Question Period Note: Government of Canada’s Gender Equality Accomplishments

What has the Government of Canada done to advance gender equality?

• The Government continues to build on progress made towards gender equality with historic achievements and initiatives.
• Key achievements and investments include:
o Entrenching gender budgeting into law;
o Establishing a dedicated Department for Women and Gender Equality;
o Increasing legal protections for Canadians of all genders by amending the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code to add protections based on gender identity and expression;
o Passing historic legislation to establish a proactive pay equity regime within the federal public and private sectors;
o Making a historic investment of $160M over 5 years to help build the capacity of women’s organizations, including through the $100M Feminist Response and Recovery Fund;
o Creating the first-ever federal program specifically dedicated to advancing LGBTQ2 equality; and
o Advancing the National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence with a $601.3M investment announced in Budget 2021.

Key Government Achievements
• In the last few years, the Government of Canada provided structural and legal backing for gender equality in a number of areas, including:
o Creating the first-ever federal ministerial position fully dedicated to gender issues;
o Legally implementing a process to destroy the records of convictions for offences involving consensual sexual activity between people of the same sex;
o Prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of gender identity under the Canadian Human Rights Act, as well as hate crimes motivated by gender identity under the Criminal Code; and
o The Canadian Gender Budgeting Act came into force, enshrining gender budgeting in the government’s budgetary and financial management processes, guided by the Gender Results Framework.

Key Women and Gender Equality Investments
• Budget 2019 invested $20M over three years to build the capacity of Canadian LGBTQ2 organizations to address the unique needs and persisting disparities among LGBTQ2 Canadians.
o In 2019, WAGE entered into seven agreements, totalling $2.24 million, with seven leading organizations to undertake work to advance LGBTQ2 equality in Canada, including increasing the readiness of the sector for a call for proposals (CFP). The CFP for the LGBTQ2 Community Capacity Fund was launched across the country on March 5, 2020, and closed on May 14, 2020. In February 2021, the Government of Canada announced approximately $15 million in funding for 76 LGBTQ2 community-led projects across Canada through the Fund. This included 70 new projects and amendments for 6 of the national projects funded in 2019.
• An investment of $160M over five years, starting in 2019 20 to enable community action supporting projects to advance equality for women.
o The $100M Feminist Response and Recovery Fund Call for Proposals was launched in February 2021, to support women’s recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
o $30M has been allocated to strategic matched partnerships, resulting in $60M towards gender equality.
• It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence, launched in 2017, committed over $200M over 5 years and $40M ongoing to establish, launch, and expand the Strategy. Key WAGE accomplishments to date include:
o 60 projects have been funded to develop and test promising practices to support victims and survivors of GBV and their families;
o As of March 2021, the GBV Knowledge Centre’s online platform has been visited close to 99,000 times since its launch in 2018; and
o Three national surveys were developed to establish baselines on the prevalence of forms of GBV among different populations, providing a deeper understanding of GBV in Canada and allowing us to measure progress.
• As part of the COVID-19 response, the Government provided $100M in emergency funding to over 1,000 organizations across Canada providing critical supports and services to those experiencing GBV.
o Since April 2020, this funding helped nearly 800,000 women and children experiencing violence.
• Reinforcing the Government’s commitment to end GBV, Budget 2021 announced $601.3M over five years towards a National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, of which WAGE will receive $415M.

International
• At the Women Deliver 2019 Conference, the Prime Minister announced up to $1.4B in new annual funding by 2023 to support women’s and girls’ health around the world.
• As part of it’s role in the Generation Equality Forum, on July 1, 2020, Canada was named co-lead for the Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership, along with the Netherlands and Malawi.
 

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