$41 million goes to Status of Women Canada

OTTAWA — The Liberal government is giving Status of Women Canada more money to pay for the extra workload that comes with its focus on gender equality.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that advancing gender equality is a priority of his government, which includes running their proposals through gender-based analysis, which looks at how a certain policy might affect men and women, or boys and girls, in a different ways.

The agency responsible for carrying out much of that work has been struggling from cuts the previous Conservative government made to its budget more than a decade ago.

That is about to change, as the economic update released Tuesday earmarked $41 million to increase capacity at Status of Women over six years.

“The new funding is yet another indicator that our government takes gender equality very seriously and is determined to make it a reality,” said Celia Canon, a spokesperson for Status of Women.

That begins with $4 million this fiscal year and ramps up to $8 million annually on an ongoing basis.

That is a significant increase to its budget, which was about $36 million last year, including about $20 million in grants and contributions to organizations working on gender-related issues.

The Finance Department said the money will go toward things like boosting the capacity for engaging with provincial and territorial governments, stronger communications, better strategic policy support and measuring results and delivery.

“It’s a lot of money relative to the size of the department,” said Dobson-Hughes, a past president of Planned Parenthood Ottawa.

“I think there will be questions around why that’s not going to grants and contributions, or directly to service agencies, or what is the priority or the problem that is so pressing at Status of Women that it requires up to $8 million a year,” she said.

Dobson-Hughes said it might be a sign that the Liberal government is looking for a better way to explain its progress on gender issues.

“There’s a lot of great discussion, a lot of noise, a lot of awareness, but it’s really past time that we started seeing the results,” she said.