan

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

• Gender-based Analysis Plus (or GBA+) is an important mechanism to support gender equality objectives and is positively impacting the Government of Canada’s programs, policies and services.

• Budget 2019 built on work in recent budgets, and included a Gender Report, for the first time making GBA+ of the budget publicly available. Work continues to improve the quality and enhance the scope of GBA+ in future budgets.

• Training to enhance GBA+ capacity across the Government of Canada also continues. Over 149, 000 public servants, parliamentarians and parliamentary staff have taken the GBA+ online course.

Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) is an analytical tool used to assess how diverse groups of people may experience policies, programs and initiatives differently. The “plus” in GBA+ emphasizes that analysis should go beyond biological (sex) and socio-cultural (gender) differences to also consider other identity factors, such as belonging to LGBTQ2 communities, race, Indigenous origin or identity, age, language, socio-economic condition, place of residency and (dis)ability, etc.

As a center for excellence for GBA+, the Department plays the following role:
o Increases awareness and understanding of, and commitment to, GBA+ as a key lever for gender equality, diversity and inclusion;
o Provides guidance, develops tools and training, creates and strengthens infrastructure to enhance capacity and improve expertise for GBA+ across and beyond federal departments and agencies;
o Contributes to evidence-based practices by increasing capacity for GBA+ and related tools/techniques, including gender budgeting, to assess differential impacts applying GBA+ to identify issues and inform priorities;
o Brokers relationships, and creates channels and forums between a broad range of actors to capture new knowledge, including identifying and disseminating good practices; and,
o Acts as a hub for GBA+ knowledge and expertise and creates spaces and opportunities to harness new ideas to develop solutions and enable innovation.

Federal departments and agencies are currently required to integrate GBA+ into all Memoranda to Cabinet, Treasury Board Submissions and budget proposals. Further, GBA+ is now included in key legislation, including, the Impact Assessment Act, Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and Accessible Canada Act.

In their 2019 Mandate Letters, Ministers were instructed to consider the impacts of policies on all Canadians and fully defend the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In addition, all Ministers must apply GBA+ to the decisions they make.

Various governance structures have been put in place to support departments and agencies and ensure they remain accountable for their GBA+ requirements. This includes a GBA+ Champions Network, an Interdepartmental Committee on GBA+, and Federal-Provincial-Territorial GBA+ Task Teams. Further, capacity to undertake GBA+ continues to grow and the availability of disaggregated data allowing for quality analysis is increasingly available.

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